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LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

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Re: LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

#21

Post by _-__--- »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #17

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.

Curious - there are a lot of ways to say the terminal "so." I would have thought that ellipses (so...) capture the affect with which most people deliver it, but the hard stop actually adds a nice twang to it. I imagine the speaker quickly saying it, pursing their lips slightly and tilting their head to one side while maintaining eye contact with the other party in the conversation.

But yeah, totes agree on the design/aesthetics. It's pretty 2008 freeware-tier.

Re: LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

#23

Post by pbhjpbhj »

scholia wrote: post #20
JadeNB wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>Classic software worked just fine, in its day. //

So, it doesn't work now?

The main question would be 'how much more productive one can be now than before?'. It would be nice if there were independent quantative studies on this - as word-processor use is a central part of most governments administrative functions I'd imagine that one can't move for the vast number of such studies ... lol.

I'm guessing that the UI changes between Wordstar and Office 2015 amount to a tiny change in the time needed both for training and useful production of word-processed documents. When it comes to spreadsheets I can see things have probably moved on - at least in speed of processing if nothing else.

I'd love to ask, of the top 100 functions used - how many weren't in office applications 5 years ago, 10 years ago? How has the average time per word in production of business letters changed (reduced?) over time and what specific [versions of] applications caused the greatest change?

Re: LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

#24

Post by logn »

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.

The ribbon is stacked button bars. Navigating the ribbon is as unsettling at stacked tab bars. One nice thing about menus is that you peruse them without clicking. Ribbons force you to hunt and peck through the layers with the mouse. Further, when you have no idea where anything is, it's easier to read the menu labels versus scanning the disparate icons and hovering for tooltips.

Re: LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

#25

Post by JustSomeNobody »

worklogin wrote: post #6
e40 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's your opinion. I don't like the new MS UI. In fact, paying for Office every few years means relearning a new UI, or at least relearning where everything is on the menus now. I find that incredibly frustrating and annoying. My issue with LO is that it doesn't work on complex spreadsheets and powerpoints. I had spreadsheets corrupted and I just had to turn away from LO and go back to Office. I was much happier in…

Did you try the ribbon for a week or two? I loathed it too. But then I got used to its workflow. It exposes a lot more options more intuitively than the current LO menu system.

I have to use Office at work. I have not liked the ribbon since it came out. It's not that I don't like new ideas. I am a SW dev and I embrace new. I change jobs every 6 mos just so I don't have to deal with old code, that's how much I like new things. The ribbon sucks. It mind numbingly sucks.

Note: Some of this was an exaggeration to drive home the point of how bad the ribbon interface sucks.

Re: LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

#26

Post by bitL »

I am probably in the minority, but even AbiWord looks way better than this new design - let's have simplistic monochrome icons on our 4k 10-bit displays everywhere! Also, the font on toolbars is sci-fi and not serious-work-like. Huge white spaces everywhere with gradients out of place. I like the new fonts (seems inspired by Yosemite) and the bottom shape panel is nice as well.

Re: LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

#27

Post by Someone1234 »

e40 wrote: post #4
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.

That's your opinion. I don't like the new MS UI. In fact, paying for Office every few years means relearning a new UI, or at least relearning where everything is on the menus now. I find that incredibly frustrating and annoying. My issue with LO is that it doesn't work on complex spreadsheets and powerpoints. I had spreadsheets corrupted and I just had to turn away from LO and go back to Office. I was much happier in…

> I don't like the new MS UI.

It was introduced 8 years ago. It is hardly new anymore.

While going to the ribbon 8 years ago was a struggle, I couldn't go back now. The context aware parts, realtime previews, and just organisation is too good.

Unfortunately LibreOffice now feels cluttered and overly busy by comparison. That's more because Libre/Open Office has stood still, largely based on Office 9x rather than trying anything new themselves.

I'm not saying they should copy everything Microsoft does. I am saying that they should evolve themselves and look at where the industry is headed. For example look at all of the UI concepts from the web and touch devices, they've introduced a number of new ideas none of which Libre/Open Office have adopted.

If I wanted to use LibreOffice on my Surface Pro, I couldn't, no touch UI at all. That's a little disappointing.

Re: LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

#28

Post by imron »

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.

It's the 'nearly' that's the kicker.

Re: LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

#30

Post by LordKano »

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 absolutely despise ribbon interfaces. They're a show stopper for me.

I am forced to use it at work, so there's nothing I can do about that but FLOSS is all about user empowerment and choice so I don't think I'll ever use it at home.

I'll stay with an old version of the package if upgrading means having the ribbon foisted upon me.

I like the idea of having an option to select a Ribbon interface or a Standard interface. That way, everyone can get what they like.

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