LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever • Hacker News Board

Re: LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

#11

Post by JadeNB » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 3:36 PM UTC

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #2

While this is certainly a step in the right direction, it displeases me that the FOSS community is so hostile to the ribbon-style UI MS uses in its office product. Its such a great concept that using LO is like stepping back into the Office 97 days. Frankly, I'd rather just pay every few years for a home edition of Office than do all the mental gymnastic needed to properly switch to LO.

I downvoted. If you want to use the ribbon-style MS UI, then use MS products. I am glad to have a place to go that allows me to read and edit ubiquitous Office documents without having to be part of the Office eco-system. I agree that LibreOffice probably reminds more of old than of modern Office—I use both as little as possible, so don't keep up with the trends—but so what? To put it differently, why should Microsoft automatically be celebrated for monkeying with an input regime that worked? What is wrong with 'classic' software?

Re: LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

#12

Post by tpeaton » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 3:36 PM UTC

italophil wrote: post #8

jdlyga wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Didn't like the ribbon at first, but grew to find it very useful for Office.

I like the ribbon, but it takes up too much vertical space on a 16:9 display, especially in Word. LO Sidebar uses the space better, and I can see more of the document at once.

You can double click the heading on top of the ribbon to collapse the whole thing.

Re: LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

#13

Post by jsherer » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 3:36 PM UTC

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #2

While this is certainly a step in the right direction, it displeases me that the FOSS community is so hostile to the ribbon-style UI MS uses in its office product. Its such a great concept that using LO is like stepping back into the Office 97 days. Frankly, I'd rather just pay every few years for a home edition of Office than do all the mental gymnastic needed to properly switch to LO.

I believe there was controversy in the FOSS community over Microsoft's patent application for the concept: https://www.google.com/patents/US8255828

I'd speculate that this patent application provided at least a small amount of hesitation towards the FOSS community implementing a similar interface.

Re: LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

#14

Post by skrowl » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 3:39 PM UTC

ExpiredLink wrote: post #5

Exhaustive and seamless import and export of Microsoft formats - that's the most important and desired LibreOffice feature for me and probably for for most LO users!

This works nearly flawlessly for me since 4.0.

So so many Excel files. Ugh.

Re: LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

#15

Post by skrowl » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 3:41 PM UTC

Zigurd wrote: post #10

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #2

While this is certainly a step in the right direction, it displeases me that the FOSS community is so hostile to the ribbon-style UI MS uses in its office product. Its such a great concept that using LO is like stepping back into the Office 97 days. Frankly, I'd rather just pay every few years for a home edition of Office than do all the mental gymnastic needed to properly switch to LO.

Not everyone likes ribbons, and "touch-first Office" is going to be the thing LO needs to aim for, though probably not by imitation. LO could be a big part of making Linux tablets useful.

It already works (somewhat) on Android: http://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/master/Android-ARM@2...

Re: LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

#16

Post by scholia » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 3:41 PM UTC

italophil wrote: post #8

jdlyga wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Didn't like the ribbon at first, but grew to find it very useful for Office.

I like the ribbon, but it takes up too much vertical space on a 16:9 display, especially in Word. LO Sidebar uses the space better, and I can see more of the document at once.

Sure, but that's why you keep it closed almost all the time. For practical purposes, the ribbon takes up less space than the header on Notepad.

I've added my most used Word functions to the quick access bar, and some features are provided by the ghost menus that appear by the cursor, and I know a load of keyboard shortcuts. All of which means I very rarely open the ribbon. But when I do need it, it's orders of magnitude better than the rat's nest of menus and task panes we had before.

Re: LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

#17

Post by jrochkind1 » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 3:44 PM UTC

So it's better... but from the screenshot, I'd say myself it's design now reaches "barely acceptable", instead of the previous "pretty bad", but not "delightful" either.

Of course, I think I could say the same (or worse) about MS Word, it's main competitor. So.

Re: LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

#18

Post by scholia » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 3:44 PM UTC

tpeaton wrote: post #12

italophil wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like the ribbon, but it takes up too much vertical space on a 16:9 display, especially in Word. LO Sidebar uses the space better, and I can see more of the document at once.

You can double click the heading on top of the ribbon to collapse the whole thing.

Indeed, I think it's been collapsed by default for some time...

Re: LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

#19

Post by ExpiredLink » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 3:51 PM UTC

skrowl wrote: post #14

ExpiredLink wrote: post #5

Exhaustive and seamless import and export of Microsoft formats - that's the most important and desired LibreOffice feature for me and probably for for most LO users!

This works nearly flawlessly for me since 4.0. So so many Excel files. Ugh.

Not for docx. Ugh.

Re: LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

#20

Post by scholia » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 3:51 PM UTC

JadeNB wrote: post #11

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #2

While this is certainly a step in the right direction, it displeases me that the FOSS community is so hostile to the ribbon-style UI MS uses in its office product. Its such a great concept that using LO is like stepping back into the Office 97 days. Frankly, I'd rather just pay every few years for a home edition of Office than do all the mental gymnastic needed to properly switch to LO.

I downvoted. If you want to use the ribbon-style MS UI, then use MS products. I am glad to have a place to go that allows me to read and edit ubiquitous Office documents without having to be part of the Office eco-system. I agree that LibreOffice probably reminds more of old than of modern Office—I use both as little as possible, so don't keep up with the trends—but so what? To put it differently, why should Microsof…

Classic software worked just fine, in its day. I can still remember most of the classic WordStar commands. ;-)

The celebrations come when there are significant improvements, and there have been plenty of those. The (web-inspired) tabbed Office ribbon was a big one. Sorry they moved your cheese but the rest of the world isn't going to stop progressing even if you do.