Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 89920
Objects (Fontwork, Movie and Sound) only selectable via Ctrl-Click 'cause it's inserted "in background" by default
Last modified: 2013-08-07 14:44:07 UTC
Steps to reproduce : - open a new empty text document - open toolbar drawing and click on button fontwork - insert some fontwork object - deselect the fontwork object and save the file - try to select the the fontwork object : does not work thing interesting : - add a frame in the page : the fontwork object can be select but only one time. The same file open by OOo 2.4 works well.
Created attachment 53913 [details] test file with fontwork object
Selection of fontwork works by using ctrl+click but it is not what online help says (/text/shared/guide/fontwork.xhp ; [par_idN106B5]).
The fontwork object is set to background (don't know why) and therefore shows this behavior. Goto Format > Arrange and click on "To Foreground" and the fontwork object behaves normal.
Thanks Regina but menu Format > Arrange > To Foreground is grayed until I can select the fontwork object. I can do it only by ctrl+click. And it is strange that OOo 2.4 allows to select the fontwork object and OOo 3.0 beta does not. Is it a new operation mode for OOo 3.0 ?
Yes, it is correct that this is a new behavior. It was not possible to select text which was written over such an object "in background" (see issue 28595). MRU->AMA: may it be possible that it is recognized, if there is text written over an object or not? I mean, it is not really intuitive, that such an object is only possible to select via Ctrl-click...
Ah, ok. So instead of being in the behaviour, defect is in online help (cf. comment n° 2) Online help should say that fontwork objects are set by default in the background and can be selected by ctrl+click. Thanks for the explanation.
*** Issue 90324 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
I sure hope the online help gets corrected. There is no mention in this issue or in issue 28595 that there are plans for it being corrected.
Help at OOo-DEV m29 still does not mention ctrl+click to re-select fontwork.
*** Issue 93639 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
*** Issue 93689 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
Changing the summary a little, so that it matches a bit more the real problem. A fontwork object can only be selected by Ctrl-Click once it has been deselected after insertion.
Is it possible to make clear if this issue is now about correcting the help file or to change this new behavior (that seems rather logical to me)?
*** Issue 94517 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
That's new behaviour is really bad. A) I find it not intuitive B) you like or not, people are used to M$toys behaviour, and Word behaves with "click to select" The only effect you will have with this behaviour is people upset and frustrated because Writer is broken and does not let you select objects. There are few experiences more frustrating for a person than a object you can see on the screen and you can't select clicking/double clicking on it.
*** Issue 94884 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
*** Issue 95031 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
This bug is very dangerous. I work in a school (>400 children) and I want to upgrade openoffice 2.4.1 to 3.0, but this bug has stopped me. Fontwork are VERY important for children and due to this bug we have to use 2.4.1 and wait for a solution. In all wordprocessors we can select objects with a click (without CTRL): a normal user cannot understand why in Openoffice this is not possible. He will think that this is a bug (and this is really a bug). The problem is in OO, not in the help! Alla schools in the worlds will have problems due to this bug: please correct it in the 3.0.1. This is a very bad pubblicity for OO.
IMO it's a great feature: all difficulties with pictures and objects in the background are solved now :-) Sure a lot of our users will be happy. Is a tooltip for one or two second, when the mouse is over an object, indicating that Ctrl-Click is needed, an idea?
> Is a tooltip for one or two second, when the mouse is over an object, > indicating that Ctrl-Click is needed, an idea? NO! Because users don't read tooltips, they simply click and click and click like Word and cannot understand why doesn't work. So they think that Openoffice doesn't work and don't use it... Usability is very important if we want that normal users work with openoffice. In every office suite an image is selectable with a click: why OO cannot has this function? This is a very dangerous bug... children and schools are too important for the future of OO.
The same occurs after inserting a sound from the gallery. The sound object can only be selected via Ctrl-click. This does not occur in 2.4.2 where you can select the sound object with a standard single-click.
