Enhanced Header/Footer Dialog

OpenOffice.org 2.0

Document - ID	Specification Owner	Last Change	Status
	John Marmion	7th July 2004	Final
Conforms to	StarOffice Specification Workflow v0.1, Aug 2003
Applies to	calc
Task ID(s	i20501
Category	Feature

Abstract

Users are familiar with adding headers and footers to enhance readability and use a consistent style across pages. Currently adding headers and footers is more difficult in Calc than it needs to be. We need to provide a predefined set of choices that users can choose from a list. This feature will also increase compatibility with MS Excel header and footer handling.

i-Team Members

	Name	E-mail Address
Specification Owner	John Marmion (jm)	jmarmion@openoffice.org
User Experience	Falko Tesch (ft)	ft@openoffice.org
Development	John Marmion (jm)	jmarmion@openoffice.org
Quality Assurance	Oliver Cramer (oc)	oc@openoffice.org
Documentation	Uwe Fischer (uwe)	uwe@openoffice.org

Approved for Implementation

	Approved by	Date
User Experience	Falko Tesch (ft)	2004-07-08
Development	John Marmion (jm)	2004-07-14
Quality Assurance	Oliver Cramer (oc)	2004-07-14
Documentation	Uwe Fischer (uwe)	2004-07-08
String Review	Paul Compton	2004-07-20

Document Change History

Rev. Level	Change	Initials	Date
1.0	Initial version	JM	2004-07-07
1.1	Input from Falko(ft)	JM	2004-07-08
1.2	Add more strings	JM	2004-07-13
1.3	Input from Oliver(oc)	JM	2004-07-14
1.4	Use some existing strings	JM	2004-07-15
1.5	String input from Niklas (nn)	JM	2004-07-16
1.6	String Review accept all changes	JM	2004-07-20

Contents

Glossary	1

1	Motivation	1

2	Goals	1

3	Requirements and Dependencies	1

3.1	Requirements	1

3.2	Technical Dependencies	1

4	User Scenarios	1

5	Competitive Analyses	1

6	Detailed Specification	1

6.1	Error Conditions	2

7	Future Tasks	2

8	Legal Issues	2

9	Notes	2

10	References	2

Glossary

Term	Description
<Term 1>	

Motivation

Currently users can add a header and footer by manually typing the entries or by using the command button icons. There is no facility to choose from a pre-defined set of entries. We need to add this facility.

Goals

Users familiar with MS Excel will be aware of this functionality. We need a similar experience for Calc users.

Ease-of-Use with competitive products is primary goal. It is mandatory that the users finds a comparable functionality within the same feature as in competitive products.

Requirements and Dependencies

Requirements

The existing header and footer dialog needs to be modified. This dialog which is activated from the Edit Command button in the header or footer dialog will now have a drop down list box containing a predefined list of entries on top of the existing command button options. This predefined list has a stated screen position. If a user selects an entry from the list, it will be displayed in the areas outlined below. Where a selected entry from the list box is modified, this will be added to the drop-down list with the entry “customized'. Thus this functionality is very similar in operation to MS Excel. The main difference is that 'their customized' entry appears as a combination of the available fields,

Technical Dependencies

None.

User Scenarios

A user who wishes to add a header in Calc has the option to manually add or use the command buttons to typically add Page <Page>, Pages, Date, Time etc. This feature will enhance this to allow the user to select entries from a list box from the same dialog. These entries have a stated position either on left, center or right of the page or combination of each. They will always appear in these stated positions if selected from the drop-down list The existing command buttons and/or manual entry are available to add fields to appear where the user wishes. If this entry is saved then on re-entry to this dialog, this entry will be highlighted in the drop-down list.

The operation of the Footer Dialog is no different to the Header Dialog.

Competitive Analyses

Since this is a feature mainly aiming on MS Excel users analysis is done only for MS Excel.

MS Excel XP/2003

MS Excel enhanced their Header and Footer layout – which can be accesses via “File – Print Preview – Print Preview window: Setup” - by two drop down list boxes, one for header one for footer.

These dropdown list boxes contain a list of 15 different variations (in Excel 2003) of combinations of fields (see also Figure 1 on page 2)

Figure 1 Header and Footer tab page in Page Setup dialogue of MS Excel 2003

Detailed Specification

The following is the predefined list of available header and footer presets. These presets will be available in a drop-down list. This is the order they will appear in the drop-down list. Note that the entries are context specific. Thus if a user is creating a header from Sheet2, then Sheet2 i.e. The sheet Name will appear in the drop-down list. Similarly the actual file name will be displayed. The table displays the Field Names in bold which are static and need translation, all other entries are context specific.

