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Hi Mirek,

Mirek M. wrote (09-09-13 14:46)

I share your sentiments about the sidebar. It should definitely be
hidden by default, as it adds minimal value in return for a bunch of
wasted space and a less focused, messier interface. The exception to
this would be Impress, because it already relies on the task pane for
key functionality and the sidebar is the replacement.

OK. And maybe, when visible in the other modules, remove some formatting toolbar?

My vision for the sidebar is a bit different, though.
First and foremost, I'm hoping that the sidebar will be made modular,
allowing the user to undock each individual panel (represented by a tab)
from the sidebar. Keep just a single panel docked, the tab bar would
disappear. That would mean that we'd get rid of the awful panel
duplication we have with the Sidebar now -- there would a single
Navigator, a single Gallery, and a single Style pane, and all of these
could be docked/undocked at any side of the window and grouped into tabs
as one wished. This is all standard panel behavior, btw -- if you want
to try it, just take a look at Gimp or Inkscape. (And I believe the
Adobe counterparts work similarly.)

Those ideas for panel behaviour look sound to me. But less important in my view then the items I brought forward .. ;)

As for the Properties panel, I'm hoping it will gain Style dropdowns
like those in the toolbar (Kendy's working on this). I see no reason to
fill the Properties panel with styles, though, as we already have the
Styles panel for that.

It would be my strong, very strong, preference to make controls for direct formatting hidden, far hidden, and clearly show styles in a useful way.

Furthermore, it's the Properties panel, so I would expect it to hold any
and all of the object properties. That's the role dialogs play right
now, and I'm hoping that, over time, the Properties panel will gain all
of their functionality and replace them one by one. The advantage to
that would be fast and easy access to this functionality, and the
ability to see the changes happen live in the document.

I like the idea of seeing a life preview. On the other hand, applying a style and hitting Ctrl-z or the undo button, or the other style when it's not what is wanted, isn't a big deal too.

The concept is
basically the same as that of the Inspector window, which has long been
used on Mac OS and is a key part of iWork.

Cheers,
Cor

PS See you in Milan?

--
 - Cor Nouws
 - http://nl.libreoffice.org
 - The Document Foundation Membership Committee Member

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