[libreoffice-design] Minutes from the UX/design meeting 2025-May-20

Present: Eyal, John, Heiko
Comments: Stuart, Jan, Olivier, Roman, Dan, Bogdan, Jean-Francois

Tickets/Topics

 * In Help menu rename "Restart in Safe Mode" to "Troubleshoot Mode"
   + https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=171916
   + implemented as "Troubleshoot Mode" meanwhile by Adolfo
   + Safe Mode was better (Eyal)
 => done

 * Colored text in documents should "invert" Brightness value in
   Dark Mode to be readable
   + https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=171806
   + color shifting leads to color inaccuracies on save or print (Stuart)
   + scenario might require same colors, eg. to hide the text (Heiko)
   + Writer's use case is to produce print output (Jan)
   + agree with INVALID/WF; OP might want to discuss theme colors
   + accessibility issues are noted in the sidebar (Heiko)
 => INVALID/NAB

 * prune icon use in menus of Writer
   + https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=171892
   + "show icons for the most important items" is quite subjective (Olivier)
   + current state is good enough (Roman)
   + support a massive reduction (Eyal, John)
   + Optional like "Show Icons: (o) Automatic ( ) All ( ) None" (Heiko)
     + better have this per item in the customization likewise
       for toolbars (Jan)
  => agreement

 * Avoid menu entry icons for menu entries that can be (de)selected
   + https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=171942
   + note that with macOS 26/"Liquid Glass" design language
     most menu items get an icon now; this change is controversial (see
     https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2025/icons-in-menus/ ) and I'm
     not sure we should follow it (Dan)
   + depends on the VCL, gtk3 shown no icon (by default) (Eyal)
   + do not show any icon if the menu has radio/check buttons (Eyal)
   + do not show icons on the parent of submenus (Eyal, John)
   + require Customize: Menu to change icons including None (Heiko)
     + disagree as a prerequisite (Eyal)
   + want to enable/disable icons globally for the whole menu (Eyal)
 => agreement

 => Proposal:
   + File: Open, Save, Print
   + Edit: Cut, Copy, Paste, Find
   + View: none; Styles is important but just one icon is boring and
           no other is used frequently
   + Insert: Image, Hyperlink, Comment
   + Format: Character, Paragraph, Clear DF
   + Styles: Edit Styles, Manage Styles
   + Table: Insert Table, Autoformat Styles (should become TS)
   + Form: Control Properties, Form Properties
           (or icons for the individual controls and none for two)
   + Tools: Options

 * Reset in property dialogs should apply to all tabs
   + https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=171897
   + Reset button should only apply to the current tab (Bogdan, Jean-Francois)
     + which means to move the button into the tab
   + both are bad options; suggest a menu button that allows to Reset All
     tabs and Reset Current tab (the default) (Eyal)
   + We could also consider two Reset buttons - for the current tab and for
     all tabs (Eyal)
   + moving Reset into the tab is odd as it takes precious space, for
     example Paragraph > Alignment
   + menu buttons are more complex and detrimental to usability,
     in general (Heiko)
   + renaming the button into "Reset Tab" should work too but still keeps
     the positional inconsistency (Heiko)
     + this should be verified against the styles dialogs where we have
       a "Reset to Parent" => "Reset Tab to Parent" (ugly long button)
  => renaming is a good compromise

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