Impress: ODP: Improve Overview feature [design review call]

[pedropintosilva]

2026-01-05

Present: @banobepascal , @mohit-marathe , @pedropintosilva

What is the Overview slide

Initially known as "InfiniteCanvas", a special slide - available for presentations in ODF (.odp) - where the user can access the overview of the whole presentation: to see all the slides and their order. Within the Overview, slides
can be re-arranged by drag-n-drop the slide rectangles.

The Overview allows for a easy view of the whole presentation as well as a new visual way to rearrange slides and understand the slideshow flow.

For more information please visit:

• https://nlnet.nl/project/InfiniteCanvas/
• https://mohit-marathe.github.io/posts/impress-canvas-slide/

Meeting Notes

• Pedro: introduction of the feature and what was requested, now let’s review it and create new polishing tasks

• It's not discoverable

  • Make the Overview slide already available by default in all ODP files so, user doesn't need to manually insert it -> Impress: ODP: Overview slide: Insert by default for ODP #13989
  • Add a a new Overview button to the status bar near to the navigation buttons and Zoom controls -> Impress: ODP: Overview slide: Add a a new Overview button to the status bar #13990
  • Add a new Overview button to the current on-canvas button group (currently we have only up an down navigation buttons there) -> Impress: ODP: Overview slide: Add a new Overview button to the on-canvas button group #13991

• Make it easier to get in and get out of the Overview

  • Zoom out from a slide pass 20% should transition to the Overview Slide via fade Impress: ODP: Overview slide: Zoom out from a slide pass 20% should transition to the Overview Slide via fade #13992
  • Zoom in from the Overview Slide pass 400% should transition to that specific slide via fade Impress: ODP: Overview slide: Zoom in from the Overview Slide pass 400% should transition to that specific slide via fade #13993

• Slide sorter: Overview slide

  • The Thumbnail is too small, not really useful. Can we get a different thumbnail (from a different zoom)?
    • Mohit: the thumbnails is taken from the page size. It should be possible but not that easy, particularly when user places a slide in of the page corners and it will take a big effort/time.
      • Banobe: Solution A: replace it with an SVG
      • Another solution would be to add a button (grid) that is placed both in the status bar and in the on canvas buttons (Up/Down arrows) then we don't need anymore the Overview to be represented as a Slide in the Slide sorter. For now let's replace it with a nice SVG, that seems to be the easiest first step. An icon (or a variation of the icon) that we will anyhow need in other places Impress: ODP: Overview slide: Replace thumbnail with with an SVG #13997
  • Banobe: should the Overview slide be exported?
    • Mohit: This was part of the requirement of NLNET project
    • Pedro: It should be possible to export but we should have it as an option that can be toggle off at least in the PDF dialog. Otherwise hidden slides will get exported within the overview slide. Example hidden slides are also possible to be exported but are not toggled on by default in the PDF dialog.

• Bugs encountered

  • Converted pptx to odp: and now the Overview Slide is blank even thought there are slides available. The Overview thumbnail shows the slides but inside is blank.
  • Copy paste should be disabled when the object selected is an Overview Slide Impress: ODP: Overview slide: Copy paste should be disabled when the object selected is an Overview Slide #13994
  • Reset zoom brakes : Leave the overview; go another slide the slide is not centred; press the reset zoom → doesn’t work
  • Refreshing the page increases the height of the overview-slide thumbnail and forms a rectangle slide thumbnail instead of a square like other thumbnails, Impress: ODP: Overview slide: Refreshing the page increases the height of the overview-slide thumbnail #13995

[mohit-marathe]

Converted pptx to odp: and now the Overview Slide is blank even thought there are slides available. The Overview thumbnail shows the slides but inside is blank.

The Overview Slide is not blank. The preview shapes are at the center of the slide (so you have to scroll horizontally & vertically to center).
All this scrolling only need to be done once (after loading the document). After that we remember the scroll position, so the user won't need to scroll again when switching back to Overview slide from another slide.

It would help to have a minimum zoom of 5% in this case but it might introduce a lot of bugs in tile rendering (according to Miklos), and it might be a relatively bigger task.

Maybe we could just show the center of the overview slide initially (after loading the file). We already do this when the Overview slide is created.

[mohit-marathe]

Reset zoom brakes : Leave the overview; go another slide the slide is not centred; press the reset zoom → doesn’t work

Could not reproduce this. The other slide is always in the center.

switch_page.mp4