[Libreoffice] [PATCH] Removes data sources button from standard toolbars in Calc and Writer

[Christoph Noack]

Hi Alex, hi Samuel!

Am Sonntag, den 12.06.2011, 10:22 +0200 schrieb Alexander Thurgood:
> > The data sources explorer is still accessible from the View menu,
> and
> > my patch didn't affect that.
> > 
> > I agree that data sources are useful. I don't necessarily agree that
> > it's necessary to have an extra button on the standard toolbar that
> > users have to decipher its meaning so they can find the buttons they
> > want.
> 
> Often a clearer or more significant icon will do wonders, but that is
> just my opinion, I'm not an UI designer.

I think what the author of the original idea (remove that button) meant
was, that most people simply don't use that functionality - in such
cases a more significant icon won't help (then, we would need approx.
500 more significant buttons). Quite the contrary, since such changes
might interfere with the more often used features.

Of course, this is not the only hypothesis - maybe the functionality
doesn't work well and people don't use it, maybe people don't know what
it is for and miss it, maybe ...

> This is not a gripe at you in particular, but I have this terribly
> awful
> sinking feeling that Base is being slowly pushed back into a state
> where
> it will be soon of no use to anyone. UI changes are one of the first
> most visible signs of such a slide IMHO. First, we remove the buttons,
> then people think, oh, you can't do db stuff from the spreadsheet or
> wordprocessor, so just forget the db thing, etc, etc, well you get my
> drift. I apologise if I appear paranoid here, and like I say, this is
> not directed at you in person, but this is a real fear that I have,
> and
> so far my fears have not been allayed. 

I understand your "fears" - but this is the problem having a software
that intends to solve the "one size fits all" issue (which won't be
solved ever). Thus, its crucial to make wise decisions for the
LibreOffice core product - target users and data can help here.

Concerning the recent change - I'm also a bit worried, since nobody
discussed it in advance (at least I wasn't aware of). That's the crux
for people like you Samual, really wanting to improve things ... but
having individual voices asking for changes. So, for such stuff, I
propose to ping the mailing list "libreoffice-ux-advice" [1] that has
been set up by Thorsten. Maybe we can sort this out together.

Cheers,
Christoph

[1] http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise