Brainstorm New Ideas: Contextual Undo

Last year I started a small series of brainstorming ideas for improving OpenOffice.org. So maybe you remember the idea Document Check which was targeted to make finalizing documents more easy. Now let's continue with...

Contextual Undo

Idea Summary

The central idea of "Contextual Undo" is to let the user revert changes in a certain part of the document only. Thus, it overcomes the basic limitation of the conventional undo functionality which basicly is a linear list for "editing steps" for the whole document.

Rationale

Productivity software like OpenOffice.org provides different functionality to revert changes in a document. A very common one is "undo" which enables the user to revert changes of the current document editing session step-by-step. When looking on the following - rather simple - document workflow, then we'll now focus on the step "Modify".

Let's first have a look how the today's "undo" functionality is presented to the user. The following screenshot, which shows the expanded "undo" drop-down in the standard toolbar, will be used to explain the behavior.

 The current "undo" functionality ...

• ... provides a list of editing actions in reversed order (e.g. "Insert graphics" was the last one)
• ... is rather independent of the kind of actions (e.g. typing, inserting, deleting)
• ... already merges 'atomic' steps into more logical larger ones (e.g. typed words instead of single letters)
• ... helps the user by showing the number of actions to be undone (e.g. "Actions to undo: 5")
• ... has only a limited number of actions to be undoable (see Tools -- Options -- OpenOffice.org -- Memory -- Undo)
• ... is a document-centric functionality and therefore e.g. available in the standard toolbar

There are many little things to be improved with regard to the OpenOffice.org "undo" functionality, but at the moment the very last last statement - being document-centric - is the one to be adressed. Thus, you may have noticed that the user (you?!) can only undo his actions step-by-step. Even if the user choses to go back five steps, then OpenOffice.org executes "undo" five times one after another. It is impossible to only revert one step (or a series of actions) which has been applied in the past.

Goal: The user is able to simply revert changes to a certain element in the document without affecting the other changes made during the document editing session.

Use Cases

Use Case 1: Reverting Unwanted Changes in a Calc Sheet

Sara uses an OpenOffice.org Calc spreadsheet document to do her private accounting. The information is spread among different sheets, so she works on some parts of the document. Unfortunately, she made some little mistake in the one sheet she worked on several minutes ago. Since she doesn't want to loose all her work, so she decides to use the "contextual undo" functionality which makes it really easy to revert the changes in the selected sheet. She can continue to work on seamlessly and focus on the topic.

Use Case 2: Reverting Changes of Pasted Content

John works in a large company. His boss requests to create a new presentation which presents the project he currently works on. He collects the related documents - texts, diagrams and graphics - and starts to compose the presentation. To keep the presentation document in a reasonable state, he first adapts the information and formatting in the source documents before pasting the content in the OpenOffice.org Impress document. For example, he adds some text which better explains the information in the given context and adds it to slide 3. Later he notices that some of the information is somehow doubled on slide 12 - it seems that the current source document already contained it. Thus, he wants to revert the changes on slide 3 with "contextual undo". Luckily, OpenOffice.org keeps the full editing history of the text which has been pasted and so he simply reverts some of the text changes without affecting the rest of the document. He is happy that this saved some time, since his boss needs the presentation in less than one hour.

Use Case 3: Working on the Bachelor Thesis

Michael works on his bacholor thesis in OpenOffice.org Writer. Since he lacks a bit concentration today, he jumps back and forth in the document and works on different sections. After a break, he briefly scans the changes made to the document and wants to revert some text he worked on some hours ago. He selects the modified paragraphs and executes the "contextual undo" - he browses the history of the changes and reverts all the unwanted changes with one click.


Detailed Description


Read on in UX Idea Contextual Undo (Wiki) ... here is a first "sneak preview".

Closing Words

My girlfriend loves fortune cookies on the New Year's Day and so I picked one, too. The message was: "Your head is full of new ideas. Apply them!" Okay, I do. But you, please don't forget to rate them ... or even better ... add your own!

If you are interested in more ideas, then please check out the Wiki category UX Idea.

Bye,
Christoph

Quarterly Review is done – what is next?

Some Quarterly Reviews for OOo are still running and some (i.e. the review for Calc) have already been finished.

The report of such a review consists of different sections. One section lists issues the teams are already working on and another the most important issues (i.e. a Top 20 of the highest voted issues). So now the question is how to start working on these most important issues to get things done?

