On typing ‘(’ I would like the closing ‘)’ to be automatically inserted and the cursor to be between the two tags. The same with " and ’ and [. This is similar to what IDEs have been doing for decades now, I don’t believe anyone ever needed a single ( or ’ or " or [?
Does Writer allow this to be configured some how?
This is a fairly naïve question as an IDE deals with fairly simple and strongly syntatic content. Pure text can take any form e.g., “(u${%’;#r[” is just as valid as “abc (def) ghi”. Automatic completion is also a contentious subject as many users writing highly specific content find it a constant irritation to the point where they need to turn it off.
To complicate matters, the situation with right-to-left (RTL) strings being inserted into left-to-right (LTR) paragraphs, and vice versa, is controlled by Unicode Directional Formatting Codes (UDFC). These UDFC determine the facing of the characters you describe. Automatically inserting the corresponding closing character, before inserting the UDFC that are to surround the opposite directional string, would quite possibly cause problems with the direction of the closing character. Refer this recent Q&A for an example of what I mean.
If you still feel this should be an enhancement then please file an enhancement bug and provide as much information as possible. Don’t forget to mark your bug as an ‘enhancement’ and link it back to this this AskLO thread. The QA team will be happy to help you triage your feature request in the bugtracker.
Please post a link to any bugs you file in a comment below using the format “fdo#123456”.
Thanks!