OpenOffice Mockups For Better GNOME Functionality

This area will allow for passing mockups and ideas to Sun/Oracle that relate to using OpenOffice on the GNOME desktop. Currently Sun is expanding the video features on Linux and some trends have come up while working with hundreds of people.

Youtube Video Insert

While it's very nice to be able to insert physical files, most users have no idea how to make files nor do they have the resources to upload, edit and process videos in the business workplace. Here at the City of Largo, probably at least 90%+ of the calls we have received regarding videos has been on how to insert a Youtube video which already meets their needs. Video training companies are placing files on Youtube. All they want to do is connect their Impress slides with content that is already finished.

There are three ways that this could be done

• Converting and downloading the youtube video into a local file. The only benefit this offers is that the user would be able to play the video without Internet connection in the future. It would be a standalone presentation. But the negatives are way too great: - They have no idea how big the file will be - They have no idea how long the file will take to convert and download - We have no idea if the video is even allowed to be downloaded, nor what the license is of the video. Not user friendly, and not IT friendly at all.

• Allow the video to be inserted, and then use some kind of Flash canvas inside OOo to play the video when they play it. From the users perspective this is easy. They would have no idea where it's playing and how it works, but by insert the link they would get a thumbnail of the first frame and that would make them happy. But from a technical standpoint this really doesn't make sense. This means that now OpenOffice has to be updated with Flash every 2 weeks when there is a security patch. It also could lead to bad leakage and fighting plugins. They still need an Internet connection to make this work.

• Allow the video to be inserted, create a still of the first frame, insert a picture with a play button over the top and then make it a hyperlink that then calls the browser. This approach is very simple and elegant and to the user will work as well as the technically harder second option. As simple as this seems, users don't know how to grab a still frame, how to crop it and very few of them can create hyperlinks from pictures. It's too many steps and they won't ever do it. If Impress just did this from the URL, they would be very satisfied with the results. Facebook works in a similar manner; you enter the URL it detects Youtube and downloads the summary and creates a thumbnail. Simple.

In the shot below (which works, but requires manual steps now), the first frame is shown. When you hover your mouse you can see the link and that when clicked it uses the already existing Firefox browser infrastructure. It works, it just needs to be simpler.

mockup.odp