Bug 148121 - Let me save and load custom or default User Interface UI layout variants.
Summary: Let me save and load custom or default User Interface UI layout variants.
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: UI (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
: 142032 (view as bug list)
Depends on: 140140
Blocks: Notebookbar UI-Theming
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Reported: 2022-03-21 20:45 UTC by Wolf Icefang
Modified: 2023-10-11 21:48 UTC (History)
7 users (show)

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Description Wolf Icefang 2022-03-21 20:45:13 UTC
Description:
	I would like a new feature where “View -> User Interface...” lets me create and save my own custom UI variants. There are a few reasons for this:
	Even though each User Interface autosaves its most recent toolbar arrangement, I don’t feel like I’m “saving and restoring *my* UI”. I still instinctively think of the options listed as pre-made setups from the LibreOffice design team.
	In Draw, I accidentally created an excellent vertical UI while set to the “sidebar” user interface. Now I have to remember that Writer and Calc’s “Sidebar” is good for horizontal displays, but Draw’s “Sidebar” is good for my vertical monitor. If I could save my Draw layout to a custom named UI variant, it would simplify getting to a layout that I know “just works” for me.
	It took a lot of trial and error to figure out LibreOffice’s UI, and these experiments essentially destroyed the Standard UI in Writer. I am forced to use Notebookbar or Sidebar, or spend extra time piecing Writer’s Standard UI back together. For this reason, I believe the default layouts (Like Tabbed and GroupedBar) should fully reset the UI to default, rather than remember a user’s modifications.
	In order to make a full reset like this possible, LibreOffice’s default toolbars should not be editable. Attempting to edit a default Toolbar should prompt the user to “save as” a new toolbar with a new name. It would be like using a Template file.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Activate the Menu Bar if it is not visible.
2. Choose View
3. From the View dropdown, choose User Interface...
4. Select a UI variant from the list provided.

Actual Results:
In the Select Your Preferred User Interface dialog box, there are 7 UI variants to choose from. The current User Interface is automatically customized whenever a change is made by the user.

Expected Results:
The 7 UI variants listed should act as defaults.
When a user decides to switch to a new UI, a prompt should appear asking if they want to save their current UI with options Save, Save as, Don't Save, and Cancel.
If the current UI was a premade UI, the Save button will be grayed out, forcing the user to save their layout as a new variant. Otherwise, clicking Save will overwrite any changes they made to the custom UI they were using.
If the user selects Save As, a text box will appear prompting for a layout name and an optional description.
Choosing Don't Save will discard any UI changes made since the last save.
Choosing Cancel will keep the user on their current UI layout instead of switching to a new layout.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No



Additional Info:
There should be a way to save your current layout or duplicate a custom layout without switching to a new layout.
Comment 1 Heiko Tietze 2022-03-22 07:31:58 UTC
The UI picker and the UI customization are different approaches. The classic interface with menus and toolbars allows to easily add/remove items while the Notebookbar variants, which you pick in the extra dialog, also have some customization capabilities but not beyond on/off, similar to right click on a classic toolbar and the "Visible Button" function.

In a perfect world where all aspects of any UI can be configured, would it make sense to save a customization as a UI variant? Maybe the functionality is straight-forward but I don't see the use case. The UI picker was introduced to "sell" the Notebookbars and make the first selection easier. But you presumably never change the UI again. And I see no benefit in having two or more customization variants anyway.
Comment 2 V Stuart Foote 2022-03-22 13:28:44 UTC
On the other hand, in the spirit of MUFFIN if we can find some way to consolidate the various customizations (NB, toolbars, menus, context-menus) as recorded to user profile into a package--that could be backed up and restored. For example following a safe-mode profile reset.
Comment 3 Heiko Tietze 2022-03-24 13:51:43 UTC
Let's keep the ticket at least for reference. We are not even close to an implementation but a comprehensive customization is desirable.
Comment 4 Heiko Tietze 2022-09-28 12:57:45 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 5 Justin L 2023-06-16 18:58:14 UTC
*** Bug 142032 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 6 Justin L 2023-07-08 14:00:46 UTC
The "Notebookbar" tab in Tools - Customize showed up in 6.4 with
commit 015dc88a595c1c92d2b724cd868aecb07199f995
Author: Sumit Chauhan on Fri May 31 14:59:54 2019 +0530
    UI for the Notebookbar Customization tab
Comment 7 Commit Notification 2023-07-12 19:17:58 UTC
Justin Luth committed a patch related to this issue.
It has been pushed to "master":

https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/24e02d55b7602f0f3bc74656ecec54635ab09f96

related tdf#148121 no custom notebookbar.ui file unless modified

It will be available in 24.2.0.

The patch should be included in the daily builds available at
https://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/ in the next 24-48 hours. More
information about daily builds can be found at:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Testing_Daily_Builds

Affected users are encouraged to test the fix and report feedback.
Comment 8 Justin L 2023-07-12 19:20:15 UTC
Comment 7's patch is not in any way intended to fix this bug report. However, it is very related, preventing excessive use of unnecessary customized notebookbar configs.