Discussion:
[Libreoffice-bugs] [Bug 91874] New: Feature request: Search over main menu (Tell me or Ubuntu's HUD alternative)
b***@bugs.documentfoundation.org
2015-06-05 11:07:44 UTC
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https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=91874

Bug ID: 91874
Summary: Feature request: Search over main menu (Tell me or
Ubuntu's HUD alternative)
Product: LibreOffice
Version: 5.0.0.0.beta1
Hardware: Other
OS: All
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Severity: enhancement
Priority: medium
Component: UI
Assignee: libreoffice-***@lists.freedesktop.org
Reporter: ***@gmail.com

Request feature similar to Tell Me in Office 2016. Searchbox located next to
main menu. When you type there - dropdown list appears with relevant
suggestions. For intance in Calc you type "piv" - and this searchbox suggests
you "Data - Pivot Table - Create"
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b***@bugs.documentfoundation.org
2015-06-07 01:25:17 UTC
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Adolfo Jayme <***@libreoffice.org> changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Priority|medium |low
Version|5.0.0.0.beta1 |unspecified
See Also| |https://bugs.documentfounda
| |tion.org/show_bug.cgi?id=78
| |033
Summary|Feature request: Search |Search over main menu (Tell
|over main menu (Tell me or |Me or Ubuntu's HUD
|Ubuntu's HUD alternative) |alternative)
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b***@bugs.documentfoundation.org
2015-06-20 16:22:06 UTC
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Adolfo Jayme <***@libreoffice.org> changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Status|UNCONFIRMED |NEW
Ever confirmed|0 |1
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b***@bugs.documentfoundation.org
2015-10-28 23:31:49 UTC
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https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=91874

--- Comment #1 from Björn Michaelsen <***@canonical.com> ---
LibreOffice already exports its menus via dbus on desktop environments that
support it -- thus enabling the Ubuntu HUD.
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b***@bugs.documentfoundation.org
2016-03-29 23:16:01 UTC
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Björn Michaelsen <***@canonical.com> changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Status|NEW |RESOLVED
Resolution|--- |WORKSFORME

--- Comment #2 from Björn Michaelsen <***@canonical.com> ---
Closing this as WFM as the dbus menu export is there and works. All it needs is
the desktop software outside of LibreOffice to pick it up like Unity does.
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b***@bugs.documentfoundation.org
2016-04-02 04:08:49 UTC
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Adolfo Jayme <***@libreoffice.org> changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Status|RESOLVED |NEW
Resolution|WORKSFORME |---

--- Comment #3 from Adolfo Jayme <***@libreoffice.org> ---
@Björn, this feature request is for LibreOffice *itself* to provide a search
box where one can find menu commands. Of course, this will be redundant with
Ubuntu Unity’s HUD feature, but this functionality is lacking in all the other
platforms LibreOffice runs on.
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b***@bugs.documentfoundation.org
2016-06-11 07:48:14 UTC
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Adolfo Jayme <***@libreoffice.org> changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CC| |***@gmail.com

--- Comment #4 from Adolfo Jayme <***@libreoffice.org> ---
*** Bug 100315 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
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b***@bugs.documentfoundation.org
2016-06-11 12:34:31 UTC
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V Stuart Foote <***@utsa.edu> changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Priority|low |medium
CC| |***@utsa.edu
See Also|https://bugs.documentfounda |
|tion.org/show_bug.cgi?id=78 |
|033 |
Summary|Search over main menu (Tell |A Search by function or
|Me or Ubuntu's HUD |keyword over main menu--
|alternative) |similar to SpotLight, Tell
| |Me, or Ubuntu's HUD but
| |native for LO GUI

--- Comment #5 from V Stuart Foote <***@utsa.edu> ---
Thanks Adolfo! I'd searched for these but didn't pick them out :-( To suplement
Yan's OP here, bringing these over from dupe bug(s) and adjusting
summary--consolidating UX and any implementation discussion on this issue.

