[libreoffice-design] Idea: command launcher for LibreOffice

Hello,

Here's an idea aimed at helping with the long-standing problem of the huge
number of commands, options and menu items in office suites, and their low
discoverability. It's more of an adaptation of existing ideas, actually.

Desktop application launchers (Gnome-Do, Katapult, Synapse and their likes)
have been around for years and IMHO are a very convenient way of executing
applications, launching files and so on. Recently they have gone more
mainstream, as Windows 7, Gnome Shell and Unity all have similar
functionality built into their interfaces. I think an office suite could
benefit from having a similar interface as a way to improve the efficiency
of work and the discoverability of the commands and options available to the
user, since the traditional menu structure and the newer Ribbon style are
both lacking in this.

As a first step to implement this idea, I think it might be possible to
create an index of the texts in the localization files of LibreOffice, which
include all the commands, options and word in dialog boxes that a user might
want to execute. Once the index exists, a plug-in can be written to launch a
search box that lets the user type what they want to do, search the index
for the typed text, show the user a list of items that fit that text and
execute the selected item.

I don't know how difficult or easy it would be to do this. Maybe the
suggested way of implementing this idea is not even possible (I'm actually
not sure there is a way to map the indexed words to the actual commands, and
if there isn't one, what would it take to create it.)

I have to say that I'm not a software developer and I know almost nothing
about the structure of LibreOffice. Everything I wrote about the
implementation of this idea might be totally wrong. I know that some of the
things I talk about don't even belong to this specific mailing list, but I
think this is the right place to suggest this idea.

I would be very happy to hear your opinions about this idea and if it's
worth pursuing.

All the best,
Oren

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