Futuristic feature: customize the menu bar as you see fit in LibreOffice

[yeron50201]

About the resource

Futuristic feature: customize the menu bar as you see fit in LibreOffice

How to do this?

1. I know there are several options for customizing the menu bar in LibreOffice. But guys I still feel like doing things the way I think is best. We talk about software freedom, it would be great to have the freedom to customize the toolbar my way.
2. I don’t know if you know but Microsoft Word has a clipart feature, I know I shouldn’t mention the Microsoft Word software from the core Microsoft Office suite of programs. Still, I’ll quote because it’s my starting point for the feature that I think would be interesting to most people.
3. I am new to Libreoffice and would like to know if there is this clipart feature in LibreOffice Writer. This clipart feature appears in a list of icons that can be internal or external (online).

Technical questions

Is it possible for LibreOffice Writer to have an external api like flat icons to customize the menu bar icons?

Additional questions(resource clipart)

1. Where can I submit a request for a new feature to be added to Writer?
2. If there is no clipart feature in Writer where can I leave it as a feature request?
3. Is there a clipart feature in Writer?
4. Is it possible to have clipart in Writer?

Example of similar features

Resource Details

1. An example of what I’m talking about is Sublimetext which is an open source software, in Sublimetext everything is done in a configuration file. About that fact, we would have to have a config file to make this feature possible, I think it would be a viable way.
2. I don’t know if you know there is a site full of icons, I really wanted to go to Writer and search for those icons.

Benefits

1. The user can share the configuration file with more users or people he likes or wants to help.
2. The main advantage, moreover, is that the icons on the ‘flat-icons’ website have many icons and this can make LibreOffice more beautiful and beautiful.
3. The user is free to do whatever they want with the software, including, if it had this feature, to configure the toolbar as they see fit.

What type of configuration file would be important for this feature?

As already mentioned, Sublimetext has a configuration file of type xml. I believe xml is a good choice to be a configuration file, as tags can be customized differently than html.

what am i thinking

• wanted to customize the menu bar with this

References

• https://www.sublimetext.com/docs/settings.html
• https://www.flaticon.com/
• https://github.com/bevacqua/dragula
• https://www.dreamincode.net/forums/topic/293568-drag-and-drop-files-demo-in-c/
• https://www.libreofficehelp.com/change-libreoffice-default-look-and-feel/
• https://openclipart.org/
• How to Insert ClipArt in LibreOffice, OpenOffice Impress
• 14.04 - Where does LibreOffice store toolbar icons? - Ask Ubuntu
• https://codepen.io/cortesben/pen/JMzarK

[EarnestAl]

Click Tools > Customise > Toolbars to customise. There is a Help button too. But, just like Word, you can’t customise the Ribbon interface very much. Choose another interface, View > User interface, and change what you like.

You can change the icon theme in Tools > Options > LibreOffice > View

Have you looked in the sidebar for clipart? Or Insert > Media > Gallery? There is openclipart.org for more clipart.

Most importantly, the Writer Guide is available for free download on the documentation page. Cheers, Al

[yeron50201]

1. Is there any option for me to have icons from the flat-icon site: https://www.flaticon.com/?
2. can i have the drag and drop effect on the menu: dragula - Browser drag-and-drop so simple it hurts?

[EarnestAl]

It is an office suite. Most users set it up to work sufficiently for their needs because they want to do their work.
I wonder how many are interested in customising beyond what is absolutely necessary to get their work done? If they are the tools are there.
You seem to be getting close to spam…

[yeron50201]

• Sorry for that, I’m still planning something. This is not spam.
• I will add this feature myself. I want to customize it the way I want. My idea would be to use a flat-icon site API for this.
• Well most icons are free and open because they are svg/png which are open formats as far as I know at the moment.
• I asked about this because I wanted to know the opinion of the community if the futuristic feature I’m planning is viable.
• I’ve been using Libreoffice for a few years and I still don’t know all the features, so the need for further clarification on whether there is clipart feature, because part of what I’m going to use has a common basis in that.

