LibreOffice Gnome Mockup

Recently, I have become a fan of the Gnome workflow. I haven’t been a fan from the start and there are still a lot of things I would like to see changed, but to be honest, after working with such a UI for an extended time, it is very hard to go back to feature packed applications which expose a bit too much to the user. Even though I am slowly transitioning to LaTeX, there are still minor documents which are much quicker done in LibreOffice. Additionally, my job also requires me to open and edit simple ODF or DOC files, so LibreOffice is a must. I’ve often mused about how great it would be to apply the simplified GTK3 layout to LibreOffice.

Now, before you start, I’m in no way advocating the full application of the Gnome HIG onto LibreOffice. That would hinder a lot of people in accepting it as an office suite, especially in more conservative workflows like traditional companies or government desktop setups. Yet it would be great if this formidable office suite offered a bit more freedom to adjust the toolbars and menubar more to the individual workflow. Here is a screenshot example of what I mean:

In my proposition, the GTK3 plug-in could have an option to use client-side decorations. It would be a simpler experience easier on the eyes. To not waste any additional vertical space and use the horizontal ones we’ve got plenty of since the introduction of wide screens, I would like most of the user interaction to happen within the side bar. Contrary to the default setting, I would like the side bar to be on the left. I had this idea while working within Gedit, which I rather like with its left side bar.

However, I’m not particularly happy with the static nature of the side bar in LibreOffice. I mean, it’s perfectly fine for me, but I wonder if we couldn’t make this more dynamic (maybe call it the “Smart Bar”) and have something of our own ribbon style menu. Now, don’t stone me yet for using the vile r word! I’m disgusted by the ribbon as much as the next guy, but I’ve been wondering why people like it so much. I mean, it’s ugly and on lower resoultions at least it takes away a quarter of the vertical screen real estate. I’ve found however that the dynamic nature of the ribbon exposes functionality to the user in quite an ingenious way: You click on a piece of text, you’ll get the character menu; you click on a footnote, you’ll get the footnote menu, etc. Wouldn’t it be great if our side bar could do that, too?

That would at least hush all the people who are frightened by the endless searches through the menus and cluttered toolbars. In additon, it wouldn’t waste vertical screen real estate like the ribbon does, but make use of the wast horizontal space that most UI designers ignore. I want to stress though that my propositions are a Gnome specific mock up and that I would hate to see any UI change like this be the only possibility. When Gnome changed, we’ve seen a lot of people complain about the lack of customisation, while others welcomed the change. I’ve grown to like the Gnome way, but I don’t think LibreOffice should ever be like Gnome. It should be more like KDE – offer the possibility of various UI customisations. So, if you like your 90s style menu bars and cluttered toolbars, so be it. If you’d like to have client-side decorations and a clean interface, that’s OK too. Similarly, if you’d like a static sidebar or a “smart” one, that should be your prerogative as well.