Bug 157879 - Need a rectangular-brace-pair callout shape
Summary: Need a rectangular-brace-pair callout shape
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Impress (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
Inherited From OOo
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Shapes
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Reported: 2023-10-21 18:51 UTC by Eyal Rozenberg
Modified: 2024-04-22 09:41 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
callout shapes available in MS Office 365 and OnlyOffice (30.72 KB, image/png)
2023-11-05 15:10 UTC, Stéphane Guillou (stragu)
Details
Screencast (797.68 KB, image/gif)
2023-11-06 10:34 UTC, Heiko Tietze
Details
rectangular bracket pair callout (12.42 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.presentation)
2023-11-06 14:28 UTC, Regina Henschel
Details

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Description Eyal Rozenberg 2023-10-21 18:51:48 UTC
I suggest we add a callout to the default set, which looks roughly like the following (ASCII art!):

          +-        -+
          |          |
          |          |
         /|          |
        / +-        -+
       /

i.e. there's a "handle" (or a "beak" part if widening it is supported), and a pair of rectangular brackets. The content is in the empty space surrounded by the brackets.

Another variant could be large extensible parentheses on both sides, or curly braces, or angle brackets; but the rectangular brackets are the most important and useful IMHO.
Comment 1 Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2023-11-04 19:42:21 UTC
In the past, suggestions of new shapes have been discussed with compatibility with other suites in mind.
No strong opinion on it myself, but would recommend comparing with what's available in other suites.
Regina and UX/Design team ?
Comment 2 Regina Henschel 2023-11-04 21:09:04 UTC
Such shapes can be created as custom shapes and provides as extension.

Perhaps we need a common place to collect shapes? Authors of one single shape will likely not create an extension for it. But an extension that bundles all such single shapes might be useful.
Comment 3 Eyal Rozenberg 2023-11-04 21:38:47 UTC
(In reply to Stéphane Guillou (stragu) from comment #1)
> In the past, suggestions of new shapes have been discussed with
> compatibility with other suites in mind.
> No strong opinion on it myself, but would recommend comparing with what's
> available in other suites.

I have no problem filing similar bugs against other office suites, if they're also missing this callout shape...

To be less facetious, though: You seem to be suggesting that LibreOffice avoid technical (or usability) leadership among office suites since that hurts compatibility. I disagree with such an argument on principle. At most, compatibility mode toggles could be made to document-level/app-level compatibility settings - like we have in Writer.
Comment 4 Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2023-11-05 15:10:13 UTC
Created attachment 190659 [details]
callout shapes available in MS Office 365 and OnlyOffice

(In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #3)
> To be less facetious, though: You seem to be suggesting that LibreOffice
> avoid technical (or usability) leadership among office suites since that
> hurts compatibility.
I completely agree with you that if there's a good idea that would place LO ahead of others, we should go for it! Just pointing out one type of argument used in turning down (or supporting) requests of this type in the past :)

So your suggestion would be something like the existing shape "Double Bracket" (or "Double Brace") with a connector attached like "Line Connector" 1, 2 and 3 have. Constructing it like that would be the current workaround. Right?

Our current callout shapes collection only have 7 elements. OnlyOffice and MS Office 365 have 16 (the same ones).
So I agree we could offer more, but one could argue a higher priority would be to cover the ones coming from other suites.
Comment 5 Eyal Rozenberg 2023-11-05 19:51:07 UTC
(In reply to Stéphane Guillou (stragu) from comment #4)
> So your suggestion would be something like the existing shape "Double
> Bracket" (or "Double Brace") with a connector attached like "Line Connector"
> 1, 2 and 3 have.

"Line callout", I think you meant to say. And - yes, mostly, except that I have this beef with the double bracket shape not being able to curb roundedness of the corners, see bug 158076.

> Constructing it like that would be the current workaround. Right?

Again, a workaround for this bug requires a workaround for that one as well, so one needs 3 lines on each side (or a bracket pair element + 4 lines past the end of the quarter-circles going in), and a connector line.

> Our current callout shapes collection only have 7 elements. OnlyOffice and
> MS Office 365 have 16 (the same ones).
>
> So I agree we could offer more, but one could argue a higher priority would
> be to cover the ones coming from other suites.

Actually, looking at those callouts, it looks like a little flexibility on our part (e.g. allowing control of the callout "box"' edges) could get increase our coverage. But again, that's a matter for another bug report.

