Modularized Options Dialog

OpenOffice.org 2.0

Document - ID	Specification Owner	Last Change	Status
	Matthias Müller-Prove	08/09/2005	final
Conforms to	
Applies to	all modules
Task ID(s)	OOo 2.0 i20337 EaseOfUse-57: 110512, 110843, 112285 i24990(root), i25894 (impl), i27168 (impl icons) i28984 (impl: spec changes 1.1) OOoLater i53094
Category	Feature

Abstract

The Options dialog of OpenOffice.org 2.0 will feature context sensitive sections. Not all available sections are shown to the user – just those that make sense in the given context of an active module. The labels of the sections do also change to promote the names of OpenOffice.org's modules.

i-Team Members

	Name	E-mail Address
User Experience	Matthias Müller-Prove /MMP	mprove@sun.com
Development	Gunnar Timm /GT	Gunnar.Timm@Sun.COM,
Quality Assurance	Thorsten Martens /TM	Thorsten.Martens@Sun.COM,
Documentation	Frank Peters /FPE	fpe@sun.com

Approved for Implementation

	Approved by	Date
User Experience		n/a
Development	GT	2005-08-09
Quality Assurance	TM	09.08.05
Documentation	FPE	09.08.05
String Review	Elizabeth Matthis	09.08.05

Document Change History

Rev. Level	Change	Initials	Date
1.0 draft	initial version	MMP	6/27/03
	4.1.2Notes: FL-1, FL-2	Frank Loehmann	6/30/03
	4.1.1Open Sections by Default: some sections open by default	MMP	07/04/03
	4.1Separate Options Dialog: the options dialog while in backing window state displays the basic set of sections. Displaying the full set of options is technically too expensive.	MMP	07/21/03
	- changes to Table1: new column Writer/Web, Chart not visible in module Math and Database - new section titles - new order of sections	MMP	9/19/03
	- change "Chart" to "Charts" - FPE-1	FPE	9/19/03
	- FL-3	Frank Loemann	9/22/03
	update task IDs	MMP	2/3/04
	update spec to get appoval	MMP	2/12/04
1.0 approved by i-Team	- changed status - request for string review	MMP	2/26/04
1.0 final	string review done. spec is approved, new section 5.4 Width of Navigation Pane addressed Notes EM-1 (rejected), MMP-2 (changes in section 5.2) change of spec title	MMP	3/30/04
	changes to always display Charts and Data Sources for the Options Dialog. cf. table 1: "x"	MMP	4/8/04
1.1	resolved MMP-1: final name of database module is “%PRODUCTNAME Base”	MMP	5/7/04
	5.2 Open Sections by Default to be done for OOoLater	MMP	08/09/05

Contents

1	Motivation	4

2	Goals	4

3	Dependencies	4

3.1	Modal State	4

3.2	Startup Performance	4

4	Competitive Analyses	4

4.1	OpenOffice.org 1.1 / StarOffice 7	5

5	Detailed Specification	6

5.1	Separate Options Dialog	6

5.2	Section Titles	7

5.3	Order of Sections	8

5.4	Width of Navigation Pane	8

5.5	Multiple Instances of Options Dialog	8

6	Future Tasks	9

7	Notes	9

8	References	9

Glossary

Term	Description
section	a group of option panels within the Options dialog, e.g. “Language Settings”
Start Module	also known as Backing Window in OOo1.1
MA (MAP)	The units which are used in this specification are Map AppFont (ma). It is the preferred unit when designing dialogs with the OpenOffice.org API. Map AppFont units are device and resolution independent. One Map AppFont unit is equal to one-eighth of the average character (Systemfont) height and a quart in width.

Motivation

The Options dialog of OpenOffice.org 1.1 contains far too many options. This is caused by a) too many options and b) by displaying all options at the same time. The latter root cause is challenged by the product concept for OOo2 to separate the modules into applications – at least in the user interface.

Goals

The main goals are

simplify the Options dialog

promote OOo's module names

Dependencies

Modal State

The modules of OOo are not independent regarding the modal state of the application. This means that modal dialogs need to be closed in reverse order of opening them (last-opened-first-closed).

Startup Performance

In order to increase the startup performance of OOo the Start Module is not capable of displaying all Option segments.

Competitive Analyses

No other application has a module concept like OpenOffice.org. Each application of an office suite has its own options dialog. The users are used to such an application-centered model. They expect to find the options that belong to the current type of application.

