Bug 167259 - Shorten some command labels (for toolbar & tabbed UI)
Summary: Shorten some command labels (for toolbar & tabbed UI)
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
Inherited From OOo
Hardware: All All
: medium minor
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: needsUXEval
Depends on: 163117
Blocks: Notebookbar-Tabbed
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Reported: 2025-06-27 06:17 UTC by Eyal Rozenberg
Modified: 2025-06-30 10:32 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

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Description Eyal Rozenberg 2025-06-27 06:17:48 UTC
Consider the Calc tabbed UI's home tab, as seen e.g. in attachment 201501 [details].

You will notice two full-height items, "Find and Replace" and "Merge and Center Cells", which have wide and very-wide margins around the icon - to accommodate the long text label. That also takes up precious tab area, which could potentially have been used for more buttons, larger buttons, or including a label for more buttons.

It would behoove us to shorten these labels, e.g. to "Find & Replace" or "Find/Replace", and more importantly, "Merge & Center" or "Merge and Center".

Note that I am not suggesting this change apply to menus, only to icon labels.

Similar examples are found on the File tab: 

"Print Directly (General Printer)" -> "Print Directly" 

and possibly:

"Export Directly as PDF" -> "Export as PDF" (as there is no Export-with-dialog-as-PDF)
"Save as Template" -> "Make Template"
"Sign existing PDF" -> "Sign a PDF" or "Sign PDF"

in the Layout tab:

"Headers and Footers" -> "Headers & Footers"

in Review:

"Protect Spreadsheet Structure" -> "Protect Structure"

in View:

"Value Highlighting" -> "Highlight Values"



------------

As a side-note, if we had groups with titles for the tabbed bar (bug 166641), we could have shortened label names even further.
Comment 1 V Stuart Foote 2025-06-27 10:22:47 UTC
Bcz the MUFFIN NB "assemblages" simply reuse the established UNO, their labeling (from menu and tooltip) like this can get overlong--even worse with some localizations. But it is a wart like many others with the NB.

IIANM what would actually be required (so as to NOT screw up standard Menu/Context menu/TB) is a whole new class of label for NB which would be needed anyway for bug 166641

IMHO => WF
Comment 2 Eyal Rozenberg 2025-06-27 11:36:26 UTC
(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #1)
> IIANM what would actually be required (so as to NOT screw up standard
> Menu/Context menu/TB) is a whole new class of label for NB

Not just for notebook bar; we have a similar problem with the standard UI... As soon as you enable text labels.

>  which would be needed anyway for bug 166641

I am actually guessing that would require something different altogether.
Comment 3 Heiko Tietze 2025-06-30 08:48:32 UTC
(In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #0)
> "Print Directly (General Printer)" -> "Print Directly" 
The default printer may change. But I agree to remove it from the label and have it at the tooltip.

> "Export Directly as PDF" -> "Export as PDF"
Think 'directly' is meant to save without a dialog.

> "Save as Template" -> "Make Template"
-1 ("Make" is misleading and artificially; and has not much benefit)

> "Sign existing PDF" -> "Sign a PDF" or "Sign PDF"
-0.5 (the "existing" part indicates that your signature goes to a file and not the active document)

> "Headers and Footers" -> "Headers & Footers"
Usually these abbreviations are not recommended.

> "Protect Spreadsheet Structure" -> "Protect Structure"
+1

> "Value Highlighting" -> "Highlight Values"
+1 (Verb - Noun is the right way to phrase an action) 

Bug 163117 requests a special string for Notebookbars. Would be my choice (but requires the same rephrasing).
Comment 4 Eyal Rozenberg 2025-06-30 10:32:58 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #3)
> > "Export Directly as PDF" -> "Export as PDF"
> Think 'directly' is meant to save without a dialog.

That is a good reason to have that text in a menu. But - on the tab bar, it doesn't really matter: We have (and should have) one command for exporting as PDF. If you want more, you'll go through somewhere else in the UI.

> > "Sign existing PDF" -> "Sign a PDF" or "Sign PDF"
> -0.5 (the "existing" part indicates that your signature goes to a file and
> not the active document)

Same argument as before: We don't have multiple "Sign PDF" commands; it is enough to indicate to the user that some kind of PDF signing will happen - since this is not a menu, where we have lots of space.

> > "Headers and Footers" -> "Headers & Footers"
> Usually these abbreviations are not recommended.

Usually, but - isn't this a place where we make exceptions to shorten things? 

> 
> > "Protect Spreadsheet Structure" -> "Protect Structure"
> +1


> > "Value Highlighting" -> "Highlight Values"
> +1 (Verb - Noun is the right way to phrase an action) 

> Bug 163117 requests a special string for Notebookbars. Would be my choice
> (but requires the same rephrasing).

So, making that a dependency for now.