https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=145980
Bug ID: 145980
Summary: Table Alignment options are somewhat confusing,
illustration needed
Product: LibreOffice
Version: 5.0.0.5 release
Hardware: All
OS: All
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Severity: minor
Priority: medium
Component: Writer
Assignee: libreoffice-bugs@lists.freedesktop.org
Reporter: eyalr...@gmx.com
Created attachment 176612
--> https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/attachment.cgi?id=176612&action=edit
Current Table tab of the Table Properties dialog
The Table tab of the Table Properties dialog has, on one side, a set of radio
boxes:
**Alignment**
( ) Automatic
( ) Left
( ) From Left
( ) Right
( ) Center
( ) Manual
Disregarding for a moment other controls in this dialog, this list is
confusing: Some items are vague/confusing in themselves, while some confuse me
in the context of the other choices.
Let's start at the purely linguistic level. There is no way you could create a
valid phrase with "alignment" and "from left": "Aligned from left", "Aligned
with From Left", "From-Left-Aligned"? Nope. You simply can't put "From Left"
on the list of options.
Now for semantics. The user can (?) be assumed to know what alignment means,
based on the alignment of paragraphs. The options there are: Left, Right,
Start, End, Center, Justified. Start and End are sadly not yet implemented;
that is bug 131192; so let's ignore them; and Justified could be forced to have
a meaning for tables, but that's not necessary, so forget about that too.
That leaves us with "Left", "Right" and "Center" as notions the user is
familiar with, and could (if we're very optimistic) guess what happens when
they are chosen. But if these terms are used differently than for paragraphs,
or even if they are offered along with other, non-paragraph-like options - even
these 3 options, and certainly any other ones, must be explained at least as
clearly and in a straightforward manner as paragraph alignments are in the
paragraph dialog. That is to say:
-> Some visual illustration of the aligned table on a page, within surrounding
text, is necessary in this dialog in support of the choice of alignment.
Now for the worst part:
"Automatic alignment" - While this _sounds_ nice, it is actually _meaningless_,
or rather - conflicts with the meaning of alignment we know from paragraphs.
For the life of me - to this day I don't understand what exactly is automated
in automatic alignment. And I'm not the only one; to quote Frank Brutting from
bug 113960:
> Furthermore, I don’t quite understand what “automatic alignment” should mean?
Considering how tables behave with this mode - wouldn't it be better to call it
"No Alignment" or "None"? i.e. the table is never actively moved or stretched
due to alignment considerations?
Then there's the second travesty, which is "Left" vs "From Left". WTF? And my
only guess would be that "From Left" is perhaps a synonym for "Right"; but then
- we have "Right" alignment. It doesn't help that "From Left" and "Right" offer
the same combination of non-grayed-out controls.
This situation probably means that the illustration of alignment mode should
make it clear how these three modes differ (if they all should even exist,
which I'm not 100% sure of).
An illustration may also allow placing the other controls near the regions they
affect, which would make their graying-out or hiding make more sense. It might
also allow setting offsets/sizes by dragging the edges of the mock table, or
dragging the whole table etc; and would help clarify and contextualize how
different values affect each other.
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