bmharding 78033#0
...
Implement a smart text box to allow people to find functions in LibreOffice or
tutorials and help without hunting through the menus.
...
To improve usability and productivity and to help users discover functions in
various LibreOffice applications.
...
(i) The Smart address bar in most web browsers allows the user to start typing
and see items from their browsing history, bookmarks or a smart auto-suggested
web search. If they don’t find it, they can use a web search to do so. (e.g.
Chrome, Firefox smart bars)
(ii) Windows 7’s Start Menu will search for installed programs, documents,
other files, emails, control panel items etc.
...
• If no results come up, offer a web-search based on, for example, LibreOffice
Writer + search term which might throw up tutorials which use a different form
of words than is used in the feature or function’s name or description.
• Allow the user to pin favourite functions next to the smart box (icon +
mouse-over tooltip) and/or display recently found functions. Only power users
will find the Customize menu options.
• Context-aware results – e.g. if the cursor is in Writer table and the user
starts typing ‘COL’ they might want things to do with Background COLOR or Font
COLOR or table COLUMN-width. If in non-table areas, they might be interested in
Font COLOR or COLUMNS text layout. If in a multi-column area they might want to
insert a COLUMN-break.
• Indicate where to find the feature via the pull-down menu structure.
• Make common suggestions based on cursor context all the time without
requiring input. E.g. if selecting text in a table, display “type here or see
suggested functions” and when cursor is there, offer select cell, select
current row, select current column, select whole table.

=-=-=

nielsenmateusz 100315#0
Searching through menus can often be time consuming, and if you're
inexperienced with the Suite, you have to go to the Documentation to find a
specific feature that you want.

A nice way to fix that would be implementing a search box that allows you to
search for specific functionalities in the program. Search for "horizontal
line" and you get all the functionalities of the program with this keyword,
including "insert horizontal line".

You can simply click enter, and it will insert a horizontal line, or you can
press Ctrl+Shift+Enter and it will show you how to navigate the menu to find
that specific thing you searched for.

If you search "Horizontal Line" and use the help option, it will open
Format -> Styles and Formatting -> Horizontal Line
step by step, showing the user how to get to that functionality without using
the search box.

Now the user can learn about the program in a more visual way without going to
documentation.

Stuart 100315#1 --
Isn't this just a rehash of see also bug 43894 -- if the built-in help is
installed the indexed search is provided as localized for the OS. F1 provides
the dialog where select the Find tab. And on OS X, believe it is integrated
into the Help menu.

TomaÅŸ 100315#2 --
No, this sounds like "search for commands" that is available by default in MSO
2016 (and with a plug-in in previous versions). And Ubuntu also has something
like this to search the menus of programs (including LibreOffice)..

When we reorganized the menu and we moved commands around something like this
would be useful for the users. For example people didn't find pivot table at
its usual place - with this the user could type "pivot" and the search would
find all commands that has "pivot" in the name. So in this case it would find
"Insert -> Pivot Table.." and if you click on it / hit enter, it would execute
the command.

I think something like this would be useful to have native in LO to make
searching for commands in the menu easier and I don't think it would be that
hard to implement.

Heiko in 100315#3 --
Isn't this system feature, like Spotlight on MacOS or Unity's HUD? And in case
of Microsoft Windows there might be an app which does the same. So
NOTOURFEATURE?

TomaÅŸ in 100315#5 --
Well for OSX and Ubuntu it is a system feature but this requires a system with
global menu and integration from LO. So I doubt there is an application for
Windows which does this.

I think this feature is useful for all users so it would be useful to have it
available in LO on all platforms. The search could go even deeper and not be
bound just to the menu (style search and apply for example). That's probably
why MS added it to MSO 2016. It is quite convenient to hit Alt-Q and type "ins
pic" + enter to open an insert picture dialog.
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b***@bugs.documentfoundation.org
2016-06-11 12:35:53 UTC
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V Stuart Foote <***@utsa.edu> changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CC| |***@bmharding.freeserv
| |e.co.uk

--- Comment #6 from V Stuart Foote <***@utsa.edu> ---
*** Bug 78033 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
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b***@bugs.documentfoundation.org
2016-06-11 12:36:48 UTC
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V Stuart Foote <***@utsa.edu> changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keywords| |needsDevEval, needsUXEval
CC| |libreoffice-ux-***@lists
| |.freedesktop.org
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b***@bugs.documentfoundation.org
2016-06-11 21:56:46 UTC
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--- Comment #7 from Heiko Tietze <***@gmail.com> ---
I'd follow Björn here: system functions should remain where they belong to, at
the OS/DE. It might be a well-accepted feature on MacOS or Unity but it isn't
known on Windows and those users never expect it.

