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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

#51
post #26

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.

AbiWord and Gnumeric have always looked better than their LibreOffice counterparts!

Re: LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Do you also struggle with tabbed web pages and toolbars? If you can't use either of those, then I agree, you will have problems with the ribbon.

If you can use both of those -- and I'm certain you can -- then I don't see why something that simply combines tabs and toolbar icons is such problem.

Re: LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

#55
post #50

While I appreciate effort put into making the interface prettier, one of the things that really detracts from LibreOffice and why I almost invariably end up installing MS Word for clients is the confusing way which the mail merge system is designed in LibreOffice. I've done it enough times now to know mostly how to get it working for myself, but there's no way in hell I'll try teaching a client how to do a mail merge…

There are actually changes to mail merge in this release. But it seems it is about performance and not the UI.

https://people.gnome.org/~michael/blog/2015-01-29-under-the-...

Re: LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

#57

Don't OSS project has professional designer? I mean like Apple-quality designers?

Have you ever tried contributing to a popular FOSS product? I have. Expect to be downvoted, yelled at, etc for suggesting change, especially change that's an emotional issue for geeks (implementing a ribbon-like interface, you know the one started by the 'evil' microsoft). Linus's childish attitude is pretty much the poster boy for this attitude. Namecalling is the norm. There are so many cultural and management issu…

You know, even though I think there are pretty decent Linux DEs today (I'll gladly take Gnome 3 over the OSX or Windows GUIs), you are completely right about the community having an awful attitude towards their designers. See all the hate thrown at Gnome 3, Unity and Pantheon... Those projects are the only ones keeping Linux from looking like it's 10-20 years behind its competitors in UI design.

Re: LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

#58
post #50

While I appreciate effort put into making the interface prettier, one of the things that really detracts from LibreOffice and why I almost invariably end up installing MS Word for clients is the confusing way which the mail merge system is designed in LibreOffice. I've done it enough times now to know mostly how to get it working for myself, but there's no way in hell I'll try teaching a client how to do a mail merge…

That's not good at all. If you log a bug, you should be able to send over the documents in confidence - this sounds pretty bad.

Re: LibreOffice 4.4, the Most Beautiful LibreOffice Ever

#59
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 was a OF user for years before switching. I got Office 2010 because of a client and like you said after couple of weeks of trying was enough for me to like it. The workflow, the mouse over preview's in the ribbon and shortcuts is such an improvement. Now I can't see myself switching. One more note, money shouldn't be the reason not to switch, it's worth it if you use it for business. For personal use, Google (which I use too) or LO will do it.
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