Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 98381
Documents and templates dialogue, fails to highlight first line of file list
Last modified: 2013-02-02 02:59:57 UTC
With a document open, hit cmd-shift-n to call up the Documents and Templates dialogue. The left-hand column gives you the options of Document, Template etc. The next one along gives you a file list for each of the left-hand options you select. However, when you select a left-hand option (such as Document) and then tab into the file list, the first item is not properly highlighted with the system highlight colour. If you move down the list with the cursor keys, the highlighting gets turned on properly, but not until you do that. This makes it hard for those of us with poor eyesight to see which column has focus - there's only a faint line around the top item in the 2nd column when it should be colour-highlighted from the get-go. See jpg of before/after example in the URL above - note that this behaviour persists in builds of v3.1.
Well I think this is a normal system behavior. When traveling with tab in a list box, the first item gets the focus (surrounded) but is not *selected* (highlighted). This happens at least the same on Windows in this dialog and in the system Open dialog. One should compare with the Aqua Open dialog behavior... What does happen there?
The Aqua Open dialogue is different again - if you tab from the sidebar to the file/folder list, nothing is selected/highlighted until you down-arrow with the cursor key, and then the top item in the list gets highlighted. In the OpenOffice D&T dialogue, when you tab across to the doctype list, nothing is highlighted (though there's a faint box round the top item). If you down-arrow, then the 2nd item gets properly highlighted, and if you up-arrow again, the top item gets properly highlighted for the first time. Personally, I find this confusing - what's the difference between the top item being selected when you first tab to it, and being selected subsequently, that demands it not be shown the first time round? Since all the other lines will get highlighted, that's what makes the 1st one look as though it hasn't been. And for those of us with bad eyesight, that black frame is hard to make out. Other users' experience/interpretation may differ, I accept that.
The difference is that a ListBox that selects an item whenever it gets focus would not allow an empty selection. That is probably not important for the templates dialog, but changing this behavior would change ALL ListBoxes within OOo. What you probably would want is a clearer hint that the ListBox has the focus, e.g. a focus ring like for other controls.
This Issue requires more information ('needmoreinfo'), but has not been updated within the last year. Please provide feedback as requested and re-test with the the latest version of OpenOffice - the problem(s) may already be addressed. You can download Apache OpenOffice 3.4.1 from http://www.openoffice.org/download Please report back the outcome of your testing, so this Issue may be closed or progressed as necessary - otherwise the issue may be Resolved as Invalid in the future.