[EarnestAl]

I think you need to be on the developers site. You might find a link from here Development - The Document Foundation Wiki
This site is users helping users

[yeron50201]

Thank you very much for the information and comments. I hope to contribute a lot to LibreOffice. Some ideas I’m planning will be available soon:

1. Calc doesn’t support json and I’m working on it collectively to create a macro that does this.
2. Another thing I’m planning and creating is the possibility of synchronizing the calc data in a baserow cloud
3. An Idea that I thought now and if we could in Libreoffice share email files using for example protonmail or a cloud file hosting service like trezorit, dropbox, meganzco, file.io? ;D - notice this is off topic, but it would be awesome ( I would have to install these software and if i had an internal api in libreoffice that does this? )

[EarnestAl]

Clipart is Insert > Media > Gallery or open the sidebar

[ajlittoz]

I think you’re suggesting a wrong direction.

The emphasis you put on the toolbar suggests you have not fully understood the preferred working method with LO in general and Writer in particular. Almost all LO components (specifically Writer, Calc, Impress and Draw) are based on styles. Styles allow for automation of formatting tasks and really ease document maintenance and editing.

With carefully crafted sets of styles, the need for toolbar buttons (disguised under icons) dwindles away.

The toolbar is absolute necessity in M$ Office suite because Microsoft has not developed the style concept beyond paragraph style in Word and probably not beyond very elementary definition in other applications. Therefore the toolbar is a requirement to allow the user to translate his needs. In LO, this is called direct formatting and as such is an obstacle to task automation (and also causes many adverse effects due to its precedence over other formatting devices – many questions here stem from abusive use of direct formatting).

Although I admit that changing icons may bring a nicer look, the net result may be distracting and achieve a result contrary to the ideal goal which is to promote styles.

I know that M$ Office, by its quasi monopolistic position, imposes its workflow and not-so-good ergonomics, that new users don’t read the manual and that routine is the mother of brain rigidity. But using a new tool needs a full reconsideration of one’s own habits and acceptance of a different workflow.

You didn’t mention your experience with LO (you just mention “a few years” without details on which component(s) you are familiar with). Suggesting such a UI change should be done only after a long enough usage period so that you can weigh the pros and cons in the light of the founding principles of the suite.

I am personally in favour of minimal toolbars, so that style usage is boosted, with maximum screen estate devoted to the document. Emphasis should be put on creative work (your job as an author), not on fancy UI (though this could be some appealing gear for newcomers).

[yeron50201]

1. I think you’re right in what you said, but I still want to have a more personalized option based on what I believe is the best option at the moment to solve my particular issue. Maybe someone likes it and maybe they didn’t, it’s still what I want and based on the information I’ve collected from here, I think I have an idea where I can start. I have a list of features I want libreoffice to have: 1- icon choice, 2 - drag and drop icons. It shouldn’t be complicated to do this, these features are independent. It is very likely that they (new code) will not affect the current LibreOffice code. This part I talked about about clipart, it’s a window that shows the icons, it will be something close to that. The link I put in codepen shows the example of how to drag and drop something, I wanted to select an icon pack and then drag, position or drop the icons in the places I think best.
2. I’ve been using LibreOffice for 10 years. I like libreoffice so much that I’m dedicated to learning to understand how the code works to help.
3. Undoubtedly LibreOffice has more features than Microsoft Office. But it lacks user experience and design. This user experience and design issue can be solved with a new menu option, more imaginative and open to general use, minimal as you mentioned.
4. About the styles I want to generate an automatic style in xml to later customize or share with whoever wants the way the menu is in that software, in this case Writer.
5. This is a unique way I know that it’s intuitive and it’s not put into a workflow because the user will do what’s best and it makes sense.
6. I’m doing this to solve my specific problem, if that helps LibreOffice or you guys I would be happy to have helped.As the title says “futuristic resource”, so far it is something unique, new, creative and innovative for a menu.