Text menus, not pictures

[compata]

What happened to menu items as plain text? I learned how to read a long time ago but I stopped deciphering pictures in primary school. The ability to directly access a menu item, without hovering over each picture in turn was a great advantage for LO vs other programs. Let’s bring that option back.

And while we’re doing that, let’s make changing to use text everywhere easier. I shouldn’t need to go into each type of menu group to make that change (though that can be useful sometimes). There should be a global default setting.

[ajlittoz]

Your question is difficult to understand as you did not provide any factual hints about what is happening. My wild guess is you configured your LO copy to some “ribbon” (or tabbed) interface. Like you, I have some difficulty to grasp the meaning of icons as any graphical representation is intimately linked to some cultural background which, by definition, is not universal (or “intuitive”).

Please mention OS name and LO version. Attach a screenshot to clear demonstrate the issue.

[PKG]

@compata

What happened to menu items as plain text?

@ajlittoz

Your question is difficult to understand as you did not provide any factual hints about what is happening.

I assume @compata means the following:

Version: 5.4.7.2
Build-ID: c838ef25c16710f8838b1faec480ebba495259d0
CPU-Threads: 8; BS: Windows 6.2; UI-Render: Standard;
Gebietsschema: de-DE (de_DE); Calc: CL

[EarnestAl]

I rarely use the icons in the toolbars, preferring the Sidebar, the Menubar and keyboards shortcuts.

@compata

use text everywhere easier

If the menubar isn’t visible and you are in the Tabbed interface, click the Menubar icon to toggle visibility of the the menus.

[compata]

The sidebar is not attractive to me. It covers too much of my workspace. And it’s too tedious to enable/disable it.

PKG shows a picture of how the toolbar setup once appeared. I don’t see that now. Using LibreOffice 25.8.5.2 on Fedora 41. Attached is what I see for Draw’s toolbar and the the customize menu for it. I see no option to specify text instead of pictures.

[compata]

[ajlittoz]

Well, things are clearer now. You mention tollbars while your original post addressed menus. Icons in toolbars generally select tools (and this is particularly true in Draw). Some of them may be detailed with a menu to select a variant. I don’t see the benefit of replacing e.g. shape tools by text since the shape is explicitly what you want. However, you can display a text tooltip by hovering your mouse over the icon. Screen estate is scarce and tools are numerous. Having text would then use too much space in the toolbars.

Regarding Writer, a change in the workflow can decrease dramatically your need of toolbar: use styles, and exclusively styles, to format your text. Prohibit direct formatting.

[PKG]

@compata

I don’t see that now.

They’re still there, but well hidden.

[compata]

Thank you, PKG. That is, indeed, well hidden. But I’m pleased that there is still a way to get rid of (some of) the pictures.
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However, the choice is not completely honored. On the attached image, the toolbar has been changed to text. But selecting any of the expansions offered (circled in red in my image) still shows pictures. I would have included the expansions in my image but both disappeared when I moved my cursor out of the window to enter the screenshot utility.
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Yes, using text reduces the choices directly visible. But I’ve previously offered the suggestion, borrowed from an ancient WordPerect, of using two vertically shorter rows when text is chosen, perhaps using a smaller font to fit in those rows. This idea would apply to all LO components, not just Draw.
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