However, the feature itself is great and fits perfectly into the criteria for
extensions. So my suggestion is to introduce a category or keyword here on the
bugtracker where we move those tickets which could be taken by the community.
Similar to EASYHACKS with a few tips how to solve the problem.
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b***@bugs.documentfoundation.org
2016-08-05 09:52:23 UTC
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Yousuf (Jay) Philips <***@hotmail.com> changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CC| |***@gmail.com,
| |***@hotmail.com

--- Comment #8 from Yousuf (Jay) Philips <***@hotmail.com> ---
This feature was something me and joel talked about in 2014 and i had it in a
google docs file of enhancements, so glad someone already created a bug report
for it, as i was just about to do so. ;D

Here is the text i had in the google doc file.

"Search field that will have the power to search through menus (similar to
ubuntu’s HUD), provide links to other related menu items (e.g. user types
‘header’ and related shows ‘footer’), list help results (pulled from the help
search if its installed) and link to youtube videos related to topics (each
feature will have associate video links associated with it explaining more
about the function and how it works - e.g. TheFrugalComputerGuy vids[1])."

This feature is also available in MS Office 2007 and 2010[2] as well as MS
Office Online and Google Docs.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/user/TheFrugalComputerGuy/videos
[2] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=28559

This feature would be useful as a text field in the toolbar, especially in a UI
mode where the menubar is hidden.
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b***@bugs.documentfoundation.org
2016-08-05 09:58:12 UTC
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--- Comment #9 from Yan Pas <***@gmail.com> ---
Eclispe IDE Neon has this feature too and has even search over settings.
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b***@bugs.documentfoundation.org
2016-10-11 13:26:10 UTC
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Heiko Tietze <***@gmail.com> changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CC| |***@hotmail.com

--- Comment #10 from Heiko Tietze <***@gmail.com> ---
*** Bug 101110 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
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b***@bugs.documentfoundation.org
2016-10-12 05:36:55 UTC
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--- Comment #11 from Mike Kaganski <***@hotmail.com> ---
As advised by Heiko, here are relevant bits from bug 101110:

...
I imagine that something like in AutoCAD, where there is a rich menu with an
input box, where one can enter either help request, or (some characters of) a
command name, and in the list beside the input box, there appear both similarly
named commands and help topics, so clicking to any of those, one gets either
the command executed or help topic open. See


The "menu" could be e.g. in a sidebar.

I suppose that this would make it easier to use some commands that one cannot
fins in menu/toolbar. And macros should be available there, too, as ordinary
commands.
...
There are several main problems that this proposal could solve.
1. When I want to use some rarely-used command. :) For a power user, that knows
of some less-used functionality but useful in some situations, this is surely
often encountered situation. One single rare command may be required once a
year, but there's another one, and another, too much of them.
2. When I want to maximize usable screen space, like using new single toolbar.
So, the toolbar space is not too huge.
3. When I don't know (remember) where the command is (menu/toolbar) and what
its icon is, but searching by (part of) command's name will show me its icon
and (hopefully) will show me its position on menu. Further, I may not remember
its correct name, I may enter a word "capitals", and each command having a good
description and growing dictionary of aliases, I'll be presented with
"Format->Text->UPPERCASE" and "Format->Text->Capitalize Every Word" commands,
and also "Format->Character" with help section describing its Font Effects, and
Character Styles in that context. This way, anyone will find it easier to find
commands for requested functionality, easier to learn and enhance proficiency.
...
This kind of UI is very common currently. You may see it in Unity Dash, Windows
Start, Blender etc. Also, I see a wish for this rather frequently in forums
(e.g. here:
http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/40163/find-commands-by-name , here
in Russian:
https://www.linux.org.ru/forum/talks/12695695/page1?lastmod=1467486174771#comment-12705845)
...
(In responce for suggestion that it's better addressed with a plugin fetching
Uno commands list):
I'm afraid it's impossible without "native development", because otherwise it
won't be able to use additional information. I mean, that it must respond to
"contextual" meaning (bring commands that don't have typed words in names, but
that may do what user wants, e.g. by having a dictionary of "tags" attached to
each command), etc. Supporting external DB of such information is unfeasible,
because it would require from maintainer to do it multilingually, track each
new/modified command, etc.

