After fixing bug 49914 with the commit http://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/core/commit/?id=422647493b33e397bcc19031ee13693ecaa65ba8 Kendy asked me to be on the look-out for any places in the UI which could be too dark now (or even black). I do this via comparing the Master build dated 2012-05-22 (before the fix) with the Master build dated 2012-05-24 (right after the fix). In this bug report, I will enumerate any UI elements which appeared in light or medium grey before the fix and appear dark grey or black after the fix. I enumerate all such UI elements I find in one single bug report (not in separate bug reports), because: * all these UI changes have the same root (the commit cited above) * not being a LibO delevoper, I can not always recognize which UI elements/controls are based on the same code and which are not, so I can't even tell how many separate bug reports would be necessary. I will append further comments to this bug report, if I recognize additional UI elements that suffer from this problem, and document everything with comparative screenshots.
Created attachment 62416 [details] The "Options > LibreOffice > User Data" dialog in LibO 3.5 and Master versions (comparison of screenshots) (1) All panes of the general application Options dialog (on MacOS, located at "LibreOffice > Preferences", elsewhere located at "Tools > Options") have a discreet 3D frame which frames all controls right of the main options selection list and above the four push buttons. (It's hard to describe what I mean, but just take a look at the screenshots and you will see what I mean.) This discreet 3D frame is no longer discreet since 2012-05-24: the right and bottom line of the frame now appears in black instead of medium grey. This applies to all panes of the Options dialog ("User Data", "General", "Memory", "View", and so on); the attached screenshot shows the 1st pane, "User Data", in LibreOffice 3.5.4, and in Master builds 2012-05-22 and -24. If the same type of control, i.e. the same 3D frame is used elsewhere in LibreOffice, it will probably suffer from the same problem. So, we need the two black lines (right and bottom) to be medium grey again. * Additional observation: If you compare the Master screenshots with the 3.5 screenshot, you will observe another visual problem. In Master, all controls in the pane, beginning from the headline ("Address"), have been shifted upwards, which is fine, but now the headline ("Address") interferes visually with the 3D frame, and the horizontal 3D line at the right of the headline is now so near to the top border of the 3D frame that either the frame or the line near the headline seems superfluous. Again, this visual problem is present in all panes of the Options dialog, and in some the visual interference between the headline and the top of the 3D frame looks even worse (depending on how long the headline is). This is, of course, an independend problem, and I will file a separate bug report for it. I mention it here just because I can imagine a simple solution for *both* problems (that some parts of the 3D frame are too dark now, and that the top of the 3D frame interferes with the headline): On all Options panes, just kill the 3D frame, or make it invisible, at least on MacOS X! We don't need so many 3D frames and borders in the UI anymore, they look too much like the 1990s. The discreet horizontal line at the right of the headline is enough to emphasize the headline, and that the controls in each pane of the Options dialog are related to each other is just obvious, we don't need any frame to tell that. Removing the 3D frame completely would also be just a consequence of Kendy's improvements of the main Window look (of rulers and status bar etc.): simplicity is beautiful, this 3D frame is as superfluous as the 3D frames and borders in the main Window. This is my suggestion (I'm not a developer, but a long-time MacOS user with some experience in graphic design, even application UI design, therefore I am confident that my suggestion is not completely wrong ;-). If you can't follow it for now, we need, at least, the right and bottom border of the 3D frame to be medium grey again.
Created attachment 62421 [details] The "Options > LibreOffice > Paths" dialog in LibO 3.5 and Master versions (comparison of screenshots) (2) Many list boxes in the general application Options dialog (on MacOS, located at "LibreOffice > Preferences...", on Windows located at "Tools > Options") used to have a header with a medium grey border around the complete header and medium grey vertical lines between the parts of the header. Some of these list boxes also had a medium grey line at the left and a white line at the right and/or at the bottom to give a discreet 3D impression. (a) This medium grey border around the header together with the grey lines vertical between the parts of the header is black since since 2012-05-24. You see this in the following panes of the Options dialog: * LibreOffice > Paths * LibreOffice > Fonts (if the replacement table is enabled) * LibreOffice > Appearance * LibreOffice > Java * Load/Save > Microsoft Office * LibreOffice Base > Connections (if the Connection pool is enabled) * LibreOffice Base > Databases and elsewhere, probably in every instance of the list box control which has got a header. You will find a comparison of screenshots of the "LibreOffice > Paths" pane attached to this bug report. (b) Also, the medium grey border line at the left of the list box is black since 2012-05-24. You see this in the following panes of the Options dialog: * LibreOffice > Paths * LibreOffice > Appearance * LibreOffice Base > Connections (if the Connection pool is enabled) * LibreOffice Base > Databases and elsewhere, probably in every instance of the list box control which has got that medium grey border line at the left. You can see this black border line on the attached screenshots of the "LibreOffice > Paths" pane, too. * Additional observation: It is inconsistent that some list boxes (with or without a header) have got a medium grey (now black) border line at the left and a white border line at the right and/or at the bottom, and some don't have such border lines. Examples for the latter: * LibreOffice > Fonts * LibreOffice > Java * Load/Save > MS Office and elsewhere. But this another bug, which has just become more obvious now because the medium grey border line looks black since 2012-05-24.
Created attachment 62422 [details] The "Options > LibreOffice > Colors" dialog in LibO 3.5 and Master versions (comparison of screenshots) (3) The general application Options dialog (on MacOS, located at "LibreOffice > Preferences", elsewhere located at "Tools > Options") contains some color table controls. These controls used to have a discreet 3D frame, consisting of medium grey border lines at the top and left side and of white border lines at the bottom and right side. This discreet 3D frame is no longer discreet since 2012-05-24: the medium grey border lines at the top and left side are black now. You find this color table control in: * LibreOffice > Colors * LibreOffice Writer Web > Background * Charts > Default Colors (and maybe elsewhere?). See the attached screenshot for an example.
