Add additional formatting features to comments?

English
#1

NOTE: I have rewritten this question for clarity. I apologize as my original version was not very clear. Hope this is better. Thanks for the help!

I like the way comments work in Draw. I can place the comment marker in an object and move it around, then just click on the marker to open the comment. Perfect. I use it as a note on nodes in a diagram.

However, comments don’t have enough formatting options for my needs such as changing font size and color or highlighting text. I need formatting options similar to those in Text Boxes.

So I need better formatting options in comments.

image description

So I like the comments and the markers. But comments don’t allow the level of formatting I need. If the formatting features that you can have in a Text Box could be added to the comment boxes, that would be perfect.

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EDIT: While on this topic, is there currently any way to change the default font size in comments? It is infinitesimally small. I can’t read it.

#2

I don’t understand the point of “inserting a text box as an icon”. There’s no icon object in Draw unless you call the shapes “icon”. Maybe if you could explain what you want to do with the final drawing, this could help. Generally the (or a) group of shapes in Draw are pasted somewhere else. And this may be in this “else” you need an “icon”.

Edit your question for more information.

#3

As you will read in my comment on the answer by @ajlittoz, I assume the subject of the question and its actual content incompatible.

#4

Hmmm. Late editing can spoil consisteny of attempted answers and of comments if done without preserving the previous version to some degree.

#5

Comments are not supposed to be replacement for full length argumentation. They’re supposed to be work-in-progress annotations, reminders, todo list, … which are deleted when document is ready for final distribution. Initially, apart from line breaks, bold or italic, no sophisticated formatting was deemed necessary.

I understand that every user is different and wants to achieve his purpose the way he likes.

I can only repeat: wait until it bubbles up. If you want to whip the developers, try to find the feature request on https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/. Add a comment there to “vote up” the feature and report a link (to the feature request) here. This will be useful. Links to bugzilla are coded tdf#xxx where xxx is the bug number.

#6

Thanks again for the information.

Makes no difference to me whether the additional formatting is added to inserted Comments or a separate insertable object is created that works similar to comments but includes more extensive formatting options.

As long as it includes a marker similar to comments that you can place where you want it and click to open it that works fine for me. I also like the numbering system that comments use on their markers. So if comments is not the appropriate thing to change, a separate object on the Insert menu – maybe call it a “Note” – is fine too. Maybe its marker could be the same as the Comment marker but a different color.

#7

You’ll never get the same functionality with text boxes.

Presently, comment formatting is limited to bold, italic, underline or strike-through on selected runs of characters. But I read somewhere (but can’t remember where) that comments will be able to be styled/formatted in a release coming soon.

Maybe other contributors may give a more accurate information.

EDIT 2020-12-19

is there currently any way to change the default font size in comments?

In Writer, click on the arrow in the bottom right corner of the comment and Format All Comments.

In Draw you can’t change comment font size.

If your question is about the AskLO site, you probably have a zoom factor in effect in your browser. Usually (at least Firefox), Ctrl+0 restore the font size of the CSS stylesheet, Ctrl++ and Ctrl+- allow to zoom in and out.

#8

Thank you! If that’s in the works it would be fantastic! Hopefully someone can give more information especially about when that might appear. I changed the title of my post to better reflect this angle.

#9

I suppose the answer by @ajlittoz didn’t exactly match the question. He addressed the internal formatting of the content of annotations (comments) while in my understanding the question was about getting any object represented by “an icon” or something working similar as a link to a bookmarked content of the document.
Such means don’t exist in Draw, The “icon” supplied as a handle to open the comment isn’t an object of any kind like a shape. You can move it to the area of a shape, but you cannot group or copy/paste it. It’s a “thing sui generis” which doesn’t seem to be represented in the API at all. It also is not known to the .CurrentSelection of the document. Having shown it as if selected, this pretension will vanish as soon as you start any action (by opening a menu or clicking a toolbar area e.g.)

(BTW: Comments, named Annotation in the API, suffer from serious inconcistency concerning the ways of implementation in Writer, Calc and Draw.)

#10

Thank you for that information. I probably complicated my question unnecessarily by focusing it too much on Text Boxes. I may rewrite it a little to correct that.

What I really am looking for is simply to improve the formatting capabilities in comments. They way comments work now is fine for my needs. I can place the comment marker inside the shape where I want it. That’s perfect. I don’t need that to be changed.

All I am really requesting is more formatting options for comments. The only reason I mentioned Text Boxes is that they have the kind of formatting options I would like to have in comments.

So what I am looking for is any information about whether better formatting for comments is in the works, when it might be available or if not, what I do to request it.

Thanks again.

#11

The implementation of comments from the API point of view is as I described. It is (IMO) extremely different from anything related to ordinary content (shapes in Draw). It looks as if just roughly patched over everything implemented in a well structured way (MS like?). This surely could be fixed by shifting comments from their “sui-generis-existence” to “specialized shape life”. However, this may be “incompatible with compatibility requirements”. Donno.

#12

Well, curiosity is time consuming. I did a bit of additional research by editing the content.xml of a draw file, and can tell you that even current LibO Draw (7.0.3.1 for me) is capable of displaying comments with formatting done for a shape text, and that the formatting information is even correctly re-saved to the file after a minor editing. Lacking formatting capabilities and missing info about creator and date are therefore just due to an arbitrary design decision. It should be an easy hack to change that. See attachment.
testDrawCommentChgd.odg

#13

Thanks Lupp, that looks pretty cool and demonstrates what I am talking about.

I don’t know my way around the LO development infrastructure, but I hope that somehow this can be implemented for end users so that hacking isn’t necessary.

#14

What I wrote was about the “research”. I then also copied formatted text from a TextBox or another type of shape, and pasted it into the comment, and that also worked.
For a few single cases where you think to need the feature, you can do it this way.
My previous comment is a partial countermand of the one above.

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