[Issue 125721] Dictionaries Update - Installation Dialog Window is CONFUSING

[bu...@apache.org]

https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=125721

Ru Cindrea <ru...@altom.ro> changed:

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                 CC|                            |ru.cindrea@altom.ro

--- Comment #1 from Ru Cindrea <ru...@altom.ro> ---
Reading the bug report from Mike, it was easy for me to identify the
problematic dialog that he posted a screenshot of (Extension Manager dialog)
and understand the problem that he is describing. I checked this issue on
OpenOffice Writer 4.1.1 official version (Release: Milestone AOO411m6 | Build
ID 9775 | SVN r1617669 | Released 2014-08-21) on Mac OS X 10.10, but since this
is a common dialog on all platforms and has been in the product for a while, I
believe this issue is not at all platform or configuration dependent. 

The confusing dialog can be opened by going to Tools menu and selecting
“Extension Manager…” - this is the dialog shown after an update to an extension
(in this case a dictionary) has been installed. 

I see three main aspects that make the Dictionaries Update confusing for a
regular user. I have added more info and research for each of these three
aspects below:

1. As a regular user, when I encounter a confusing dialog where I am unsure
what to do, I try to check the documentation for it. In this case, I noticed
that the documentation for OpenOffice doesn’t specifically explain that
dictionaries are handled as “extensions”. 

The existing documentation is pretty good for extensions in general, but if I
have a problem with my dictionaries I wouldn’t right away check the extension
manager documentation unless I knew that dictionaries are also extensions. Here
are the documentation sources that I have checked to confirm this:

*Help button on Extension Manager Window*
The window that Mike is on has a Help button that takes the user to the
“Extension Manager” window, but this also has no info on Dictionaries, so this
might also cause confusion for a regular user. 

*The OpenOffice Writer Documentation*
https://wiki.openoffice.org/w/images/1/11/0200WG33-WriterGuideOOo.pdf - All
references to dictionary and dictionaries management in the documentation
contain a lot of useful information, but not of these explain that dictionaries
are just regular extensions. 

*Extension Manager Wiki*
https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/Administration_Guide/Using_Package_Manager
contains no info about Dictionaries being “extensions” as well.

**Suggestion** - A possible good improvement in this case to help users who are
confused about the Dictionaries update process would be to improve the
documentation and point these users to the extension update process. 


2. Based on reports from other users and number of issues found in Bugzilla for
this module, the “Extension Manager” window/UI and module in general is an old
problematic area in Open Office in general and the UI is indeed confusing. 

After a short search in Bugzilla, I found 40 bugs regarding “Extension Manager”
(Accepted, Confirmed and Unconfirmed) 
https://issues.apache.org/ooo/buglist.cgi?list_id=164395&query_format=advanced&resolution=---&short_desc=extension%20manager&short_desc_type=allwordssubstr 
This suggest that there are a large amount of problems with this specific
module in general. 

More specifically, here are two issues discussing the exact same confusing
experience for Extension Manager in general: 

https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=125077 - this is still
UNCONFIRMED, but the behavior and the confusion described is very similar to
the one reported by Mike here. 

https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=124489 - This second issue
(Extension Manager: add small message for successful installation) describes
the same problem with the UI where the user is not sure whether an update was
installed or not, but on top of that also suggests a solution for how to show a
simple confirmation/success message when update was successfully installed.
This bug is already CONFIRMED, so this suggests there are plans to implement
the suggested improvement (or a similar solution) some time in the future.  

Based on this research, I believe Mike has a valid point and is describing a
real design problem that could be considered for fixing using the simple
solution already suggested and confirmed. 



3. Mike also reports that the “Add..” button didn’t work, so he just closed the
window eventually. He might mean simply that there was nothing to add. But it
is also possible that he encountered another known issue with the Extension
Manager dialog where the update dialog comes behind the Extension Manager
window, and thus the Extension Manager dialog that is on top becomes
unresponsive.

Here is this problem described in another issues which is already confirmed:
https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=125502 

If this is the case, this functionality issue might actually add to the
confusion the user is experiencing when trying to understand what action to
take in the Extension Manager dialog. Fixing this already confirmed bug might
actually improve the experience with the Extension Manager dialog and reduce
the confusion a user might experience when trying to update dictionaries.

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