Enhance Caption Dialog in Writer

OpenOffice.org 2.0 / StarOffice 8

Document - ID	Specification Owner	Last Change	Status
	Frank Loehmann	02/03/05	Final
Conforms to	
Applies to	Writer
Task ID(s)	i21751
Category	Feature

Abstract

The usability of the Insert - Caption dialog in OpenOffice 2.0 Writer will be enhanced.

The new designed dialog preview and the new possibility to add separators from the category label/number to the caption text itself prevents the user from making mistakes and saves rework time. The category label and number could be suppressed. This is very helpful for creating a news-letters etc. The new possibility to assign a character style to the category label and number also saves time. Furthermore the AutoCaption dialog will be adjusted and will be promoted in the Caption dialog.

i-Team Members

	Name	E-mail Address
Specification Owner	Frank Loehmann	Frank.Loehmann@sun.com
User Experience	Frank Loehmann	Frank.loehmann@sun.com
Development	Oliver Specht Hans-Peter Burow	Oliver.specht@sun.com peter.burow@sun.com
Quality Assurance	Eric Savary	Eric.savary@sun.com
Documentation	Frank Peters	Fpe@sun.com

Approved for Implementation

	Approved by	Date
User Experience	Frank Loehmann	10/27/03
	Christian Jansen	08/17/04
Development	Oliver Specht	08/17/04
Quality Assurance	Eric Savary	08/17/04
Documentation	Uwe Fischer	08/17/04
String Review	Elizabeth Matthis	11/21/2003; Final review done Nov 26, 2003; 03.02.05 changed capitalization of strings for issue 41797

Document Change History

Rev. Level	Change	Initials	Date
1.0	First draft of specification	FL	10/02/03
1.1	Wordk on feedback	FL	10/09/03
1.2	Word on finalization	FL	10/16/03
1.3	Overwork dialog design	FL	10/21/03
1.4	Remove example text from option dialogRemove example text from option dialog	FL	31.10.03
1.5	Dialog mockups updated	FL	12/01/03
1.6	Edit caption moves to Future Tasks	PB	08/16/04
1.7	Little changes and some approvals	PB	08/17/04
1.8	Spec to Implementation review	FL	01/05/05
1.9	Change Dialog layout to fix space problems in some languages	FL	01/18/05

Contents

1	Motivation	1

2	User Scenarios	1

3	Goals	3

4	Requirements and Dependencies	4

4.1	Requirements	4

4.2	Technical Dependencies	4

5	Competitive Analyses	4

6	Detailed Specification	5

6.1	New Caption Dialog Layout	5

6.2	Enhanced Number Range Dialog	8

6.3	New Edit Caption Behavior for Caption Dialog (Canceled – see comment)	9

6.4	Error Conditions	9

7	Future Tasks	9

7.1	New Edit Caption Behavior for Caption Dialog	9

8	Legal Issues	9

9	Notes	10

10	References	11

Motivation

Inserting a caption to a graphic is an elementary function and is often used within a text document. Misinterpretation of the current dialog leads to extra time needed by the user to correct mistakes manually in the document.

User Scenarios

Herbert works on a specification document and wants to insert a graphic in this text document. After inserting the graphic into the document, he decides to add a caption to the graphic. He chooses Insert – Caption from the main menu and assigns a caption text to the graphic. Back in the text document, he recognizes, that a space in the caption text is missing. The caption looks like the following:
“Illustration 1Big improvement for our product“.

What happened?

He did not recognize, that he has to enter a space in front of his caption text, to separate the generated numbering text from his caption text.

Illustration 1 User did not recognize in the dialog that a space is missing in his caption

Eloise works on a school news paper and uses an OO.org text document to realize this paper. She uses many graphic elements in her paper and decides to add captions to some photos. She uses the caption dialog to add the caption and she fails to add the caption “Our new teacher Mr. Thatcher” to a photo, because the category with a number will be always shown in front of her caption text. She has to manually reword the caption in the document.

What happened?

The Category combo box does not have an entry none. Furthermore the dialog could not be confirmed when the combo box has been cleared, because the OK button is disabled.

