Bug 150521 - LibreOffice themes are a complete nightmare, do not follow any convention, and elements don't honor them
Summary: LibreOffice themes are a complete nightmare, do not follow any convention, an...
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 118320
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: LibreOffice (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
7.5.0.0 alpha0+
Hardware: x86-64 (AMD64) Windows (All)
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: needsUXEval
Depends on:
Blocks: LibreOffice-Themes
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2022-08-20 16:58 UTC by xordevoreaux
Modified: 2022-08-20 18:47 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
bad (47.82 KB, image/png)
2022-08-20 16:59 UTC, xordevoreaux
Details
different theme, also bad (117.19 KB, image/png)
2022-08-20 16:59 UTC, xordevoreaux
Details
non-dark theme (49.27 KB, image/png)
2022-08-20 17:15 UTC, xordevoreaux
Details

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Description xordevoreaux 2022-08-20 16:58:36 UTC
Description:
Examine screen caps. The default dark theme is useless, flipping themes does nothing, and many components of the interface don't even honor them, such as the properties sidebar.  This is just bad.



Steps to Reproduce:
1. Launch Windows LO
2. Look at screen. 
3. Go to Options, Personalization.
4. Select any theme, hit apply, hit another theme, hit apply, continue.

Actual Results:
Examine attached screenshots.

Elements such as the properties sidebar remain in a default dark theme regardless of theme selected. The icons in the ribbon at the top aren't even readable in some themes, and I've yet to find a theme/icon style combination to produce readable screen. 

Skia / no skia does not seem to make any difference.

Expected Results:
Something more like 3.5 with a nice, stable, clear, readable, interface.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No



Additional Info:
Version: 7.5.0.0.alpha0+ (x64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 4c96abd81460977d413d4d28e891bbbac5769ede
CPU threads: 8; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19044; UI render: default; VCL: win
Locale: en-US (en_US); UI: en-US
Calc: CL


and

Version: 7.5.0.0.alpha0+ (x64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 4c96abd81460977d413d4d28e891bbbac5769ede
CPU threads: 8; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19044; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: en-US (en_US); UI: en-US
Calc: CL
Comment 1 xordevoreaux 2022-08-20 16:59:09 UTC
Created attachment 181909 [details]
bad
Comment 2 xordevoreaux 2022-08-20 16:59:34 UTC
Created attachment 181910 [details]
different theme, also bad
Comment 3 xordevoreaux 2022-08-20 17:06:56 UTC
Applying a pre-installed theme changes the color of the icon ribbon at top.

Subsequently clicking "Default look, do not use Themes" does nothing, the ribbon remains unchanged from whatever most recent theme was selected.
Comment 4 xordevoreaux 2022-08-20 17:10:29 UTC
The only way to clear the theme is to go to Options, View, and toggle "use skia for all rendering" and then relaunch LO. Toggling it again, and re-launching again, leaves the theme reset, but doesn't matter which was selected, Use Skia or don't, just the act of toggling it and relaunching LO is doing it.

However, doesn't solve the problem. I cannot escape the dark theme.
"Default look, do not use Themes" still leaves me with the dark theme rather than something more akin to the default appearance in 3.5
Comment 5 xordevoreaux 2022-08-20 17:12:53 UTC
After clearing the theme (and remaining stuck in dark theme, going to Options / Application colors and switching from LibreOfficeDevDark to LibreOfficeDev leaves half the interface still in Dark.
Comment 6 xordevoreaux 2022-08-20 17:15:24 UTC
Created attachment 181911 [details]
non-dark theme

Color Scheme: LibreOfficeDev (NOT LibreOfficeDevDark)
Personalization: Default look, do not use themes

Clearly, the theme elements are neither being applied nor cleared correctly across all components of the interface.
Comment 7 xordevoreaux 2022-08-20 17:21:55 UTC
I know what's happening. LO is borrowing from the Windows theme for certain elements, such as the properties side bar, and ignoring the Windows theme for others in attempting to apply themes to components of the LO interface.