*** Issue 97056 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
In ooo310m7 still exist. Yes, this "new feature" is problem for czech teacher too. But solution is so easy: In ooo 2.4 when was fontwork inserted, default wrap was "Wrap Trough". But in 3.0 - ooo310m7 after adding fontwork, defaul wrap is "Page Wrap". After changing "Page Wrap" to "Wrap Trough", then i can work with fontwork in the same way as in ooo 2.4. Please, change default "Page Wrap" to "Wrap Trough" for fontwork. Thanks.
@mba, 17 votes, several duplicates, we should fix this for 3.2
As we are currently refactoring the drawing layer access in Writer completely and this refactoring most probably will not be finished in 3.2, I will support target 3.2 only if the fix doesn't slow done the refactoring. Means: if it either is a low hanging fruit or if the fix does not use code that currently is refactored. Oliver, please comment.
The rework of drawing objects (using drawing layer pictures and OLEs instead of Writer's implementation) has no influence on this issue. I'm not sure if it is a good idea to put the fontwork object to background by default. I also have no preference for wrap through vs. page wrap. The user interface normally prevents the combination of 'in background' and 'page wrap' when "To background" is used. The selection of objects in background with (Ctrl+)Click should be improved. Instead of selecting objects in the margin with simple click the related function (SwFEShell::IsObjectSelectable()) should check if there is text above the background object and select the background object if it doesn't find text near the position of the click also without Ctrl. If all that doesn't help a Ctrl+Click makes sense and it should be documented in the help. ->od: Could you please improve SwFEShell::IsObjectSelectable()
Adjusted summary. Movie and Sound objects are also affected.
Add myself on C/C.
*** Issue 102472 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
Could we have an option to turn this ctrl+click select off? I think it's not a bad feature to have, but I think some users wouldn't want it.
Unfortunately, I have to re-target this issue to the next release due to limited resources.
*** Issue 105396 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
fix of the code in progress in cws sw33bf02: - Correction of the default attributes for the insertion of objects. The combination of "in background" and "page wrap" does not make sense objects. - Improvement of the selection of objects in background. Objects in background are in general behind text. Thus, the "Ctrl-Click rule" has been implemented in order to make it possible to place the cursor into the text which is before such objects - please have a look at issue 28595. But, this "Ctrl-Click rule" needs improvement. A Ctrl-Click will only be needed, if there really is text before an object in background. For the documentation of the "Ctrl-Click" function to select object in background I will submit a separate issue.
FYI, issue for adjusting documentation is issue 107984.
fixed in cws sw33bf02: - change set bf47f5b06091 for improving the selection of objects in background - change set 487cb0fdc6d2 for adjusting the object's attributes: -- fontwork, movie and sound objects are now in foreground with wrap through
*** Issue 108029 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
OD->MRU: Checked in internal installation set of cws sw33bf02 - please verify.
I downloaded openoffice 3.2 rc5 and the bug is still present. Fontworks are placed in background and I need to put them in foreground manually. In our school we have some interactive blackboards controlled by an active stylus (like a tablet pc). We cannot use fontworks because a single person cannot manage them: a student use the stylus for work with the fontwork, but a second a student has to press the CTRL button on the pc's keyboard!!! We are still working with OO 2.4!!!
@blasiusit: as you can read by the info on top, target is 3.3 Expected release around June: http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/OOoRelease33 3.2.0 is about to be ready now. Maybe in your situation you can work with dev. snapshots? I do quite some work with them, and of corse come along bugs. But maybe it helps? See http://download.openoffice.org/index.html
@cornouws > target is 3.3 Expected release around June: Ah, I'm sorry for the mistake! I donwloaded OOo-Dev_DEV300_m71_LinuxIntel_install_en-US from the download page, but the bug is still present also in the development version.
@blasiusit: Ah, you're right. According to EIS, it is not yet integrated in m71 http://eis.services.openoffice.org/EIS2/cws.ShowCWS?Path=OOO300/sw33bf02 Sorry that I didn't think of that with my previous post.
Verified fix in CWS sw33bf02.
Checked in DEV300m76.