It would be useful to have an entry in the View menu to hide the layers bar in Draw and the layers bar should be hidden by default, as it is an advanced feature.
No. Layers are *basic* functionality, not advanced.
According to the LibreOffice User Guides < https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/documentation/ > layers are included in Chapter 11, the last chapter of the user guide, titled "Advanced Draw Techniques".
We're replacing our use of the 'ux-advise' component with a keyword: Component -> LibreOffice Add Keyword: needsUXEval [NinjaEdit]
As Adolfo said, layers are essential in Draw. Having 20px more vertical space, which might be your goal, is not important when you run Draw standalone. However, a possible solution to this issue is suggested in bug 90244. The idea is to provide all control over document/drawing contents via the Navigator.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #4) > As Adolfo said, layers are essential in Draw. Having 20px more vertical > space, which might be your goal, is not important when you run Draw > standalone. Even if it is an essential feature for some users, other users who dont use it should be able to disable it, just like they can disable rulers, page pane, etc.
(In reply to Yousuf Philips (jay) from comment #5) > Even if it is an essential feature for some users, other users who dont use > it should be able to disable it, just like they can disable rulers, page > pane, etc. That would be like disabling context menus because someone says the right button clicks too hard. And keep in mind your use case is weak. The advantage of 20px vertical space is hard to sell as an enhancement.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #6) > That would be like disabling context menus because someone says the right > button clicks too hard. Illogical comparison. > And keep in mind your use case is weak. The > advantage of 20px vertical space is hard to sell as an enhancement. Not sure how a cleaner UI is considered a weak opinion, especially when you hide more advanced features. Rulers are also 20px vertical. (In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #4) > As Adolfo said, layers are essential in Draw. To clarify, Adolfo said they are 'basic' and not 'essential', which i refuted in comment 2. @Cor, @Regina, @Stuart: what's your take?
(In reply to Yousuf Philips (jay) from comment #7) > @Cor, @Regina, @Stuart: what's your take? My take would be keeping it visible. But how do you foresee turning it off/on?
I want to keep it. It is an important feature of Draw and an essential difference to Impress.
Ability to toggle visibility of the LayerTabBar from the View menu is a reasonable enhancement, but by default it should remain visible. Enhancement would only be temporary. Because when the LayerTabBar is reworked for bug 90244 into a Content panel for a Sidebar deck (probably Navigator) the tab bar would be eliminated with its controls moved to the Sidebar as in https://design.blog.documentfoundation.org/2016/07/31/how-the-navigator-may-support-object-handling-in-libreoffice-draw/ And if I had to pick between moving now to a Sidebar content panel, or continuing to work on the LayerTabBar I'd prefer the GUI move to the Sidebar with suggested Easy & Expert UI. Addressing some of the LayerTabBar nuisances for bug 89130 https://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/core/commit/?id=abe958a713ff0c26a3f91c558a2f227c1996c592 just went in to master.
On Hackfest Hamburg, April 2018, we have decided to start a project for improving handling of layers and internal structure. In case you start to work on this issue get in contact with Regina (rb.henschel@t-online.de) or Armin (Armin.Le.Grand@me.com). We hope to get rid of the "Control" and "Dimension Lines" layer, so that there is only one layer in default and the tab bar can be hidden, if the user has not inserted an own layer.