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submitted 2 days ago by carotte to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

excited to see what this means for the project, the poor UI/UX of libreoffice is easily its most glaring flaw imo

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[-] ColdWater@lemmy.ca 3 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

I mean I got used to LO's default UI and make me hate ribbon ui that come with MS OF and Onlyoffice, so I hope they improve on the default ui instead of replacing it (if they replace it atleast keep the old ui as a toggle)

[-] attero@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 day ago

FYI: You can use the new Collabora Desktop Version of LibreOffice with a streamlined interface if you want.

https://www.collaboraonline.com/blog/collabora-online-now-available-on-desktop/

[-] IndieGoblin@lemmy.4d2.org 22 points 1 day ago

software engineer, team lead, and manager at Red Hat for more than 20 years.

Please keep this man away from ui/ux. Nerds designing UI is how libre office got in this mess in the first place.

[-] biotin7@sopuli.xyz 5 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Nerds are the reason computers even exist. Maybe you need to leave the internet You muscle-brained jock. Go take your protein-shake.

More importantly who are your low-IQ monkey friends that gave you likes ?

[-] IndieGoblin@lemmy.4d2.org 3 points 17 hours ago

Ok? They can stick to building computers and people who actually use the computers can work on their usabilities. Nerds dont need ui they can use the terminal.

[-] hoppolito@mander.xyz 4 points 16 hours ago

'Nerds should stick to building computers' but not the software computers are running is honestly one of the more harebrained takes I've read.

[-] warmaster@lemmy.world 60 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Agreed, if you grew using another program, switching is hard unless it's UX/UI is superb.

When I ditched Adobe, Inkscape was a breeze. GIMP is hard AF and Krita a bit easier but it doesn't have the features I need. I ended up using Photopea, and now I've tried Affinity and it's the best Photoshop alternative I've tried yet.

Collabora is looking pretty good so far. Still a few rough edges but easier than any other FOSS office software.

[-] oeuf@slrpnk.net 8 points 1 day ago

GIMP is well worth getting used to, especially now we are post 3.0 with a proper non-destructive workflow for filters/effects. I had always found it confusing to learn, having the Photoshop UI fossilised into my neural pathways, but what unlocked it for me was following an online GIMP course for 2/3 hours, which amounted to far less time than I had formerly spent cracking photoshop or working to pay for it.

Some great plugins are coming out now too. The Batcher plugin in particular makes GIMP (and GMIC by extension) extremely powerful for automation.

Good times.

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[-] presoak@lazysoci.al 2 points 1 day ago

Hey I just used libre writer today. It was a smooth experience. Surprisingly easy ui.

[-] racketlauncher831@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 day ago

Why do people keep saying "UI/UX"?

UI is user interface.

UX is user experience.

One is to be developed (with code), and the other is to be designed (in Figma for instance). They have very little overlap!

[-] fushuan 1 points 16 hours ago

You design the UI while considering the UX. You only develop the UI, but you need to Design the UX and then design the UI considering UX before developing it.

[-] iglou@programming.dev 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

In the same way that you are implementing the UI, you sometimes also need to implement the UX. Animations are part of the UX, preloading is part of the UX... That sort of things.

[-] fushuan 1 points 2 hours ago

Uuuuhhh... Semantics. Preloading is an optimisation technique and animations I would consider part of the interface, not the experience. You design an experience with animations on the interface.

It's whatever, I don't have a strong opinion on it so if you feel like my interpretation is wrong go at it, not gonna defend it.

[-] iglou@programming.dev 12 points 1 day ago

Both are to be designed then developed.

[-] freeman@feddit.org 29 points 2 days ago

Yes, I feel bad recommending LibreOffice to people who only used paid software, as the UI is quite a hurdle. Installing a theme and symbol-pack was the first thing I did, even before editing or writing something...

[-] Darkenfolk@sh.itjust.works 19 points 2 days ago

I honestly fail to see what's wrong with the UI? Sure, it's not pretty but it is functional as it is.

[-] carotte 37 points 2 days ago

it works, but it's far from ideal. a lot of features are tucked away behind unintuitive context menus, and on some systems you need to do a bit of configuration for it to look right. for example, it uses bitmap icons by default, so if you use a hidpi screen the icons will look atrocious until you figure out how to switch them to vector icons.

and an ugly UI is a problem by itself. it's uninviting, unwelcoming. it gives a feeling of jank, of amateurism, and not in a good way. if you open the app for the first time and immediately think "this looks like it was last updated in 2003", it's not a good thing.

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[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 day ago

The insane amount of clutter. Compare LibreOffice to OnlyOffice

[-] umbrella@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago

tbf you are not using the tabbed ui in LO. it improves things quite a bunch.

[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago

I never tried looking into UI options, I use just OnlyOffice nowadays but LibreOffice should consider turning that on by default if it's an option.

OnlyOffice also has a 10/10 screen when you open it, instantly asking whether you want to open a text document, PDF, make a slideshow etc. It's just very polished and they actually put effort into the UI.

[-] umbrella@lemmy.ml 2 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

it usually asks you the first time you run it, but people sometimes gloss over it because they are just used to closing nag screens.

yeah, libreoffice is sufficient but it could very much use some polish. i hope this news means we get an improvement.

[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 5 points 18 hours ago

I don't think LibreOffice is 'bad' either, the functionality is great and the foss license is superior to Onlyoffice

But when I compare it to Word and OnlyOffice (especially OnlyOffice since it's free and open source) it lacks that polish and good default settings.

Not everything has to be to be VIM, good defaults are very important especially for novice users. And OnlyOffice has understood that very well.

I would like for LibreOffice to succeed. Therefore I hope they take some design cues from OnlyOffice or have a good UI developer even come up with something better. Basically I hope the guy in the post is going to town and heavily modernizes the current default LibreOffice layout.

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[-] oeuf@slrpnk.net 8 points 1 day ago

Libreoffice is dope af.

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this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2025
434 points (100.0% liked)

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