Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 40364
Office window "x" close button should always appear
Last modified: 2013-02-07 21:54:26 UTC
An "x" close button appears top-right of the main window when only one window is open. This button should *always* appear as it would allow the user to reuse any open window to open another document.
This is toggled by the SFX. However, I think, this should be discussed with UX first.
The feature works as designed. I wouldn't recommend to change it and of course not with this target. So if you want to insist on your request please change the target and send it to mmp, because this touches the user experience.
The current behaviour seems non-standard and limits functionality. Re-opening. BTW, why do engineers always close a task even when there is an open question?
IBIS and IZ offer me no mechanism to change the target milestone or the assigned-to engineer.
I didn't close it, I just asked you to change the target, because we will not implement any new feature in OOo2.0. OK, so I will do it. Besides that your request needs a change in the specification, so I asked you to send it to the spec owner. Seems that you overlooked it, so I do it also.
Matthias, here's a feature request for our startup module. IMHO we have no time left for features in OOo2.0 and BTW I don't support the request anyway, but of course I consider you to be the expert for this and let the decision up to you. Maybe you already have some plans for the startup module in OOo>2.0 and can discuss the request in this context.
The backing window (aka Start module) has no use in itself. It is a patch for accidential exit of the application and slow startup performance. A "content close control" on each window, in addition to the window close control would make the window a object of the user's domain and add complexity to her mental model. - spec link added - bug set to invalid
- closed
- chanched spec URL
(the issue was marked CLOSED INVALID) Re-opening issue (until the discussion has finished). 1. The window is already an object that the user is aware of (minimise, maximise, resize, behaviour of secondary windows associated with main window, etc.). 2. When the user selects File/New/<document>, the window will be "reused" if the user then uses that window to open a document. So the user is aware of the window as a primary object and is able to use it to open an existing document. Now, here is an example of the kind of use case I want to support: User wants to work through a set of documents and extract some information to summarise in a single document. The single document is positioned in the top half of the screen, a second document window is put in the lower half. The user uses the window in the lower half to open each document in turn. This is very tedious with the current window-management approach, but it would be trivial if every window had a 'close document' button.
ad 1) With "primary objects" I mean objects that have value for the user. Documents have. WIndows have not. The latter are just supporting the way the user gets access to her data. ad 2) Reusing an Untitled/Unsaved/Empty document window is fine, because the user has no interest in this document. In most cases she does not even notice that OOo/SO reuses these kinds of windows. ad 3) [oops there was no 3] Please do not mix up problem and solution. Your scenario gives me some insights what you have in mind. Thanks for that. During our engineering innovation week we also talked about tabbed windows for OOo/SO. They might be a better suited solution for your scenario. - assigned issue to Colm to decide when we are done with this dicussion.
Windows have value because the user must manipulate them to see the document. The user must position them to see the right content of one or more documents. See my earlier comment for the kind of use case I want to support. Your tabbed windows proposal does not solve this because a tab only shows one document, but two tiled windows show two documents simultaneously.
I restate, information of and about documents is the only information that matters to the user of OOo. Everything else are supporting objects and concepts. And here is how my proposal solves your scenario. Open target docT in window 1. Open all source documents docS1, docS2, ... in window 2; window 2 is a tabbed window. Grap data from the target documents one after another and close it once you are done. Window 2 will present all docSn documents until you are done. Voila - no artificial empty window involved.
Even without a tabbed window the scenario already works today. Whenever you close the lower window its current position and size is stored and will be reused when you open the next document of that kind. The only difference to the scenario you described is that you have to press the FileOpen button in the upper window instead of in the lower one. But all source documents will appear at the same location on screen and the task can easily be achieved. The target document window would never be covered. However, I could understand that all windows should have the same decoration. The user might not notice that only the last open window gets an additional closer or, to put it differently, why the closer somtimes just disappears (In fact when he opens additional documents). What about putting a small closer to every window, but only the last would keep the office process running ? In all secondary windows this closer would close the whole frame exactly as the big window closer would. In other words: the small closer would just be a shortcut to File->Close. (Which already behaves as described)
The 'stored' window location workaround assumes that the user is opening documents of the same kind. The solution I propose works for any document type. It is essential that the 'x' closer button only closes the content and not the window; the point is to keep the window open in the same place so that it can be reused.
OpenOffice.org Issue Tracker - Feedback Request. The Issue you raised is currently 'Unconfirmed' pending review, but has not been updated within the last 3 years. Please consider re-testing with one of the latest versions of OOo, as the problem(s) may have already been addressed. Either use the recent stable version: http://download.openoffice.org/index.html or consider trying the new OOo 3 BETA (still in testing): http://download.openoffice.org/3.0beta/ Please report back the outcome so this Issue may be Closed or Progressed as necessary - otherwise it may be Resolved as Invalid in the future. You may also wish to search for (and note) any duplicates of this Issue that may have advanced further by checking the Issue Tracker: http://www.openoffice.org/issues/query.cgi Many thanks, Andrew Cleaning-up and Closing old Issues as part of: ~ The Grand Bug Squash, pre v3 ~ http://marketing.openoffice.org/3.0/announcementbeta.html
Shaun 1/30/13. I wasn't able to replicate this bug, perhaps more information would help.