THE ENTIRE INTERFACE for LO draw needs to come strictly from LO settings, not borrow from the interface if you're going to implement this feature at all.

Also confusing is how the options governing LO interface's final appearance is scattered across multiple option dialogs, forcing users to hunt down different interface effects (application color, icons, themes) for those components actually bothering to use those settings and not the operating system's theme.
Comment 8 V Stuart Foote 2022-08-20 18:11:30 UTC
IMHO nothing actionable here.

The Tools -> Options -> Personalization 'LibreOffice Themes' panel has two modes -- "Default look, do not use themes" and "Preinstalled themes"

The preinstalled themes (held over defunct Mozilla Firefox themeing) will be reworked (bug 125217).  Simply don't use them if you don't like their effects.

You are incorrect regards clearing the frames--simply select the "Default look, do not use themes" and restart LO. No other changes needed, on relaunch the theme residuals are cleared. Only if you leave the "Preinstalled themes" radio button selected will the personalization themes stick around.

As to working in Windows 10/11 Dark mode, for 7.3 (and automated for 7.5) users on Windows working in Dark mode have two LibreOffice adjustments.

1. there is the Colibre (Dark) Icon theme; applied from the Tools -> Options -> View 'Icon Theme'.  At 7.5 the default will be Colibre (Dark) but you can select others (I prefer Sifr).

2.  at 7.2 there we provide a LibreOffice Dark color scheme (bug 141986); applied from the Tools -> Options -> Application Colors panel.  It provides a reasonable set of defaults for the UI for a Windows DE running in Dark mode (bug 118320). You can use it as a template, making changes to any of the elements of the Application Colors dialog--and save as your own Color scheme for reuse. 

These settings are the best the project can do bcz Microsoft does not provide C++ API for Desktop apps to work with UWP XAML themes. 

The defunct Personalization will get some type of rework use whats leftover or don't, but you do have the ability to theme your UI as you like and to save that for reuse.  Please retest.
Comment 9 xordevoreaux 2022-08-20 18:16:40 UTC
The only improvement came when I switched the Windows operating system from a dark theme to a light theme to get the elements in LibreOffice that don't honor theme changes to match.
Comment 10 xordevoreaux 2022-08-20 18:22:19 UTC
Only if you leave the "Preinstalled themes" radio button selected will the personalization themes stick around.


-----------

1. Options / Personalization.
2. Select Preinstalled Theme.
3. Click the green one.
4. Hit apply. Ribbon up top turns green.
5. Select Default Look, do not use themes.
6. Apply.  

Green still there.

One must relaunch the program for changes to affect.
Comment 11 V Stuart Foote 2022-08-20 18:29:14 UTC
(In reply to xordevoreaux from comment #10)

> One must relaunch the program for changes to affect.

And? That is what was said. Restart *is* necessary to complete the mode change.

Meanwhile while in Windows 10/11 Dark color mode, change the LibreOffice Tools -> Options -> Application Colors to the 'LibreOffice Dark' color theme.  Icon theme will toggle [1] but for now still have to manually apply the LibreOffice Dark color theme; or users can roll and save their own color theme.

We just can not read in theme details from Windows os WDM UWP XAML, limited to knowing it is set Light or Dark and respond with LibreOffice presets.
Comment 12 V Stuart Foote 2022-08-20 18:31:08 UTC
(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #11)
forgot the ref
=-ref-=
[1] https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/131843
Comment 13 xordevoreaux 2022-08-20 18:43:09 UTC
I flipped windows theme to dark, played with LO options, got lost in the process selecting all the different components. That is way more wrestling than I've ever needed to do in any other program just to get to a dark theme. I gave up and moved Window back to a light theme and reset LO.
Comment 14 V Stuart Foote 2022-08-20 18:47:42 UTC
Oh, then will mark it a dupe.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 118320 ***