Not every LO feature has its uno command: e.g., many entries inside Format
Character dialog. I'm afraid, that if users will search for "Blinking", they
won't find requested commands using your suggested approach, while in best case
they would be presented the option to open that Format Character dialog.

Many uno commands would likely come unlocalized; that would be a showstopper
for this feature.

The feature should also provide relevant help entries (online/offline,
depending on whether help is installed locally).

I suppose that the feature is only possible by gradual development. First,
create infrastructure for it, e.g. means for feature developers to define the
"tags" for their commands. Implement the feature to be user-visible, and then
gradually fill required data to existing commands, hopefully with a bunch of
easy hacks. Include this into localization process, etc.
...
And btw, with notebookbar coming (that is often criticized for wasting vertical
space, and is targeted to users that tend not to use menu), and already
implemented single toolbar (that clearly seeks to maximize screen real estate),
the need to hide menu bar will be greater. It would be possible to continue
being productive without menu bar in LO, if such a feature is implemented.
...
See also: bug 90195
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2017-05-29 18:40:16 UTC
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Thomas Lendo <***@gmail.com> changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blocks| |85811


Referenced Bugs:

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=85811
[Bug 85811] [META] Main menu bugs and enhancements
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b***@bugs.documentfoundation.org
2017-08-08 14:26:07 UTC
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Adolfo Jayme <***@libreoffice.org> changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CC| |***@gmail.com

--- Comment #12 from Adolfo Jayme <***@libreoffice.org> ---
*** Bug 111419 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
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b***@bugs.documentfoundation.org
2017-09-12 13:43:14 UTC
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Xkm <***@genodeftest.de> changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blocks| |102062

--- Comment #13 from Xkm <***@genodeftest.de> ---
This would also be useful for the new Notebookbar, thus adding to its RFE list.
It would easily fit right to the tabs.

Please correct me if I should open a separate bug report on that.


Referenced Bugs:

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=102062
[Bug 102062] [META] Notebookbar: bugs and enhancements
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2018-02-27 08:36:02 UTC
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Heiko Tietze <***@gmail.com> changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keywords|needsDevEval, needsUXEval |
CC|libreoffice-ux-***@lists |***@gmail.com
|.freedesktop.org |

--- Comment #14 from Heiko Tietze <***@gmail.com> ---
Here is a nice prototype
https://clickortap.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/the-citrus-search-box/
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2018-07-30 13:02:19 UTC
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Mike Kaganski <***@hotmail.com> changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CC| |shtrom+***@s
| |sji.net

--- Comment #15 from Mike Kaganski <***@hotmail.com> ---
*** Bug 119002 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
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b***@bugs.documentfoundation.org
2018-08-21 08:57:06 UTC
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Heiko Tietze <***@gmail.com> changed:

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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CC| |***@gmail.com

--- Comment #16 from Heiko Tietze <***@gmail.com> ---
*** Bug 119379 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
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b***@bugs.documentfoundation.org
2018-11-02 12:02:42 UTC
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Mike Kaganski <***@hotmail.com> changed:

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CC| |***@gmail.com

--- Comment #17 from Mike Kaganski <***@hotmail.com> ---
*** Bug 121121 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
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2018-11-02 13:18:12 UTC
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--- Comment #18 from ***@gmail.com ---
Hello Mike and thanks for the patience.

Just a quick take from the bug I'd opened:

a quick way to implement this would be a simple dialog composed of a one-line
textbox on top and a listbox in the rest of the window.

A proof of concept (the same thing implemented in GIMP) is shown in this video
at minute 1:20

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2018-12-08 22:15:44 UTC
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--- Comment #19 from andreas_k <***@gmail.com> ---
I'm a big fan of something like this but why does this blog Notebookbar?
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