Bug 167248 - UX: The purpose of the new “Toolbars” dialogue could be made more clear
Summary: UX: The purpose of the new “Toolbars” dialogue could be made more clear
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: LibreOffice (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
26.2.0.0 alpha0+ master
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2025-06-26 16:31 UTC by j.a.swami
Modified: 2025-06-30 09:03 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

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Description j.a.swami 2025-06-26 16:31:52 UTC
Description:
The new "Toolbars" dialogue offers multiple choices at once, but the user may not quickly understand that. I was looking for where the new feature is, and for quite a while I didn't recognize it. (Yes, I'm slow--but I suppose I'm not the only one.)

After all, there’s already a “Toolbars” item in the main menu, and it pulls up a list to choose from that looks the same. So how is the new “Toolbars” menu different from that one? A user like me may be slow to catch on.

So perhaps the "Toolbars" button could be labeled "Toolbars (multiple choice)". That would make the purpose of the dialogue at once clear.

An alternative way to handle this would be to put an instruction within the toolbar dialogue itself:

        Here you can select or unselect multiple toolbars.
        
        ☐ 3D Settings
        ☐ Align Objects
        ☐ [Etc.]

Of course, one could do both: rename the button and add the instruction. (The more clarity, the better.)


Steps to Reproduce:
1.In the main menu, click on "Views" and then "User Interface."
2.
3.

Actual Results:
The button for the "Toolbars" feature is labeled "Toolbars". But I was slow to see that this was where I could choose *multiple* toolbars.

Expected Results:
Clearer communication of what the "Toolbars" dialogue is for.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: Yes

Additional Info:
Version: 26.2.0.0.alpha0+ (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 33560caa34a6532fb27641c19d7cc3bb4dc33057
CPU threads: 16; OS: Linux 6.15; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: en-US (en_US.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded

There may be documentation I should have seen that's related to this issue But if so I couldn't find it.
Comment 1 Heiko Tietze 2025-06-30 09:03:33 UTC
(In reply to j.a.swami from comment #0)
> The new "Toolbars" dialogue offers multiple choices at once, but the user
> may not quickly understand that. 
I don't think this will be an issue for many users. And you immediately see the effect (toolbars appear or become hidden). Adding static text to describe the UI is always a bad idea; renaming might be an option but I still see no need nor a solution. My take: NAB/WF.

> There may be documentation I should have seen that's related to this issue
> But if so I couldn't find it.
Resolved for bug 167111.