Anyway. this is the one I'm missing :-)
Comment 6 Heiko Tietze 2023-11-06 08:16:42 UTC
(In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #5)
> ... beef with the double bracket shape not being able to curb
> roundedness of the corners, see bug 158076.
Sounds like a simple way to square the round bracket. Adding three more shapes (we should not just add the pair) makes the menu quite large.

My take: resolve WF and do bug 158076.
Comment 7 Eyal Rozenberg 2023-11-06 08:34:35 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #6)
> My take: resolve WF and do bug 158076.

The two issues are entirely orthogonal.
Comment 8 Heiko Tietze 2023-11-06 09:24:33 UTC
(In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #7)
> The two issues are entirely orthogonal.
Why do you need extra shapes if you can make the round bracket square?
Comment 9 Eyal Rozenberg 2023-11-06 10:16:30 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #8)
> (In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #7)
> > The two issues are entirely orthogonal.
> Why do you need extra shapes if you can make the round bracket square?

Because there isn't a round bracket pair callout? :-P

Actually, there isn't a single-round-bracket callout either.
Comment 10 Heiko Tietze 2023-11-06 10:34:53 UTC
Created attachment 190671 [details]
Screencast

Square and round brackets in action
Comment 11 Eyal Rozenberg 2023-11-06 10:36:58 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #10)
> Created attachment 190671 [details]
> Screencast
> 
> Square and round brackets in action

Those aren't callouts. We also have a rectangle shape - even more prominently featured - and yet there's a rectangle callout.
Comment 12 Regina Henschel 2023-11-06 14:28:33 UTC
Created attachment 190685 [details]
rectangular bracket pair callout

@Eyal: The attached file has two shapes, one can be filled, the other not. The shapes are based on "Line Callout 2" shape, only that now the callout body is no longer a rectangle but a bracket pair. The tail is same as the "Line Callout 2" tail. That means, that the points of the tail are free moveable.

As such shapes do not exist in Microsoft Office shape preset and LibreOffice's export of handles is incomplete, you will lose the handle on export to Microsoft Office shape formats.

Are these shapes of the kind you are looking for? To get a better imagination of the requested shapes, please attach a sketch. Such sketch needs to include which handles are desired and how they can be moved.

To use my shapes in own documents, you can copy&paste them or you can drag them to a Gallery theme.
Comment 13 Cor Nouws 2023-11-16 12:28:12 UTC
Of course a position (In reply to Regina Henschel from comment #12)
> As such shapes do not exist in Microsoft Office shape preset and
> LibreOffice's export of handles is incomplete, you will lose the handle on
> export to Microsoft Office shape formats.
That could be solved by extending the export filter?

> Are these shapes of the kind you are looking for? To get a better
I love them
      *
       * 
         * [and hope it is what Eyal is looking for ;) )
Comment 14 Eyal Rozenberg 2023-11-16 18:43:39 UTC
(In reply to Regina Henschel from comment #12)
> Are these shapes of the kind you are looking for? 

Yes, they're very nice :-)  

Two nitpicks:

* The difficulty in making the jointed two-line-segment behave degenerate into a single line; i.e. having to place the middle point perfectly on the line between the two endpoints.
* The difficulty in forcing either line segment into a multiple-of-45 degree angle, e.g. when pressing shift while dragging a control point (i.e. as with regular line segments).

> As such shapes do not exist in Microsoft Office shape preset and
> LibreOffice's export of handles is incomplete, you will lose the handle on
> export to Microsoft Office shape formats.

Yes, of course, that is to be expected. We can't eat our cake (shape) and have it...

> To use my shapes in own documents, you can copy&paste them or you can drag
> them to a Gallery theme.

Well, I would also like to be able to do this: (bug 158248)
Comment 15 Heiko Tietze 2023-11-17 08:25:57 UTC
We discussed the topic in the design meeting.

Gallery > Shapes has some good callout examples, and adding more here per extension or manually should be the preferred way to keep the UI simple and easy to use (=> WF).

However, others believe that we should include all options that competitors provide. And if  adding such a shape leads to compatibility issues this issue should be fixed (and the current ticket be dependent on it) (=> NEW).
Comment 16 Eyal Rozenberg 2023-11-17 09:16:05 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #15)
> We discussed the topic in the design meeting.

Sorry I couldn't attend (this is usually a work hour for me).

> Gallery > Shapes has some good callout examples, and adding more here per
> extension or manually should be the preferred way to keep the UI simple and
> easy to use (=> WF).

Gallery > Shapes is a rather strange beast, which I don't believe should be taken into account. What's missing is something access via the toolbar menu-dialog for callouts - a completion of the complement of callouts we offer attractively and accessibly.