Bug 166884 - Add an UI language selector to the First-Start-Dialog
Summary: Add an UI language selector to the First-Start-Dialog
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:
Depends on:
Blocks: First_Launch_Welcome
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Reported: 2025-06-06 18:21 UTC by Roman Kuznetsov
Modified: 2025-06-19 07:47 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


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Description Roman Kuznetsov 2025-06-06 18:21:28 UTC
Description:
Add an UI language selector to the First-Start-Dialog

Steps to Reproduce:
-

Actual Results:
There is no opportunity to select an UI language in the First-Start-Dialog

Expected Results:
There is opportunity to select an UI language in the First-Start-Dialog


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No

Additional Info:
Version: 25.8.0.0.alpha1+ (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 043b186d10fca4a613ce62c1e0d04f86ec63799c
CPU threads: 16; OS: Windows 10 X86_64 (build 19045); UI render: Skia/Vulkan; VCL: win
Locale: ru-RU (ru_RU); UI: ru-RU
Calc: CL threaded
Comment 1 Eyal Rozenberg 2025-06-06 19:37:15 UTC
I'm not sure this would be useful, especially since you only get the UI you downloaded LibreOffice with. Can you try to provide a common scenario in which this would be effectively, commonly, useful?
Comment 2 Roman Kuznetsov 2025-06-07 09:37:59 UTC
(In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #1)
> I'm not sure this would be useful, especially since you only get the UI you
> downloaded LibreOffice with. Can you try to provide a common scenario in
> which this would be effectively, commonly, useful?

I installed LO in my Windows and it will have RU UI language by default, but I want to use EN UI in LibreOffice (the same is actually for other languages of course).
Comment 3 V Stuart Foote 2025-06-07 10:07:18 UTC
(In reply to Roman Kuznetsov from comment #2)
> (In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #1)
> > I'm not sure this would be useful, especially since you only get the UI you
> > downloaded LibreOffice with. Can you try to provide a common scenario in
> > which this would be effectively, commonly, useful?
> 
> I installed LO in my Windows and it will have RU UI language by default, but
> I want to use EN UI in LibreOffice (the same is actually for other languages
> of course).

Common use case, but it would not belong in a First Start Welcome. 

A lot of effort has gone into assuring the os/DE provided locale and language is delivered by default. I.e. detecting ru-RU and presenting the UI in that language/locale.

Trivial and logical to then change the LO selection from Tools -> Options -> Languages and Locales on its 'General' tab.  Doing more automatically requires a change of locale in os/DE as reported to LibreOffice. Not appropriate to a welcome as it is a very low percentage requirement.

-1 and => WF
Comment 4 Heiko Tietze 2025-06-10 08:32:16 UTC
> I installed LO in my Windows and it will have RU UI language by default, but
> I want to use EN UI in LibreOffice
Not a scenario that suits users who cannot figure out the customizability without a Welcome dialog. => WF

And technically it means to show one dropdown from a more complex tab - or do you want to show all from Languages and Locales > General?
Comment 5 Roman Kuznetsov 2025-06-10 08:56:26 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #4)

> And technically it means to show one dropdown from a more complex tab 

yep, it would be enough
Comment 6 Eyal Rozenberg 2025-06-18 22:29:16 UTC
As I noted (among other things) in the design meeting last night - if there's something that most non-English-speaking users are really missing on startup, it is the enablement of full RTL/CTL/CJK support. And that, unlike the UI language, is not something they are even aware of the need to change an option for. See bug 164250 about that.

I also said, that I believe we should be very frugal with what's put on the first startup dialog. In fact, I believe we already have too much in there. Three tabs, one of them - Appearance - has 9 different controls!

So, even though this suggestion is not without its rationale - the next thing I would do with the first startup dialog is not add this through the Lanauges & Locales > General tab. And if we were to consider an individual control - I would first want to see other controls removed. etc.
Comment 7 Mike Kaganski 2025-06-19 04:30:27 UTC
(In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #1)
> you only get the UI you downloaded LibreOffice with.

This is completely wrong. At least in MSI case (Windows), LibreOffice installer has no language variants; all UI languages are bundled. They are in the list available at the installation time (in advances setup), and pre-selected based not on "what was downloaded", but what was detected on system (UI language, installed input languages).
Comment 8 Heiko Tietze 2025-06-19 07:35:38 UTC
We discussed the topic in the design meeting. Comment 6 summarizes the result and we decided to not proactively add another tab without user feedback for the dialog but keep the ticket open.

(In reply to Mike Kaganski from comment #7)
> At least in MSI case (Windows), LibreOffice installer has no language variants...
So you are in favor of adding the tab?
Comment 9 Mike Kaganski 2025-06-19 07:47:56 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #8)
> So you are in favor of adding the tab?

Not exactly. I think, that if needed, the welcome dialog could in theory contain links to other existing dialogs - like "popular initial tasks" list. Not include the functionality in itself.