[Libreoffice-qa] Toolbar Proposal Completed

[Jay Philips]

On 07/31/2014 02:28 PM, Gerry T. wrote:
> Hi Jay, hi all,
> 

Hi Gerry,

> First, I like the grouping of icons. I think it is a good idea that
> everything is accessible and the interface clean. However, I understand
> the criticism that some people may not find their buttons anymore.
> Hence, it would be perfect, if there is a super-simple method to
> permanently add buttons out of a group to the toolbar. The best method
> would be if the icon from the group can be simply put there by
> drag&drop. Then the user has his/her preferred icon again on the
> toolbar. Such an easy mechanism will save lots of headaches on all sides.

The grouping of buttons would be a new button and wouldnt replace
existing buttons that aren't grouped, so that users wanting to use the
non-grouped buttons, will still be able to. :)

> There are two icons, I would definitively not remove from the default set.
> Please don't remove:
> 
>   * "New file" icon which currently is on the top left side of the
>     toolbar. I have seen lots of people using it and it shows the
>     excellent integration of all office components (which is a big plus
>     compared to MS Office!). People will be very confused if they do not
>     easily find their way of starting a new document. Think of the
>     confusion about the "backstage-flower" in MS Office 2007. People had
>     been revolting that they did not find new, open, save and print.

I think the 'new file' button has benefits, but the stats show the
button is the least used button in the standard toolbar. Why i think
that is the case is that when writer is opened, it starts with a new
file, so there isnt a need at this moment for a user to create a new
one. This is the same behaviour you find in most applications like for
example gedit, audacity, bluefish, glade, openshot, etc.

Also the statistics showed that the majority of users (over 80%) used
the shortcut key to create a new file, as it is a universal shortcut to
create a new file in any application. When users use the shortcut key,
they are creating a new file of the current application that is running,
as most users think that writer is a different application that calc, so
the new file drop down list isnt as used as we'd hope.

The hiding of the icon from the toolbar, does not remove the
functionality in the file menu, which a number of users are using, even
though the button is there in the toolbar (MS Office has no menus).

>   * "Styles and formatting" currently on the second row left side of the
>     toolbar. If statistically people are not using this button enough,
>     it is a matter to promote this button more, as the reliance on
>     styles is LibreOffice's big strength. (taken from the OSBA-funding
>     site, additionally chart styles and object styles are in
>     development. Table styles in Writer and Calc are still missing, though).

Similar to the 'new file' button, the 'styles and formatting' button is
the least used button in the formatting toolbar. The button itself
doesnt need to be promoted, but the usage of styles does, which is why
we have the styles drop down list. Users dont need to open the styles
window in order to apply styles. You also have access to the styles
window through the 'more' entry in the drop down list. The stats do show
that ~70% of users activate the styles window using the shortcut key
(40%) and menu bar item (30%).

> A general question: How does the toolbar proposal integrate with the new
> sidebar?

The toolbar proposal doesnt effect the sidebar because you will have
users who will prefer toolbars and others who will prefer the sidebar
once it does mature enough to replace all the features found in the
toolbars.

> Best greetings,
> Gerry

Thanks for commenting on these issues, but i think most of the answers
here are answered in the bug report proposal <
https://www.libreoffice.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=81475 >, which i
hope you'll get time to read through.

Kind Regards,
Jay