Illustration 2 The Category edit field does not contain a "none" entry to suppress category and number in front of the caption text

Tom want's to use chapter wise numbering for his illustrations. He calls the Options dialog from the Caption dialog, but he does not know if this is what he is looking for.

Illustration 3 Option dialog for numbering captions by chapter does not show any example what can be achieved with this function

What happened?

There is no explanation in this dialog, so the user has no clue what this dialog is good for.

Tim has to insert 50 graphics into his text document. He looks for a way to automatically insert a caption when an object of a certain type is inserted. He find his way to the caption dialog, but there is no option he is looking for.

What happened?

There is no button in the caption dialog, were the user can call the AutoCaption function. This function is located in the Tools-Options dialog, but has no link to the Captions dialog.

Tom has already defined captions for graphics in his document. He recognizes that he made a mistake in one of these captions. He want's to correct this mistake and calls the Caption dialog, were he wrote the caption initially. As he calls the dialog he wonders why his text isn't shown for editing and types in the correct text again. After confirming the dialog, the graphic has now two captions – the false one and the new one.

What happened?

The Caption dialog could not be used to edit an already present caption. Instead of editing an existing one a new caption is being created.

Illustration 4 "AutoCaption" function in the Tools-Options dialog

Illustration 5 Current AutoCaption Dialog

Goals

Improve dialog usability to make it easier to the understand and reduce amount manually needed reword and dissatisfaction of the user.

Requirements and Dependencies

Requirements

Add new button “AutoCaption...” to the Caption dialog to promote the already present AutoCaption function of OO.org.

Provide a preview that is recognized as a preview

Add a new Separator edit field to avoid missing spaces between numbering and caption text.

Add a (Suppress category label) entry to the category combo box to suppress the category label and the numbering.

Add a hint to chapter wise captioning (Option) dialog.

Add a possibility to assign a character style to the numbering (i.e. bold) of a caption

Allow to edit an existing caption using the caption dialog.

Technical Dependencies

- None-

Competitive Analyses

Competition offers a comparable dialog to assign a caption. They also offer an AutoCaption function to automatically assign captions when a certain object will be inserted the document.

Illustration 6 Microsoft Word caption dialog XP Illustration 7 AutoCaption dialog of Microsoft Word XP

Detailed Specification

The captioning behavior itself leaves nearly untouched, except the fact that the dialog can assign a character style to the numbering itself. Only the dialog layout will be overworked partly to fulfill the requirements stated above. Also AutoCaption is available now. Dialog behavior which is not defined in this spec, behave like in OpenOffice.org 1.1.

New Caption Dialog Layout

Preview and Suppress Label

The preview will get a white background and the font size will be increased to improve it's visualization. The preview shows exactly what will be entered as a new caption when the dialog would be confirmed at that point.

Every time the <None> entry of the Category list box is chosen, the Numbering list box, the Separator edit field and the Options.... button gets disabled.

The new Separator field of the caption dialog contains a “: “ (colon followed by a space) as default and has no character limitation. The default in the French version is different “ : “ (space followed by a colon followed by a space).

Rest of the defaults is left untouched compared with OOo 1.1.

Illustration 8 Mockup of overworked Caption dialog with object name edit field

String list

Item	English	German	Comments
Button Label	AutoCaption...	AutoBeschriftung...	This button calls the AutoCaption page under Tools – Options – Text Document - AutoCaption
Button Label	Options...	Optionen...	“...” added
List Box Entry	<None>	<keine>	
Label	Separator	Trenner	

New AutoCaption... Button (Addresses user scenario no. 4)

The AutoCaption button calls the Tools-Option dialog with an open AutoCaption section to promote this feature. Please find detailed specification of this dialog below.

New AutoCaption Tab in Tools-Options

The current “AutoCaption” (currently called Caption) dialog will be shown as a separate “AutoCaption” tab dialog in Tools-Options-Text Document section instead of the current Tools-Options interface (see Illustration 9) with the separate check box for activating the function itself. The AutoCaption tab of the Tools-Options dialog is called because we have to emphasize that this setting is an application setting .

