[Libreoffice-ux-advise] some thoughts on the Sidebar

[dollyp]

Cor

I don't agree with your comments about the sidebar eating space. Using
Writer on a widescreen notebook I prefer the option to have things down the
side of the screen so that the maximum vertical space is available, but with
Sheet a wider display is preferable. So the first problem with sidebars as
currently implemented is that sidebar setting is universal, i.e. you can't
have a sidebar with Writer but not with Sheet (don't do enough with Impress
to know what would be best).

I do agree with you that the sidebar could promote bad habits, but then
since the buttons on it are the same as the formatting toolbar moving to a
sidebar is really no more likely to lead to bad habits. Direct formatting is
less effective than using styles but LO's styles are if anything more
confusing to the average user than MSO's. I do like your screen shot of a
styles sidebar layout; even better would be if the styles appeared as
samples.

I'm so pleased that LO is beginning to improve the UX. Less and less people
are learning with MSO2003 so there will be fewer MS-educated users prepared
to move to LO's seemingly outdated UX, and before anyone complains at that I
am one of those who have moved to LO to avoid the move to the MS ribbon. My
daughter, still at school, thinks LO is awful compared to what she has
learned to use. This first sidebar effort has its rough edges but I see it
as only the first step, and am very happy and grateful to our developers for
it. 

David



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