[Libreoffice-ux-advise] Icons in menus by default

[Mirek M.]

On Fri, Nov 23, 2012 at 3:02 PM, Adolfo Jayme Barrientos <
fitoschido at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm against that. LibreOffice should always honor OS settings.
>

That was my first thought as well.
However, consider that, without icons, LibreOffice's menus are much, much
harder to use than with icons, and since menus are unavoidable when using
LibreOffice, we should do what's best for the user.
You also need to consider the reasoning for the OS defaults.
GNOME dropped icons in menus and on buttons to give itself a simpler, less
cluttered look. That makes sense, considering the core GNOME applications
have few items in each menu, and the new core applications do away with
standard menus altogether. elementary and Windows are also doing away with
standard menus, and where there are menus, they have few items, so it's
better to not have icons for a cleaner look.
Ubuntu Unity is trying to encourage use of the toolbar as the go-to place
for commands rather than menus by hiding menus by default. Both Unity and
Mac OS have menu search, so that the user can avoid browsing through menus
altogether. In special cases, Apple does put icons in its menu bar [1][2].

In each case, operating systems give preference to a visual presentation of
commands (toolbars or, in the case of Windows, the ribbon). Menus typically
list a few items, and don't use icons for visual simplicity.

In the case of LibreOffice, the visual simplicity argument doesn't make
sense, because the menus are incredibly complex. In fact, there's more
visual simplicity with icons in menus, because they help to sort through
the chaos.

I'd love to for it to be unnecessary to use the menus in LibreOffice, I'd
love to have toolbars become the main way of getting to commands. That's
what every modern OS is pushing for. However, until that happens, let's at
least make our menus usable.

>
> On Fri, Nov 23, 2012 at 7:44 AM, Mirek M. <mazelm at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi everyone,
> > Could somebody set "Icons in menus" to always be on by default,
> regardless
> > of the OS default?
> >
> > We've discussed this topic a bit on our IRC chat [1] and a bit with Cor
> > Nouws [2], and determined that, given how complex our menus are, it's
> best
> > for the user to have icons on by default.
> >
> > [1] http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design/Meetings/2012-11-17
> > [2] http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/design/msg04998.html
>

[1]
http://www6.pcmag.com/media/images/264173-apple-mac-os-x-lion-10-7-finder-no-library.jpg
[2]
http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/02-Bookmarks-Menu-Alt.jpg
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