Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 66980
Nonbreaking space & hyphen disobey icon
Last modified: 2013-08-07 14:38:26 UTC
If the check-boxes for non=breaking space and non-breaking hyphen display are checked on Tools > Options > Writer > Formatting Aids, then those characters are highlighted without regard to the status of the "Display nonprinting characters" icon. There may be others that I haven't used.
Created attachment 37478 [details] has space and hyphens
this works as designed set to invalid
invalid closing
The Help for the menu item (column of check boxes) involved states: Defines which non-printing characters are visible on screen. Activate the Non- printing Characters icon on the Standard bar. All characters that you have selected on the Formatting Aids tab page will be displayed. [I note that it doesn't say that the characters will *not* be displayed when the icon is deactivated, but most of them are not.] I suggest that this description, rather than the current implementation, is the proper design for the feature involved. Constant visibility for these characters is probably of no utility, where occasional display (as toggled by the icon) certainly is useful. Having to go four menu levels down and changing check boxes is not a user-friendly design.
Reassigned to SBA.
100,000 words later . . . The "Field Shading" menu item / icon controls shading for fields, drop caps, hard spaces, and soft hyphens. It also controls two check boxes in the Options, which it probably shouldn't. To see this remarkable behavior, 1) Open the attached document 2) If field shading is off, turn it on. (View>Field Shading should show check mark) 3) Now, turn off Field Shading. Observe that hard space is unshaded, soft hyphens are unshaded and not displayed. 4) Select Tools>Options>OpenOffice.org Writer>Formatting Aids. Observe that the check boxes for "Custom hyphens" and "Non-breaking spaces" are clear. 5) Check these two boxes. Click "Okay". 6) Observe that hard space is shaded and soft hyphens are displayed and shaded. 7) Cycle Field Shading (turn it on, then off). Observe as in Step 3. 8) Select Tools>Options. Formatting aids will be immediately visible. Observe that check boxes have been cleared. (Turning Field Shading on will set them again.) This is backwards from any user interface I've ever seen . . . /tj
I agree that the "division of work" between 'Tools - Options - Writer - Formatting Aids' and 'View - Field Shading' is a little confusing. Currently I can't decide whether UI or HELP should be imprved.
Confirming.
<Quote> This is backwards from any user interface I've ever seen . . . /tj <Unquote> SBA: My personal comment: After 9 years of doing QA, this is BY FAR not the first time that someone pops up and regards "ordinary defects" in a FREE software as a personal insult that keeps him from working, breathing, surviving and stops the world from turning. Or something like this. This is not exactly a professional aproach. SBA-> TJ: Feel free to use other software. Any software, since all other software seems to be 100% free of defects concerning UI. And thank you for contributing this issue for OOo.