Version:            (using KDE KDE 3.5.3)
Installed from:    Debian testing/unstable Packages

I believe KOffice (especially KWord) should have what Microsoft calls a Formatting Palette. It is a feature in the OSX version of Microsoft Word and I have found it to be extremely useful (I don't know if the PC version has the Formatting Palette or not, but I think it doesn't). To give a general idea for those that don't know what it is, think of it as a toolbox that contains all or most of the toolbar shortcuts. This toolbox has sections (instead of being called toolbars) and each section can be minimized or maximized by an arrow on the left side (kind of like in KControl Center with the list). Here is a link for a perfect example: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/office2004/using.aspx?pid=usingoffice2004&type=howto&article=/MAC/LIBRARY/how_to_articles/office2004/of_formattingpalette.xml

The reason I think it should have this feature? Mainly, convenience.

In addition to the Formatting Palette, I think there should be something added to it to not just make it more convenient for people, but also to improve and be a little different than Microsoft. I'll call this feature the "Font Handler". What the Font Handler does is collect your different fonts in the document(s)/project(s) you're viewing and if there are multiple documents/projects open, the user can navigate to the other documents/projects fonts through tabs. That way it would be easy transfer of a font from one document/project to the other. The easiest way that I know of currently is to take the text from the other document/project, copy and paste it, then change the text to what I want, otherwise I'd have to go to the Font Manager and change it each time through a list whenever I want a different fonts.

What reasons for this feature?
Summed Up: Convenience.
Expanded Upon: Do you have a project you are working on in KWord and want the same font(s) in KPresenter or vise versa? With this feature you can. Also this is very helpful especially for KWord. A great example is a story (fiction) I'm currently writing and I'm using over five different fonts and it is very tedious to do the process that I noted above each time I want to change fonts; it is just as tedious to use the tool bar or the Font Manager each time, but if there was a simple list to select from it would be splended.