Bug 166350 - Support framed groups with corner expansion button, on Tabbed notebookbar tabs
Summary: Support framed groups with corner expansion button, on Tabbed notebookbar tabs
Status: UNCONFIRMED
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:
Depends on:
Blocks: Notebookbar Notebookbar-Tabbed
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Reported: 2025-04-26 09:03 UTC by Eyal Rozenberg
Modified: 2025-04-30 09:49 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Elements of the MSO ribbon, including groups and dialog launchers (23.21 KB, image/png)
2025-04-26 09:03 UTC, Eyal Rozenberg
Details

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Description Eyal Rozenberg 2025-04-26 09:03:17 UTC
Created attachment 200536 [details]
Elements of the MSO ribbon, including groups and dialog launchers

Most item on MSO's ribbons are part of framed "ribbon groups", which correspond to some dialog one can open. Each such group has a tiny square widget at the bottom-right (or bottom-end) corner, which, when pressed, launches the dialog associated with the group. 

We should have a similar capability in notebookbar tabs.
Comment 1 V Stuart Foote 2025-04-26 15:08:24 UTC
For MUFFIN don't we have the far superior overflow drop list of UNO menu actions--instead of just a single dialog launch? That handling of UNO menu items is already present on the Grouped Bar Compact, or Grouped Bar. 

Guess the drop list might be advantageous for the Tabbed NB assemblage? But styling as a drop list of menu entries seems more functional than pop-open panel of additional actions.
Comment 2 Heiko Tietze 2025-04-28 08:02:15 UTC
The Notebookbar is not a Ribbon, and the request to reinvent it sounds wrong to me. 

However, to fudge a use case: Eyal wants to completely abandon classic controls such as toolbars and sidebar for a sleek design. Extended features would still be available in dialogs, which however should be accessed from the Notebookbar.

I think this ticket is impossible to handle. Think of a patch that solves a request - not possible. It's rather a design question that could be discussed at https://community.documentfoundation.org/c/design-ux/16

=> INV
Comment 3 Eyal Rozenberg 2025-04-28 10:19:41 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #2)
> However, to fudge a use case: Eyal wants to completely abandon classic
> controls such as toolbars and sidebar for a sleek design. 

Heiko, you know I want the exact opposite. I hate ribbons and tabbed interfaces and never use them myself.

But - we have  decided it's not going to be a dichotomy: We have a toolbar + menu interface, and we have the "noteboookbar". Well, the "notebookbar" does need "non-classical" controls. Sleek or not - framed groups are an important aspect of MSO ribbons, and we don't have them. We have something which is a bit like a toolbar made to look like a ribbon, but not all the way there.

> Extended features
> would still be available in dialogs, which however should be accessed from
> the Notebookbar.

That is the case both before framed groups are available and afterwards.


> I think this ticket is impossible to handle. Think of a patch that solves a
> request - not possible.

Huh? How do you mean? It's just a request for a new kind UI element. And of course it's possible. Are you saying that it would be a lot of work? Possibly. But I'm not claiming this is needs to be done immediate and right now before anything else. That's not a reason to make it INV.

There are lots of members of our community who are clamoring for a better tabbed/ribbon-y interface, and this request is part of achieving that.
Comment 4 V Stuart Foote 2025-04-28 13:12:05 UTC
@Eyal, I think Heiko just confused our UX HIG persona expert user "Eve" [1], and not you individually.

Still, I don't see an advantage for the 'Tabbed' MUFFIN Notebookbar to try to compose a new dialog. The drop list extender as used for the Groupedbar or Groupedbar Compact assemblages would be suitable to task. And could be added to the Tabbed Notebookbar without much effort.

Could assign it a different icon to make it more familiar to users coming from other offerings.

=-ref-=
[1] https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design/Guidelines/HIG_foundations
Comment 5 Eyal Rozenberg 2025-04-28 13:52:54 UTC
(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #4)
> Still, I don't see an advantage for the 'Tabbed' MUFFIN Notebookbar to try
> to compose a new dialog.

Just to clarify - I'm not suggesting the creation of any new dialogs, just:

1. The ability to put frame( groups), with a bottom-corner widget and a potential stylized frame label, on tabs
2. The ability to launch a dialog from the bottom corner widget a framed group.
Comment 6 V Stuart Foote 2025-04-28 14:21:34 UTC
(In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #5)
> (In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #4)
> > Still, I don't see an advantage for the 'Tabbed' MUFFIN Notebookbar to try
> > to compose a new dialog.
> 
> Just to clarify - I'm not suggesting the creation of any new dialogs, just:
> 
> 1. The ability to put frame( groups), with a bottom-corner widget and a
> potential stylized frame label, on tabs
> 2. The ability to launch a dialog from the bottom corner widget a framed
> group.

Again, why a dialog? For the 'Tabbed' assemblage, the drop list of tab appropriate controls (as available now on the Groupedbar or Groupedbar Compact Notebookbar assemblages) would be far more functional?
Comment 7 Eyal Rozenberg 2025-04-28 21:19:23 UTC
(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #6)
> Again, why a dialog? For the 'Tabbed' assemblage, the drop list of tab
> appropriate controls (as available now on the Groupedbar or Groupedbar
> Compact Notebookbar assemblages) would be far more functional?

A dialog - for the same reason we launch dialogs from menus, rather than open submenus:

* A dialog has a lot more controls than can fit on a menu
* A dialog involves a lot of things which aren't commands, and on groupbar assemblages, or whatever, we have, AFAICT, solely or mostly commands.
* A drop-down menu is very fleeting and sensitive - you move your mouse a bit and its gone; not so a dialog, which you examine at your leisure.

Also remember I'm asking for the _ability_. I'm not suggesting we replace every "group bar assemblage" with dialog launches.
Comment 8 Eyal Rozenberg 2025-04-30 09:49:05 UTC
(In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #7)
> Also remember I'm asking for the _ability_. I'm not suggesting we replace
> every "group bar assemblage" with dialog launches.

Nor am I suggesting we replace "tabbed bar assemblage"'s. Sorry for possibly not using the exactly correct term, I'm not sure what exactly an assemblage connotes; plus I keep forgetting we have the "group bar" separate from the "tabbed bar" as a UI mode.