192295 - unable to delete pasted table

Status: NEW

(Core :: DOM: Editor, defect)

Description

[Judson Valeski]

using commercial trunk Netscape build (2003020304).

when I paste a simple table (2 cols 2 rows) from either Microsoft Excel, or from
an HTML document, into an editor window (like composing a mail message) other
than composer (which provides table UI), I am unable to delete the table itself.

I am able to select all the cells (indicated by the cells shadowing) and
subsequently delete all of their contents, however, I am unable to rid the
document of the table structure itself.

I would expect that dragging from before to after the table itself, and hitting
delete, would remove the table from the document.

Comment 1

[saari (gone)]

I actually expect to be able to delete it as well... is there a good reason why
it works this way?

Comment 2

[saari (gone)]

EDITORBASE+ but we really need a good test case here

Comment 3

[rubydoo123]

I believe the confusion here is the grippy indicators, the user may believe the
table is selected when the grippies are displayed. If you select the table, by
clicking in a cell, or highlighting the grippies, and then select
Table|Select|Table and hit delete - the table is indeed removed. 

Selecting the cells and hitting delete only deletes the content of the cells and
does not delete the table.

Steps:
1. open excel and create a 2x2 table, enter text in each cell
2. open a new composer window, enter a line of text
3. select the 2x2 table in excel, select copy and paste into the composer window
4. select the table - you should either see the cell grayed or the grippies.
Hold the shift key down and select all cells - select delete. The content of the
cells is deleted and not the table.
5. select undo to return the table to the original state.
6. click in the table, select Table|Select|Table and then select delete. Table
is deleted

Comment 4

[rubydoo123]

tested in an embedded app and when I pasted the excel data, selecting the table
(gray borders) and hitting delete, did indeed delete the table. I did not use
the table select option for this test.

Comment 5

[rubydoo123]

marking verified

Comment 6

[rubydoo123]

I am reopening this bug, I can now reproduce the issue that Jud mentions

Comment 7

[rubydoo123]

Attachment: test case

Open the attached test case in Composer
In the last column, select the column with the mouse and the use of the shift
and ctrl keys (do not use menu items). Select delete. The contents of the cells
should be deleted. Now, reselect the cells and try to delete the cells (without
using the menu options). They just will not delete.

Comment 8

[Kevin McCluskey (gone)]

Nisheeth is this something you could help with?

Comment 9

[Kevin McCluskey (gone)]

What should the correct behavior be?

Should selecting all table cells and hitting backspace delete the table? (This
is what MS-WORD does)

Should selecting some table cells present a dialog which prompts the user to
delete the cells or just their contents. 

currently, dragging over the table selects the entire table but does not show
any visual indication.

Selecting all cells in the table and hitting backspace deletes the cell's contents.

Comment 10

[Nisheeth Ranjan]

The bug as it was reported by Jud doesn't exist in the Windows debug 5-27 build
I tested on.  When I paste the table in the attached test case into the mail
compose window, select the entire table, and hit delete or backspace, the entire
table gets deleted.

The issue that Beth is describing in comment 7 is different because it talks
about deleting a column within a table.  It is still possible to delete the
column in the table using the right click menu or the main menu in Composer and
only the main menu in the mail compose window.  So, workarounds, admittedly
pretty cumbersome, exist to delete columns within the table both in Composer and
mail compose.

Given this state of affairs, does this bug still rate as a topembed+?  Just
thought I'd make sure that this is important before I work more towards trying
to fix it...

Comment 11

[Robert La Ferla]

This is a user interface issue.  I have encountered this myself and it is quite
annoying.  I had to look to this bug report to figure out how to delete a table.

The problem is that the design of how to select objects and subobjects nested
inside them was not carefully thought out.  It is inconsistent and that leads to
confusion for the user.  Consistency is a pillar of good UI design.  Once you
have an object selected, you should be able to perform an operation on it like
delete.  An object can be a cell, a row, a column, a table, etc...

Comment 12

[Paul Silaghi, QA [:pauly]]

Still unable to delete the cells from the testcase with DELETE key on 27.0a1 (2013-09-25).