[Libreoffice-bugs] [Bug 141702] New: Unlock the Toolbars, Please. Locked by default creates problems and makes LO look old.

[bugzilla-daemon at bugs.documentfoundation.org]

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=141702

            Bug ID: 141702
           Summary: Unlock the Toolbars, Please.  Locked by default
                    creates problems and makes LO look old.
           Product: LibreOffice
           Version: 7.1.2.2 release
          Hardware: x86-64 (AMD64)
                OS: Windows (All)
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Severity: normal
          Priority: medium
         Component: LibreOffice
          Assignee: libreoffice-bugs at lists.freedesktop.org
          Reporter: JerameeSikorski at gmail.com

Description:
PLEASE revert toolbars to unlocked by default!
I am trying to be civil, so apologies in advance if this seems harsh.


A Solution in Search of a Problem.

I've used LO for several years and never had an issue with accidental undocking
of toolbars.  Yes, I undocked several when I first started using LO, but that
only made me curious to explore the program. The accidental undockings were
easy to replace when I needed to continue working.  But, when I wasn't pressed
for time, I played with the feature and learned that I could dock toolbars
anywhere I wanted!  By locking them, that natural learning is prohibited. 
Also, as I'll discuss below, the unintuitive method of unlocking the toolbars
makes it unlikely that a new user would ever find it without searching for
online help.  But, then again, the new user would not even know to search out
how to unlock & undock the toolbars because this is a feature unique to LO.
This effectively hides one of LO's most useful and innovative features.  (I
only know of a couple web browsers that even make use of the sides of the
screen for interface commands, and they are nowhere near as useful or versatile
as LO's interface.)


A Solution Creating Problems.

I have had to search how to unlock the toolbars 3 different times now.  When I
right-click on a toolbar, I do not get the pop-up menu unless I right-click
twice.  This is very unintuitive and makes me think I am not doing it right,
which is why I have had to look up how to unlock the toolbars 3 times now.

But then the problems go further.  It is not just the unintuitive
double-right-clicking, but one must double-right-click EACH toolbar separately
in order to unlock them.  Why?  That compiles annoyance on top of annoyance.  

How much annoyance is justified to prevent the perceived problem? 
Double-right-clicking each toolbar is annoying.  Hopefully, I won't forget this
oddity in a month or so when I need a toolbar I haven't used in this install
yet and forget how to unlock them.  But the need to double-right-click is not
the real  problem, it is a symptom of the underlying problem, which is locking
the toolbars by default.   I just reinstalled LO, so I will find out if I must
also unlock each separate toolbar on every program, but, honestly, this is a
time wasting annoyance.


Hiding LO's Utility under an Antiquated Interface.

Without the ability to undock a toolbar, the toolbar interface looks like the
old out-of-date MS Office interface. The buttons are either present or absent,
which is no different than the MS pre-Ribbon interface.  For the new user who
is unaware of LO's toolbar versatility, this essentially hides the feature.

 The ability to move LO toolbars around is wonderful.  Combined with the
Sidebar, they allow the user to dedicate more screen space to the document by
placing toolbars to the side.  (To clarify by contrast, if the toolbars were
placed only on top, they would eat into the vertical space and force the user
to shrink the zoom on the document in order to see it in its entirety.)  I find
this more efficient space use to be a great feature of LO.

Even better, LO allows intuitive toolbar placement.  In Draw, for example, I
maintain the toolbars common to Writer at the top and can place the more Draw
related toolbars on the bottom and side.  This makes it much easier to find the
needed functions.  Also, one can spread the toolbars around and have instant
access to the most commonly used command without having to click open the
correct grouped bar tab first (or 2 or 3 tabs, if you forget exactly where a
command is.) As I've become a more proficient user of LO, I am doing much more
complicated projects that require more formatting and editing.  The ability to
move the toolbars around like this is a very convenient time savers.  Having to
repeatedly look up how to unlock the toolbars and repeat the steps for every
single toolbar only consumes time better spent creating new material.

I came to LO after using Ribbon in MS Office.  I thought the notebook/grouped
bar interface was great when it came out.  (It's still great, btw, and you
folks at LO did a really cool thing by making the different interfaces that
people can choose from.)  Then I decided to update my skills and went through
some LO trainings online.

The LO trainings introduced me to the Sidebar and really showed me the utility
of the toolbars.  I now vastly prefer the standard toolbar interface to the
grouped bar because of its versatility and utility.  If the toolbars were
locked by default when I first began using LO, I'm not sure I ever would have
discovered this feature, and LO would have just looked like an Antiquated MS
copy instead of the unique and innovative office suite that it is.


In summary, this change does little to nothing to fix any perceived problem. 
It does however, create annoyances and problems for users while hiding one of
LO's most intuitive and versatile features.  Please, please, please, change it
back.





Steps to Reproduce:
1.Install LibreOffice.
2.Attempt to undock a toolbar.  Be unable to bring up an appropriate pop up
menu to unlock the toolbar with a simple right click.  
3. Spend 20 min searching for the solution because you very infrequently run
into this problem.

4. Realize that the problem was created by attempting to fix a feature that was
not broken to begin with. Spend another 2 hours submitting bug reports asking
to unbreak the feature.


Actual Results:
Incredible annoyance at not being able to undock a toolbar without wasting a
lot of time searching for a solution to the problem that was created by fixing
a problem that does not exist.

Expected Results:
Incredible annoyance at having to separately unlock each toolbar independently
for no good reason.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: Yes


OpenGL enabled: Yes

Additional Info:
The software should have left the toolbars unlocked by default in order to not
hide one of LO's most innovative and useful features.

Profile reset N/A as this happens on fresh installs and maybe upgrades.

OpenGL ver 4.6 13560

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