Displayed in English UI	Displayed in German UI	Field Name
(none)	(keine)	
Page 1	Seite 1	Page <Page>
Page 1 of ?	Seite 1 von ?	Page <Page> of <Pages>
Sheet1	Tabelle1	<Sheetname>
ACME GmbH Confidential, 07/19/2004, Page 1	ACME GmbH Vertraulich, 19.07.2004, Seite 1	Company Name Confidential, <Date>, Page <Page>
Untitled1, Page 1	Unbenannt1, Seite 1	<Filename>, Page <Page>
C:/abc/Untitled1	C:/abc/Unbenannt1	<Path&Filename>
Page 1, Sheet1	Seite 1, Tabelle1	Page <Page>, <Sheetname>
Page 1, Untitled1	Seite 1, Unbenannt1	Page <Page>, <Filename>
Page 1, C:/abc/Untitled1	Seite 1, C:/abc/Unbenannt1	Page <Page>, <Path&Filename>
Username, Page 1, 07/19/2004	Username, Seite 1, 19.07.2004	Username, Page <Page>, <Date>
Created by Username, 07/19/2004, Page 1	Erstellt von Username, 19.07.2004, Seite1	Created by Username, <Date>, Page <Page>

To create a header or footer will be exactly the same as the existing process. The user must first select OK on the Edit Screen and then OK on the Header/Footer screen. There is no difference between the operation of the Header and Footer Dialogs as regards this enhanced feature.

If one of the above entries is modified and saved, then this entry will appear in the left, center and/or right screen with an entry in the drop-down list as 'customized'. This will appear at the end of the list. This 'customized' entry is not actually saved to the list but each time the user enters the dialog, if a selected header or footer entry is not from the list, a 'customized' entry will appear at the end of the list.

If this header or footer entry is subsequently deleted then the 'customized' entry in the drop down list will also be removed from the drop-down list.

A 'customized' header entry will not appear in the footer drop-down list and vice versa.

On re-entry to the Edit Screen following a saved header, the drop down list will display the current chosen entry.

If the user uses the existing command buttons to create an entry or manually creates an entry, then this entry will appear as 'customized' in the drop-down list regardless of whether this entry already exists in the drop-down. One 'customized' entry will appear on a per dialog context basis. Thus if a 'customized' entry is created for the header on Sheet1, it will only appear in the drop-down list for Sheet1.

Pressing OK on the Header Edit screen following a manual or command button button entry will add the 'customized' entry to the drop-down list. If this is not confirmed by pressing OK on the Page Format dialog then this header is not created and this 'customized' entry will not appear on re-entry to the Header dialog in the drop-down list. If the user re-enters the Header Dialog following an OK on creation of a 'customized' entry , then the 'customized' entry will be highlighted and appear in the drop-down list. This will also be true of an existing entry from the list.

The following table shows the field names and their default left, center or right position in the document. These default positions are always used regardless if the user has earlier selected the left, center or right position by directly clicking. Where a user selects e.g. The Left position by clicking on it and then selecting the <Page> entry, this entry will appear in its stated center position regardless of the cursor position.

Following a selection from the drop-down list, the entry will will appear on the position screen followed by the cursor.

Field Name	Position in document & text edits of header footer dialog
	Left	Center	Right
---	---	---	---
Page <Page>		Page <Page>	
Page <Page> of <Pages>		Page <Page> of <Pages>	
<Sheetname>		<Sheetname>	
Company Name Confidential, <Date>, Page <Page>	Company Name Confidential	<Date>	Page <Page>
<Filename>, Page <Page>		<Filename>, Page <Page>	
<Path&Filename>		<Path&Filename>	
Page <Page>, <Sheetname>		Page <Page>, <Sheetname>	
Page <Page>, <Filename>		Page <Page>, <Filename>	
Page <Page>, <Path&Filename>		Page <Page>	<Path&Filename>
Username, Page <Page>, <Date>	Username	Page <Page>	<Date>
Created by Username, <Date>, Page <Page>	Created by Username	<Date>	Page <Page>

The following diagram illustrates the new modified dialog:

Figure 2: New Dialog for Header

The modified footer diagram is the same except that Footer will replace the word Header in the above dialog as the name of the drop-down list and at the name of the command buttons.

String list

Item	English	German	Comments
STR_HF_NONE_IN_BRAKETS	(none)	(keine)	Refers to Kopfzeile or Fußzeile
STR_PAGE	Page	Seite	Already exists
STR_HF_OF	of	von	
STR_HF_OF_QUESTION	of ?	von ?	
STR_HF_CREATED_BY	Created by	Erstellt von	
STR_HF_CONFIDENTIAL	Confidential	Vertraulich	
STR_HF_CUSTOMIZED	Customized	Benutzerdefiniert	
FT_HF_DEFINED	Header	Kopfzeile	
FT_HF_CUSTOM	Custom header	Benutzerdefiniert	
STR_FOOTER	Footer	Fußzeile	Already exists
STR_HF_CUSTOM_FOOTER	Custom footer	Benutzerdefiniert	

Tab Order

The Drop-down list box will occur before the activation of the 'Text Attributes' (Icon A) in the above dialog.

Key Board Shortcuts

None.

Error Conditions

None.

Future Tasks

None.

Legal Issues

None

Notes

The list of presets is not the same as in MSExcel. This should be enough because the missing presets are only other combinations and too many presets may only confuse the user.

References

http://www.openoffice.org/project/www/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=20501

Headers and Footers in Calc

Page 1

Http://specs.openoffice.org/calc/compatibility/headerfooter.sxw

Matthias Müller-Prove

2004-07-07T16:24:00