Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: [libreoffice-marketing] Fedora Magazine article about LibreOffice

Den fre 6 juli 2018 kl 14:10 skrev Tom Davies <tomcecf@gmail.com>:

> Hi :)
> A lot of normal users see the normal menu and icon-bar as being old and
> arrive at the conclusion that LibreOffice is old.
>
> The 'new' ribbon-bar / Notebookbar will probably help reduce barriers to
> migrating people away from MS Office.  It prolly needs a lot more polish
> because it's the first appearance of this feature.  I've still not seen it
> myself so i'm just guessing.
>
> The ribbon-bar in MS Office also does nothing to make it easier to use and
> several iterations of it have just made it harder to figure-out where
> things might be.  It also seems to reduce the amount of space for the
> document itself.  However it looks shiny and glossy and kinda new so a lot
> of people prefer it and think the clunkiness is their own fault for not
> having learnt how to use MS Office more profficiently.
>
> Personally i prefer normal menus because if i click on the wrong one i can
> just slide the mouse arrow along to open each menu in turn.  Sometimes
> something unexpected catches my eye and i maybe give it a try one day so it
> helps me learn too.  The ribbon-bar doesn't allow for such exploration.
>
> So i am glad the Notepadbar exists and i hope to try it and show it off as
> soon as i can put Facebook aside for a moment!
> Regards from
> a Tom :)
>
> On 6 July 2018 at 08:21, M Henri Day <mhenriday@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Den tors 5 juli 2018 kl 14:39 skrev Philip Jackson <
> > philip.jackson@nordnet.fr>:
> >
> > > I tried the Notebookbar after looking at the Fedora article. It worked
> > > just as advertised and I managed to return to default using the '3 small
> > > horizontal lines' icon on the rhs of the ribbon.  I was using LO 6.0.0.2
> > > (I think)
> > >
> > > I wasn't impressed by the Notebookbar - it seems to be variations on a
> > > theme started by MS some years ago and immediately followed by some
> > > other software houses just like it was the fashion of the day. The
> > > introduction of the ribbon by Avid Sibelius raised howls of protest from
> > > the veteran users of Sibelius - but that's just because we're mostly
> > > very conservative and don't like change.
> > >
> > > Yesterday, I upgraded LO to 6.0.5.2 and took the opportunity to recheck
> > > Notebookbar. Out of the 6 variants, the first 2 'Contextual Groups' and
> > > 'Contextual Simple' don't show the little icon. The next 2 variants,
> > > 'Tabbed' and 'Tabbed Compact' do show the icon.
> > >
> > > The last two, 'Grouped bar full' and 'Group bar compact' don't show the
> > > icon BUT they do have an item at the far right called 'Menu' which has a
> > > drop down which allows you to toggle on the Menu Bar  - and to select
> > > the different variants of Notebookbar.
> > >
> > > The number of combinations seem to be numerous. I may have missed a
> > > combination but it seemed to me that although I could turn off the
> > > regular MenuBar in the Grouped Bar full and compact variants, it still
> > > appeared in the 2 tabbed variants.
> > >
> > > This ribbon seems good to pass away a few spare minutes. For a new user,
> > > it may provide something of interest but I think I'll stay with the old
> > > menu bar.
> > >
> > > Philip
> >
> > ​<snip>
> >
> > Agree with Philip above about retaining the old toolbar layout - one
> > could,
> > of course, learn the «ribbon»​, but why bother - especially when it is
> > more
> > complicated to use and doesn't seem to provide any advantages. But I do
> > think it's worthwhile experimenting with and it's easy to get back to the
> > default toolbar layout, så long as the menubar is shown (which it is by
> > defautl ; if one doesn't see it in the ribbon view, click the settings
> > icon
> > (the three horizontal lines) at the upper right and check the
> > alternative))
> > just click there on View → Toolbar Layout and choose Default....
> >
> > Henri
​I suspect​ you're right, Tom - even if I'm not sure what a «normal user»
would be - some people are indeed convinced that everything that is new is
necessarily better, even if, as you point out «[t]he ribbon-bar in MS
Office also does nothing to make it easier to use»  - quite the contrary,
for many users with whom I've come in contact. But I think the developers
are wise to explore this path, in order to win over users who for some
reason feel that such an interface is more «modern»....

What I hope they will *not* do, however, is remove support for the standard
toolbar layout at some future date if it seems that a large number of new
users  are adopting the ribbon ; I hope they will recognise that
maintaining the standard toolbar layout for us old dogs who don't always
choose to learn new tricks to be worthwhile.... 😉

Henri

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