Hi, here's a quote from the latest comment downstream Ubuntu bug report: --- snip ---
Hi, RTL language user here (Hebrew), I signed up just to tell you that I got to this page after a nerve breaking search thru the menus looking for the RTL option exactly as Shahar described. I was even more frustrated when I found out that the button is present on my sister's Windows machine running LibreOffice, but not on my Ubuntu laptop. A little research is not gonna scare a CS MSc student of course, but every friend I know would have uninstalled the program or just stop using it. >From my experience, Usability >> Performance. What benefit do I get from an allegedly (did you actually benchmark the thing with and without the feature on and saw a meaningful difference?) faster program that I can't use? You want better performance? Go look for the option to disable CTL. I'm not supposed to be looking for the option just to be able to use it. If the performance is OK for Microsoft Office with the feature on, no reason it won't be fine for LibreOffice. Leave the damn thing on. And excuse my language & aggression :) I just wanna see open source get as usable as retail products. Yigal. --- snip --- -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to libreoffice in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/927931 Title: [Upstream] RTL (CTL) is expected to be enabled in all cases by RTL users Status in LibreOffice Productivity Suite: In Progress Status in “libreoffice” package in Ubuntu: Won't Fix Bug description: This is concerning the usability issue where an RTL user gets in front of LibreOffice and doesn't find the two directionality buttons in the toolbar (OMG!!!). He won't find them anywhere until he does 8 mouse clicks to turn the RTL feature on: Tools -> Options -> Language Settings -> Languages -> Enabled for complex text layout (CTL) -> CTL: <Language> -> OK My mom can't do this :-/ . This is how this happens: CTL is off by default in LibreOffice, and thus RTL is, too. As I've been briefed, this is how it gets turned on for RTL users automatically: 1. RTL locales 2. A language support package of one of the RTL languages is installed The problem is that these two triggers for CTL don't cover all the situations where an RTL user runs LibreOffice. Many RTL users choose a non-RTL locale. They can also choose not to install any of the language support packages. The presence of an RTL language layout is all that indicates their RTL-ness :) Even when RTL users use a friend's/public computer as guests they expect the RTL buttons. Then, why make RTL off by default? Does it cost a lot of memory? Does it have bad Karma? :) The expectation to have those RTL buttons is because they seem to be always there in Microsoft Office since as far as I can remember. I never had to turn anything on. They were always there by default. In order to understand the severity of this issue, let me tell you what users do when they don't find those RTL buttons. They try to configure the toolbar, thinking that they must be disabled there. They find them enabled, actually. Although enabled in the toolbar, they don't appear :-O . After that they're quite lost so they might go to the correct Language Settings -> Languages configuration section. There, they will not find "RTL" or "Left to right". How would they know whether to enable the "Enhanced language support" for Asian languages or for Complex text layout? Most users would lose a few hairs by that point. Thanks and blessings, Shahar ProblemType: BugDistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04 Package: libreoffice (not installed) ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-14.23-generic 3.2.3 Uname: Linux 3.2.0-14-generic x86_64 ApportVersion: 1.91-0ubuntu1 Architecture: amd64 CasperVersion: 1.304 Date: Mon Feb 6 22:14:26 2012 LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Alpha amd64 (20120206) ProcEnviron: PATH=(custom, no user) LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bashSourcePackage: libreoffice UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/df-libreoffice/+bug/927931/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp