Re: [libreoffice-design] A more usable default setup

On 2013-09-10 18:12, Daniel Hulse wrote:
> Hi,
> I posted my current Libreoffice setup to Google+ and people seemed to like
> it, so I decided to talk about it some here.
> I am finding the sidebar to be very usable, and so I thought it would be a
> good idea to see what implementing it would have on the rest of the
> interface. Right of the bat, the formatting toolbar becomes redundant as all
> of those buttons are already in the sidebar. So I removed the formatting
> toolbar. Then, because the sidebar includes the navigator, gallery, and
> styles and formatting toolboxes in them, I removed those buttons from the
> standard toolbar.
>
> >From there, I decided it would be good to remove some of the bloat from the
> standard toolbar. Some of this is kind of subjective, but I stand by my
> choices anyway:
> *First off, cut/copy/paste is not needed in the standard toolbar, because
> those actions are almost always dependent on some location in the
> document--people usually use the right click to perform those actions in any
> application.
> *Zoom was removed since there is already an ability to zoom in the
> lower-right corner.
> *Save As, Page preview, and the spelling and grammar buttons were removed
> not necessarily because I think the functionality is not important, but
> because they don't merit their own icons. If anything, they should be merged
> with the save, print, and autospellcheck buttons. (that, or the
> autospellcheck icon should be moved to the status bar at the bottom.)
> *Hyperlink, table, show draw functions, and edit file were removed because I
> didn't see them being used very often, especially when table is an entire
> menu to itself.
> * I also moved the icons such that after open it goes save, exporting as
> pdf, print, email. This was done because saving and exporting, exporting and
> printing, and printing and emailing are each conceptually similar. In short,
> the order felt more natural.
>
> Anyway, without too much more explanation, here's a screenshot of what was
> achieved, in writer, impress, calc, and draw: http://imgur.com/a/XyN4O
> <http://imgur.com/a/XyN4O>
> (In my Google+ post, I used the flat icon set, but it wasn't working
> properly, so instead I used the default galaxy set)
>
> Here are some things I think were achieved:
> *'back' and 'forward' are closer to the left side where most people are used
> to them being in web browsers, file managers, and the like.
> *A more natural order of icons
> *more minimalism -- the long toolbar of icons is less daunting than it was
> before, doesn't have to hide icons when viewed on lower-resolution monitors,
> and there is a space for people to add their own toolbars without making
> another row.
>
> Thoughts?
Hi Daniel.
For me a design with a side bar should be optional to suit different 
peoples tastes or work flows. I don't run applications full screen and 
want application frames (windows) to be as narrow as possible to be able 
to view multiple applications at once. I am most frequently writing 
about a spread sheet, diagram or document that I have open next to the 
document I am writing and the extra width of the side bar would be a 
hindrance.
Steve


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