Bug 33232 - Implement Workspaces (UI arrangements) to better accommodate different hardware and user preferences
Summary: Implement Workspaces (UI arrangements) to better accommodate different hardwa...
Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME
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: needsUXEval
: 88902 101075 129047 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks: Notebookbar Toolbars Sidebar-UI-UX
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Reported: 2011-01-18 02:44 UTC by yuri
Modified: 2020-01-23 14:21 UTC (History)
12 users (show)

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Crash report or crash signature:


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Description yuri 2011-01-18 02:44:10 UTC
This is not a bug, just a wishlist entry.

LibrOffice needs at least 6 skins available during its installation:

3 types of 'native' basic skins: 
 - default, 
 - all controls as a side panel (for wide monitors), 
 - netbook (show just document content, just the very basic controls are shown at a small panel), 

and some additional ones:

 - OpenOffice-like skin,
 - MS Office 2003 skin,
 - MS Office 2007-like skin.

The last 3 ones will be helpful for making LibrOffice more popular: familliar interfaces will favour user migration to.

--

P.S. I am sorry, if it is a wrong place for such entry, unfortunately, I didn't find anything like LibrOffice wishlist.
Comment 1 Rainer Bielefeld Retired 2011-05-09 22:37:01 UTC
May be you want to vote on our new Voting page?
<http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Vote_for_Enhancement>
Comment 2 Don't use this account, use tml@iki.fi 2011-05-10 01:06:38 UTC
Calling it "our" voting page is an exaggeration. It has absolutely no "official" meaning.
Comment 3 tim 2011-05-14 16:00:44 UTC
Seeing that many more personal users would like to use it, but don't like the look or don't like that they can't change it. Colors and Views could help in this matter?
Comment 4 Bob Harvey 2012-04-09 03:20:27 UTC
Can I cross-reference this idea to 
https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=18829

Which would have had the advantage of separating UI and product development, and perhaps allowed a completely separate 'skins' ecosystem as happened with other products, including windows XP itself and the various Linux desktops.
Comment 5 V Stuart Foote 2013-03-24 16:13:59 UTC
Adjusting summary title for clarity. Also amending open vote entry https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Vote_for_Enhancement
Comment 6 Adolfo Jayme Barrientos 2015-05-13 02:20:20 UTC
What you call “skin” is named, more clearly, “workspace” (cf. Photoshop).
Comment 7 Adolfo Jayme Barrientos 2016-07-23 17:47:21 UTC
*** Bug 101075 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 8 Zenaan Harkness 2016-08-30 14:23:10 UTC
*** Bug 88902 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 9 Zenaan Harkness 2016-08-30 14:43:20 UTC
Many features may be considered to relate to workspaces. Added some that I think may be relevant to "see also" list - tabs, sidebars (I haven't gone hunting for these bugs yet), various bugs related to UI navigation aids, full screen and small screen optimizations, and plenty more I have not found yet too I'm sure.
Comment 10 Zenaan Harkness 2016-08-30 15:10:43 UTC
Also note re documentation of this feature to clearly distinguish "LO layout workspaces" from "unix desktop workspaces" - see for example bug #95630 (new calc document opens in wrong [unix] workspace).
Comment 11 Yousuf Philips (jay) (retired) 2016-10-15 13:35:25 UTC
I believe this is a duplicate of bug 101249, where we have 4 different UI arrangements - default, single toolbar, sidebar, notebookbar.
Comment 12 V Stuart Foote 2016-10-15 15:45:53 UTC
(In reply to Yousuf Philips (jay) from comment #11)
> I believe this is a duplicate of bug 101249, where we have 4 different UI
> arrangements - default, single toolbar, sidebar, notebookbar.

Well only partially. So while bug 101249 provides a framework and addresses the first part of comment 0 

If you review the list of "See also" and the duplicates, we do nothing yet for "themeing" or "workspace" configuration(s) to adjust LibreOffice UI to resemble other Office applications.

But there is at least one more major piece of framework preventing this--and that is some ability to handle import/export & backup of user UI customization

bug 52387
bug 59493
bug 64439

Until we can offer a means for injecting UI customization from an external configuration file the rest of this enhancement can not be implemented. And of course it would be more appealing for folks to test/use if we also include a backup and restore capability (other that the current "save a copy" of the user profile, and paste it back).
Comment 13 Pedro 2016-10-15 18:07:54 UTC
I don't understand what you mean by theming... Creating a MSO 07 like skin would probably infringe on design patents. the Notebookbar covers a similar UI already.
And if you want familiarity for Windows users, then offer LO by default with Notebookbar turned on with Breeze icon set.

Offering a way to allow knock-offs of Microsoft Office would just diminish the uniqueness of LO. There's already plenty of chinese Microsoft Office clones. Why lead LO in that direction, when the work of the design team is leading LO into a unique direction that actually is working out great?
Comment 14 V Stuart Foote 2016-10-15 18:33:02 UTC
I personally don't care about themeing or workspace to "resemble" another application--but that could be fertile ground from "extension/template" mavens.

Rather--realize that UI customizations currently are transient, clear the profile and they are gone.  So having the ability to assert multiple customizations (of Toolbar, Sidebar, module placement & state) as well .UI based reconfiguration of dialogs/toolbars/sidebar decks, or even the new MUFFIN experimental Notebook bar from a single transportable "UI package" is the crux of this enhancement.

The ability to bundle ones configurations and export them as a personalized "UI package" that could be applied on another installation would be a real step forward.

Sure we can do similar now by copying our individual user profile and restoring it to another system--but this takes it a step further and would allow UI configuration to be done in a consistent (non-individualized) fashion and applied to the profiles of other users.  Apply the package--they get a set of customizations.
Comment 15 Yousuf Philips (jay) (retired) 2016-10-15 18:40:04 UTC
As there are more than one issue in this enhancement it should be broken up into different bugs to focus on their individual issues.

The issue of themeing has been presented as a GSoC project and the newly created bug should link to the wiki entry.
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development/GSoC/Ideas#Application_Themes

The issue of import/export of workspaces (user configured UI arrangement) should be an easyhack of extracting/inserting the necessary entries from/to the user profile's registrymodifications.xcu. Likely something to add into the options dialog, as we already have a request to backup and restore the entire user profile (bug 64439).
Comment 16 andreas_k 2018-12-18 08:37:14 UTC
We now have
- Standard
- Single Line
- Sidebar
- Tabbedbar
- Groupedbar compact

and in experimental some other layouts,

so from my point of view enough layouts.
Comment 17 V Stuart Foote 2020-01-23 14:21:01 UTC
*** Bug 129047 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***