I want to start the discussion on those issues as early as possible. If we have a good proposal in place, the chance to get those issues done is much higher. Furthermore we have the chance to do it on a high quality level if we do not start thinking about an issue when we have resources in development.

Discussions held in issues are often nonproductive, so I want to call for proposals, a kind of one pager, at the OOo Wiki. The issue itself just contains links to proposals but the discussion starts on the discuss@ux.openoffice.org mailing list. There could be more than one proposal for an issue, but in the end the UX team should recommend one proposal to development.

If the implementation of such an issue starts, the iTeam gets the supported proposal as a recommendation how to solve that issue. Maybe it is a good idea to have the original author(s) with that iTeam too.

Feedback welcome!

Best regards,

Frank

Quarterly review process for Calc has been started

Niklas announced the start of the quarterly review process (2008 Q2 ) for OOo Calc today. Please find a list of issues for discussion here.

Please participate and add issues you think that they are important for Calc. The wanted issues are not only usability related, so bugs and requests for enhancement are welcomed too.

The list will be discussed in an IRC meeting taking place on Monday, May 5th.

Best regards,

Frank

Calc Usability Improvements in OpenOffice.org 2.4

We founded a team to improve the usability of Calc last year. First usability improvements made by this team are visible in OOo 2.3. The new OOo 2.4 release now contains even more usability improvements for Calc. This article list those improvements and links to specifications, further articles and videos:

1. Convert text to columns

With this feature CSV data inside cells can be transformed into columns directly. It uses the already existing Text import dialog and transforms CSV data inside cells into multiple columns. Example: A1 holds '1,2,3,4". After using this feature, 1, 2, 3 and 4 are split over cells.

Start this feature with the menu Data>Text to Columns.

Article Issue: 4040 Spec

2. Insertion Mode for Cells

Cells in spreadsheet can be moved, copied, or linked Select one or more columns or rows, or a range of cells, and hold down Alt while moving the selection with the mouse. When the mouse button is released, other cells/columns/rows are moved left or down, to insert the selection. Before this feature, target cells always were overwritten.

Article Issue: 7180 Spec

3. Enhanced Data Input

Enter key returns to the column where the input started, one row below Entering data row wise is made easier. The Enter key works like a carriage return-line feed on a type writer and allows to return to the column where the input started, but just a row below the current row.

Video Issue: 15546 Spec

4. Enhanced Formula Input

Formula input: "+" and "-" can also be used to start Most professional spreadsheet users do use the number pad for inputting data to save time. So it makes sense to allow to enter a formula not just by entering a "=" or hitting the Function button in the Formula tool bar. Therefore "+" and "-" can also be used to start entering a formula. This improves the usability and the speed when creating formulas in a spreadsheet. Furthermore this can be used as a little calculator.

Issue: 20496 Spec

5. Individual zoom level per sheet

Each sheet in a spreadsheet document can now have its own zoom level.

Issue: 24372 Spec

6. Improved AutoFilter Behavior

Choices are clearer grouped and based on result of filtering in other columns The AutoFilter function allows to filter data in a spreadsheet by one criteria per column. This feature allows to run a quick analysis of data. Two things are new: there is a clearer grouping of static filter choices. And if in one column a filter is set, the filters in the other columns only show the options that are available in the visible rows.

Issue: 27745 Spec

7. Improved DataPilot

Manual Sorting It's now possible to rearrange items in a DataPilot field via Drag&Drop or Copy&Paste. The default sorting for new tables is "Ascending", it is changed to "Manual" when items are moved.

Issue: 32307 Spec

Double-click in Datapilot cell provides calculation data of that cell When a cell within the data field is double-clicked, it inserts a new sheet containing a subset of rows from the original data source that constitutes the result data displayed in that cell. For instance, when the data field function is selected to be SUM, then the number that is shown in the data field cell must be identical to the sum of all the data field values in the constituent rows displayed in the inserted sheet.

Issue: 57030 Spec

8. Improved Print Dialog

The Print dialog in Calc makes it easier to choose what part of the spreadsheet has to be printed. The option 'print only selected sheets' is now on that dialog.

Furthermore the 'Sort' option is defaulted to on. This makes it easier to print multiple copies of a document.

Issue: 82071 Spec

9. Improved Print Preview

PageUp and PageDown keys scroll continuously through the print preview. Ctrl + PgUp/PgDn scroll to top of next/previous page.

Issue: 7269