1422217 - Change default when right-clicking on a message in Templates folder from "New Message from Template" to "Edit Template Message"

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1389062

(Thunderbird :: Untriaged, defect)

Description

[Óvári]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:57.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/57.0
Build ID: 20171116103757

Steps to reproduce:

1. Change right-clicking on a message in Templates default from "New Message from Template" to "Edit Template Message"

2. When message is edited, the over-writes the previous message, so there is only one template. Currently the former message remains so there are 2 template messages.

This would enable Mail Merge to be consistent with the default behavior of Thunderbird in the Drafts folder, i.e. "Edit Draft Message".

Thunderbird 57.0b1 (64-bit)


Actual results:

"New Message from Template"


Expected results:

Edit Template Message

Comment 1

[Óvári]

Attachment: Edit Draft Message.png

Attached screenshot of context menu for message in Drafts folder. Same bold "Edit Template Message" context menu item requested for Templates folder.

Thank you

Comment 2

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Thomas, can you please take a look. We're implementing "Edit Template" in bug 1389062 and we will also make sure that editing a template will remove the previous version.

Comment 3

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Óvári from comment #0)

> Steps to reproduce:
> 
> 1. Change right-clicking on a message in Templates default from "New Message
> from Template" to "Edit Template Message"

Óvári, thanks for your RFE. Pls don't mix STR with actual and expected result, which is confusing and harder to understand.
The change is what you want, so it's expected result.
 
> 2. When message is edited, the over-writes the previous message, so there is
> only one template. Currently the former message remains so there are 2
> template messages.

This is a mix of expected result for "Edit Template", and actual result of "New message from template". For the latter, it's correct behaviour as currently implemented.

> This would enable Mail Merge to be consistent with the default behavior of
> Thunderbird in the Drafts folder, i.e. "Edit Draft Message".

Mail Merge must be an addon, but from the information here I don't understand how this interacts with TB default behaviour.

> Thunderbird 57.0b1 (64-bit)

Ideally, this should go to the top of the description, or in STR if it's relevant.

> Actual results:
> 
> "New Message from Template"

Yes, default behaviour of double-clicking on a template is to create a "New Message from Template".
That looks like good and correct behaviour to me:
1) Consistent with behaviour of templates in other wide-spread MS Word (*.dot, *.dotx)
2) "Edit template" can be expected to be much less frequent action than "new msg from template". Typically, the most frequent action should be default action. Basically, I would expect a template to be created only *once* and then used as a  - well - *template* to generate new messages. Maybe once in a while, the template needs upgrading. There might be edge cases which require frequent updating of template, but that still doesn't change the big picture.
3) ux-error-prevention: Given 1) and 2), we can't default to "Edit template" because it would be unexpected and hence error-prone, i.e. users rightly expecting to use the template end up changing it.
4) There is currently no other way that I'm aware of to use a template for a new msg. "Edit as new" will be different after those changes land as it will respect user's default format of account, not the message format (html vs plaintext).

> Expected results:
> 
> Edit Template Message

As Jörg said, we'll introduce this as a *separate* command, which will obviously overwrite the existing template, but for the afore-mentioned reasons, I don't think it should or could be the default action of a template.

So technically, this is wontfix; but reporter's expectation probably starts of the current interim design gap which we're fixing in the other bug (introduce "Edit Template" command).

Comment 4

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Óvári from comment #0)
> 2. When message is edited, the over-writes the previous message, so there is
> only one template. Currently the former message remains so there are 2
> template messages.

I didn't read this closely enough, this does not describe current behaviour and I am not seeing this behaviour.
"New msg from template" correctly generates a new draft every time (tested on POP).
Are you seeing something else? If so, pls file a new bug.

Comment 5

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Misunderstanding here:

Desired behaviour (quote):
When message is edited, the over-writes the previous message, so there is
only one template.

Existing behaviour (quote):
Currently the former message remains so there are 2 template messages.

This will be fixed in bug 1389062, hence the "duplicate" has some merit.

Comment 6

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Jorg K (GMT+1) from comment #5)
> Misunderstanding here:

As seen in my comment 3, I did not misunderstand the distinction between expected and actual behaviour.
But I was surprised how reporter ends up with two templates, which won't happen in the default workflow of "new msg from template" without extra steps not included in STR.
 
> Desired behaviour (quote):
> When message is edited, the over-writes the previous message, so there is
> only one template.
> 
> Existing behaviour (quote):
> Currently the former message remains so there are 2 template messages.

Oh, so if reporter really means 2 *templates*, that's after a hidden step of "Save as template" after "new msg from template", isn't it?

That's the disadvantage of missing/incorrect/incomplete STR mixed with actual and expected results, they just cause confusion as everybody will talk about a different scenario.

> This will be fixed in bug 1389062, hence the "duplicate" has some merit.

Yes, "duplicate" is a possible and correct resolution for this bug, because reporter's (wrong) expectations are probably coming from the design gap which we are fixing with introducing "Edit Template".