Item	English	German	Comments
Options Tree Item Label	AutoCaption	AutoBeschriftung	Under Tools – Options – Text Document

Illustration 9 The OO1 1.1 user interface for AutoCaption will be changed to a separate tab page and will be slightly redesigned

Furthermore there are some small changes to the AutoCaption function itself.

The properties of the currently highlighted object is shown. If the object type is not checked, the properties on the right are disabled.

The Caption edit field has been removed

A new Separator field has been created like in the caption dialog. The default for this field is “: “ (colon followed by a space)as default for all object types. The default in the French version is different “ : “ (space followed by a colon followed by a space).

The properties have been splitted into two section because we know have two Separator field

The preview from the caption dialog is also used in this dialog

Apply border and Shadow has been added also to the AutoCaption dialog

After the AutoCaption function has inserted a caption for an inserted object, the cursor is places at the end of the caption line, so that the user can type in the caption without entering the caption frame first

The first Separator filed for Numbering Properties has no limitation of characters, the second has a limitation to 1 character.

The captioning list will receive a label

Illustration 10 New redesigned Caption dialog tab page for the Tools-Options-Text Document-AutoCaption dialog

String list

Item	English	German	Comments
Fixed text	Caption	Beschriftung	EM: reduced this string to just “caption” because the items below it are more than just numbering itself (e.g. Category and Position)
Fixed text	Numbering captions by chapter	Kapitelweise Nummerierung der Beschriftung	Tools-Options-Text Document-AutoCaption dialog
Label	Add captions automatically\n when inserting:	Automatische Beschriftungen\nbeim Einfügen von:	FL: Was way too long; EM: Put it on two lines (therefore “\n”) because the translations will be longer so the space is necessary anyway.
	%PRODUCTNAME Writer Table	%PRODUCTNAME Writer Tabelle	EM note: these strings have to remain in the singular rather than matching the general nature of the label, because the other strings in the same list that are used twice are singular. They have to be single because the other dialog requires single objects (not plural names).
	%PRODUCTNAME Writer Frame	%PRODUCTNAME Writer Rahmen	EM note: this list uses title capitalization now so all nouns are capitalized, not only proper names. see i41797
	%PRODUCTNAME Writer Picture	%PRODUCTNAME Writer Bild	
	%PRODUCTNAME Spreadsheet	%PRODUCTNAME Tabellendokument	The same string as used under Insert – Object – OLE Object, but without version number
	%PRODUCTNAME Chart	%PRODUCTNAME Diagramm	The same string as used under Insert – Object – OLE Object, but without version number
	%PRODUCTNAME Drawing	%PRODUCTNAME Zeichnung	The same string as used under Insert – Object – OLE Object, but without version number
	%PRODUCTNAME Presentation	%PRODUCTNAME Präsentation	The same string as used under Insert – Object – OLE Object, but without version number
	%PRODUCTNAME Formula	%PRODUCTNAME Formel	The same string as used under Insert – Object – OLE Object, but without version number
	Other OLE Objects	Andere OLE-Objekte	

Enhanced Number Range Dialog

The dialog name has been changed to Options. The size of the options dialog has been increased. The dialog gets an example text to explain the functionality of this dialog to the user. This text is a fixed text string and not a preview.

Furthermore a new Formatting section has been added. The Apply border and shadow section of the OOo 1.1 Caption dialog has been moved to this section. Furthermore a new list box to set a character style for the category string, numbering part and the separator characters of the caption has been introduced. The default of this new list box is <none>.

Illustration 11 New "Number Range Options" dialog

String list

Item	English	German	Comments
Dialog title	Options	Optionen	Writer: Select a graphic object, choose Insert – Caption – Options -
Fixed text	Numbering captions by chapter	Kapitelweise Nummerierung der Beschriftung	Same text as found in Tools-Options-Text Document-AutoCaption dialog
Fixed Text	Category and frame format	Kategorie- und Rahmenformat	Same text as found in Tools-Options-Text Document-AutoCaption dialog
Fixed Text	Character style	Zeichenvorlage	Same text as found in Tools-Options-Text Document-AutoCaption dialog

Error Conditions

- none -

Future Tasks

New Edit Caption Behavior for Caption Dialog

Instead of adding a new caption to an already captioned object (graphic, OLE object) like in OOo 1.1, the Caption dialog will show the already present caption for editing. This is not possible for captions of tables, because a table's caption could be place below and above of a table without grouping the caption and the object with a frame. Thus does not allow to determine if a table description between two tables belongs to the first or the second table.

Legal Issues

-none-

Notes

-none-

MMP-1 Suggestion ad 6.1, medium: I suggest to move the Help button to the bottom of the list of buttons. This makes it more prominent. (Note, that I am not sure if this conforms with our dialog guidelines > CJ would know better.)

FL: Good idea but I could not find a dialog using this solution right now. AutoText dialog uses the same layout. Open.

MMP-2 Issue ad 6.1 AutoCaption dialog, high: I suggest to define a new title for the AutoCaption dialog. What do you think about “AutoCaption”? ;-)

FL: Done

MMP-3 Issue ad 6.1 Caption field, high: I don't see how the problem outlined in the 1st user scenario is covered by your design. I think you have to specify the state of the category field when the dialog opens. I assume it should be LABEL+SPACE+TextCursor+NOTHING-ELSE (because the field has the focus on opening the dialog and nothing is entered jet.)

FL: O.K. I thought that the live preview would be sufficient, but I agree to you suggestion. Done.

MMP-4 Question/Suggestion ad 6.1 Caption field, high: Your mockup depicts “Illustration 1”. What if the user edits the caption of illustration #7? Do you display “Illustration 7” in this case?

FL: Good point. Done.

MMP-5 Issue for clarification: If the user deletes the label in the Caption text field the Category field switches to “None”? Can you please describe the relation between the label field and the Category control in more detail?

-none- ES: +1 ;-)

FL: Done

ES->MMP-4: “Edit” a caption is not possible over the dialog. Once the caption is inserted, it can be modified directly like a simple text containing a fields. But as you said, it would make sense to display the current caption number in the dialog.

FL: I have added a new user scenario. Done

ES-1: the “Preview” field in the AutoCaption dialog (shows “Table 1” in the ) get a label and become an edit field just like in the future Insert Caption dialog (Illustration 8)

FL: I consider this a bug because IMHO it makes not much sense that there is a caption edit field in this dialog, or do you want the same caption for all graphics to be the same?. I propose to remove the Caption edit field or to change the AutoCaption behavior and call the Caption dialog automatically every time an defined object is being inserted, so that the user could enter a preset for captions. What do you think?

ES-2: I find we loose a lot of place in the AutoCaption dialog (place the user may need to type a long caption text). >CJ: please check if we could have such a design like following:

I added a [back] button to keep with the design of such dialogs but I think this function would suite here too.

FL: This is a question to CJ.

ES-3->FPE: Please Frank, detail a little bit the help on the meaning of the check box “Apply border and shadow” (Illustration 8). Reading the help, I still did not foind out where borders and shadows are applied from.

MMP:
Options > Text Document/StarOffice Writer > General
- Remove section for Caption. There is no need for "Automatic"
- Promote AutoCaption Options as a stand alone options pane in Text Document/StarOffice Writer section

FL: Done

MMP: Yes, obviosly we have to stick with application global settings for AutoCaptions. (OS, engineering effort, change in XML file format?
I suggest to open the Options Dialog with the AutoCaption pane preselected instead of implementing an AutoCaption dialog (as currently stated in your spec)

FL: Done

References

-none-

Issue 39975 defines a further enhancement for Office later to show character formatting like bold, italic and underlined

A document setting would be much better, but development effort is to high to change this today.

Required - Give references to related documentation, such as engineering designs, technical specs, and other sources for related units. Also include links to documents that other sections in this spec need to refer to, such as user opinions usability test reports.

Enhance Caption Dialog in Writer

Page 8

http://specs.openoffice.org/writer/caption_dialog/Writer_Caption_Dialog.sxw

Frank Loehmann

2003-09-26T12:23:59

Elizabeth Matthis