Created attachment 62424 [details] The "Writer > Format > Paragraph > Borders" dialog in LibO 3.5 and Master versions (comparison of screenshots) (4) (a) The "Borders" pane of the "Paragraph" settings dialog available in Writer via "Format > Paragraph" contains one big and 10 small schematic previews of the border settings (five "Default" border schemata, five "Shadow style > Position" schemata and one big "User defined" schematic preview). All these 11 controls used to have a discreet 3D frame in LibreOffice 3.5 and LOdev Master until 2012-05-22. Since 2012-05-24, however, the 3D effect is no longer discreet, because the top and left border lines, which used to be medium grey, are black now in all 11 controls. Please see the attached screenshots comparison. (b) Exactly the same is true for the "Borders" pane of the "Format Cells" dialog available in Calc via "Format > Cells...". The same 11 controls suffer from the same wrong border color. And if there are elsewhere similar controls for schematic border style preview, they will probably suffer from the same problem.
Created attachment 63038 [details] The "Writer > Format > Paragraph > Bullets + Numbering > Outline" dialog in LibO 3.5 and Master versions (comparison of screenshots) 5) (a) The "Outline" pane of the "Bullets and Numbering" settings dialog available in Writer via "Format > Paragraph" contains eight schematic previews of the outline settings. All these eight controls used to have a discreet 3D frame in LibreOffice 3.5 and LOdev Master until 2012-05-22. Since 2012-05-24, however, the 3D effect is no longer discreet, because the top and left border lines, which used to be medium grey, are now black in all eight controls. Please see the attached comparison of screenshots.
Created attachment 63039 [details] The "Writer > Format > Paragraph > Bullets + Numbering > Bullets" dialog in LibO 3.5 and Master versions (comparison of screenshots) 5) (b) Three other panes of the same dialog window: * Bullets * Numbering type * Graphics contain similar small schematic previews of the particular settings. All these eight controls used to have a not-so discreet 3D frame in LibreOffice 3.5 and LOdev Master until 2012-05-22: the left and top border of these controls consists of a 1px wide black line. Since 2012-05-24, however, all these controls look rather ugly, because the left and top border now *two* 1px wide black lines which give a 2px black border together. Please see the attached comparison of screenshots. * Additional observation: The "Writer > Format > Paragraph > Bullets + Numbering" dialog is visually inconsistent already in LibreOffice 3.5.4, because the schematic preview controls in one pane ("Outline") have a discreet 3D border, but the schematic preview controls in three other panes (see list above) have a ugly black line at the left and top border. IMHO the later panes are wrong -- all the schematic preview controls should have a really discreet 3D border, just like in teh "Outline" pane. But this another bug, which has just become more obvious now because the black lines at left and top are now 2px wide since 2012-05-24.
Having collected 5 types of visual problems caused by the UI change in 2012-05-24, I stop for now. There are probably more problematic controls -- and I can ideed try to collect them all if you want me to do so! --, but maybe the examples presented here are already sufficient for a general fix of the problem. IMHO all these visual problems are minor, but we should rally try to fix them in the 3.6 beta processor or, at least, in 3.6.1 or 3.6.2, because all these glitches make the UI of LibreOffice for MacOS worse, and if too many of these glitches come together the complete UI becomes ugly and the visual experience of LibreOffice becomes "strange", "unprofessional", and "outdated" to our users. So please look into this issues! @Kendy: This is the third of my reports about visual problems related to the new UI look on MacOS X. Therefore I add your address to the CC list. I will send you a separate mail with a complete list of all my observations (including links to all bug reports). Thank you very much in advance! @Thorsten Behrens: I add your mail address to the CC list, too, because this is a MacOS UI issue and Kendy has no Mac to test, so maybe you can help Kendy with these problems?! Thank you very very much in advance!
Well the least I can do is confirm, eh, Roman ;-) Can't say that I find the new darker look particularly bothersome though, but I guest that's just personal preference. Alex
The complete UI experience on Mac "sucks" anyway IMHO. It hasn't changed in over 10 years, and I'm still not convinced that the latest UI changes being brought forward actually make the app look any better on OSX, but hey, I'd rather have it work as designed than look different and not work at all :-))) Always a question of personal preference. NeoOffice did actually do something about it, even if that isn't a fully integrated Apple HMI guideline candidate either. Alex
@ Alex: thank you for confirming! However, I have just tried to reproduce this again myself, and I have to confess that I think this issue is gone -- i.e., RESOLVED/WORKSFORME --: in LibO 3.6.2.2 on Mac OS X 10.6.8, the UI looks again like in 3.5.x, i.e. as good or as bad as there. Of course, all the minor glitches which I have listed above as “additional observations” (and for which I wanted to file special bug reports, but never did, because not even this bug has been handled until now) are still present and reproducible, but the degradation which I observed in the last 3.6 master builds and in LibO 3.6.0.4 (relase) seem to be gone in LibO 3.6.2.2 and in the last master builds (pull time around 2012-10-01). This may correspond to the fact that bug 49914, which was fixed in LibO 3.6.0.4 (and which fix may have cause the regressions listed in the present bug report), has returned in LibO 3.6.2.2. @ Alex: If you compare my screenshots which show LibO 3.5.x and the 3.6 master builds: what do you see, i.e., does LibO 3.6.2.2 look for you again like 3.5.x, like for me, or do you still see the too dark (black) UI elements? Sorry for the additional work this means for you!