OpenOffice.org 1.1 / StarOffice 7

Illustration 1 Options Dialog of StarOffice 7

OpenOffice.org 1.1 offers the following sections in the Options dialog:

OpenOffice.org (StarOffice)

Load/Save

Language Settings

Internet

Text Document

HTML Document

Spreadsheet

Presentation

Drawing

Formula

Charts

Data Sources

This 12 sections are visible independent from the module that was active when the Options dialog was called.

Detailed Specification

Separate Options Dialog

Modules to consider are the Start Module (fka Backing Window), Writer, Writer/Web, Calc, Impress, Draw, Formula, and Database.

The basic set of sections for the Options dialog is OpenOffice.org, Load/Save, Language Settings, Internet. Charts, and Dat Source. This set is always displayed.

Options called from the Start Module show the basic set of sections.

Options called from OOo Writer show (in addition the basic set) Text Document and HTML Document.

Options called from OOo Writer/Web show (in addition the basic set) Text Document and HTML Document.

Options called from OOo Calc show (in addition the basic set) Spreadsheet.

Options called from OOo Impress show (in addition the basic set) Presentation.

Options called from OOo Draw show (in addition the basic set) Drawing.

Options called from OOo Math, and Database show (in addition the basic set) the according section.

The following table shows in detail which section are displayed in relation to the module that is active when the user calls the Options dialog. An 'x' indicates an active section, while a '-' indicates the absence of a section. “x/open” means that on opening the Options dialog the section reveals its content by default. This is described below the table.

Table 1 Relation between module and section. The gray column shows the status of OpenOffice.org 1.1. The following columns show the active sections for OpenOffice.org 2.0.

section \ module	OOo 1.1	Start	Writer	Writer/Web	Calc	Impress	Draw	Math	Database
OpenOffice.org	x/open	x/open	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Load/Save	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Language Settings	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Internet	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Text Document	x	-	x/open	x	-	-	-	-	-
HTML Document	x	-	x	x/open	-	-	-	-	-
Spreadsheet	x	-	-	-	x/open	-	-	-	-
Presentation	x	-	-	-	-	x/open	-	-	-
Drawing	x	-	-	-	-	-	x/open	-	-
Formula	x	-	-	-	-	-	-	x/open	-
Chart	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Data Sources	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x/open

Open Sections by Default

<not implemented for OOo 2.0, new ID: i53094>

If the Options dialog is opened for the first time (after launching the application) for a specific module, the section marked in the table above (“x/open”) reveals its subsections. All other sections are closed.

If the dialog is closed by pressing the OK button the state of open and closed sections is preserved for that module. Opening the Options dialog again from the same module shows that state of open and closed sections that was set before.

Each module keeps track of the open and closed state independently.

Section Titles

The main section panels adopt the new section titles.

String list

Item	English	German	Comments
section title	%PRODUCTNAME	%PRODUCTNAME	options section title (cf EM-1)
section title	Load/Save	Load/Save	same as OOo1.1
section title	Language Settings	Language Settings	same as OOo1.1
section title	Internet	Internet	same as OOo1.1
section title	%PRODUCTNAME Writer	%PRODUCTNAME Writer	was “Text Document”
section title	%PRODUCTNAME Writer/Web	%PRODUCTNAME Writer/Web	was “HTML Document”
section title	%PRODUCTNAME Calc	%PRODUCTNAME Calc	was “Spreadsheet”
section title	%PRODUCTNAME Impress	%PRODUCTNAME Impress	was “Presentation ”
section title	%PRODUCTNAME Draw	%PRODUCTNAME Draw	was “Drawing”
section title	%PRODUCTNAME Math	%PRODUCTNAME Math	was “Formula”
section title	Charts	Charts	was “Chart” in OOo 1.1
section title	%PRODUCTNAME Base	%PRODUCTNAME Base	was “Data Sources”;

The icon of the following sections changes to the new module icons in application style:

App in general (e.g. OpenOffice.org or StarOffice)

Writer (Writer application icon)

Writer/Web (Writer application icon)

Calc (Calc application icon)

Impress (Impress application icon)

Draw (Draw application icon)

Math (Math application icon)

Base (Base application icon)

All other option panels keep the kind of icon from OOo1.1; e.g. the Charts panel shows a chart document icon.

Order of Sections

The sections are ordered as follows. Please note, that not all sections are visible at the same time.

%PRODUCTNAME

Load/Save

Language Settings

%PRODUCTNAME Writer

%PRODUCTNAME Writer/Web

%PRODUCTNAME Calc

%PRODUCTNAME Impress

%PRODUCTNAME Draw

%PRODUCTNAME Math

%PRODUCTNAME Base

Charts

Internet

Width of Navigation Pane

The width of the navigation pane is relative to the current set of sections and subsections in the navigation area. The maximal width of a section title or the maximal width of a subsection title plus the offset defines the most likely width of the navigation area. This values is limited: Minimum width is 50MA; while the maximum width is 42% of the width of the option panel panes to the right.

Multiple Instances of Options Dialog

An Options dialog is modal to each module. This means that the user can open the Option dialog in e.g. Writer and Calc at the same time. As a limitation OOo puts some constraints on the interaction design of modal dialogs (cf. 3 Dependancies). This issue has been discussed by the Common UI Team:

For OpenOffice.org 2.0, it's planned to change the options dialog, so that it only displays settings for the application where it has been called, plus settings affecting all applications.

There was a discussion whether this could lead to conflicts, e.g. if somebody opens an option dialog in application A, then opens an option dialog in application B, changes general settings in the latter, confirms this with OK, and then does some other settings in the first dialog (which now already doesn't reflect the real settings), and confirms these, too. We agree that there's a potential conflict, however, such a scenario is considered rather artificial, so it's not really worth caring for it, considering the pontential effort. [UI Minutes Oct 03]

The title of the Options dialog depends on the module from where it is called. It does not change if the user chooses another section.

String list

Item	English	German	Comments
dialog title	%PRODUCTNAME Writer Options	%PRODUCTNAME Writer Optionen	for OOo Writer
dialog title	%PRODUCTNAME Writer/Web Options	%PRODUCTNAME Writer/Web Optionen	for OOo Writer/Web
dialog title	%PRODUCTNAME Calc Options	%PRODUCTNAME Calc Optionen	for OOo Calc
dialog title	%PRODUCTNAME Impress Options	%PRODUCTNAME Impress Optionen	for OOo Impress
dialog title	%PRODUCTNAME Draw Options	%PRODUCTNAME Draw Optionen	for OOo Draw
dialog title	%PRODUCTNAME Math Options	%PRODUCTNAME Math Optionen	for OOo Math
dialog title	%PRODUCTNAME Options	%PRODUCTNAME Optionen	for Start Module
dialog title	%PRODUCTNAME Base Options	%PRODUCTNAME Base Optionen	for Database

Future Tasks

5.2 Open Sections by Default has not been implemented for OOo 2.0.

Notes

Addressed Issues

EM-1 issue: Would you consider changing this to something other than the product name? Issue i9354 says it is confusing to have “OpenOffice.org” here because it can be confused with the website.

MMP: This spec renames a bunch of sections, e.g. "Text Document" will be called "OpenOffice.org Writer" in OOo2.0. These changes make the item "OpenOffice.org" look less out of place. I suggest to keep it as it is.

MMP-1: OpenOffice.org Database needs a final module name. The decision is pending.

MMP: According to EM the final name is “%PRODUCTNAME Base”. (08/09/05)

MMP-2: The main section panels have an icon to identify the section. This document-style icons need to be replaced by a application-style icon for each module.

i27158

References

[State name of office module in title bar]	State name of office module in title bar. Spec for OOo2.0. http://specs.openoffice.org/appwide/module_name_in_caption_bar/module_name_in_caption_bar.sxw

[UI Minutes Oct 03]	Common User Interface Meeting Minutes 23-Oct-03 http://ui.openoffice.org/protocols/protocol_2003-10-23.html

The source of software product implementation and change is the I-Team (Implementation Team). I-Teams are typically comprised of people who have skills in the areas of Product Marketing, Development Engineering, Technical Publications, and Test Engineering. I-Teams define the features or set of changes (based on input from SCs, customers, Engineering, or Marketing), plan the implementation project, perform the implementation and testing...

9	Modularized Options Dialog

Modularized Options Dialog	9

http://specs.openoffice.org/appwide/separate_modules/OptionsDialog.sxw

Matthias Müller-Prove

2005-08-09T15:13:59