Toolbars in LibreOffice - an appendix?

Hello Everybody

I would like your opinions on creating an appendix for every guide that contains all the tools that are available for the toolbars.

To explain — I am updating the Impress Guide to 7.0 and I have to deal with toolbars. Instead of having to explain that the tools on each toolbar or the optional tools that are available for each toolbar, would it be better to create an appendix containing all the information on toolbars, that is default set of tools and optional tools that can be accessible after using Visible Buttons. This would become Appendix B Toolbars in the Impress Guide and would similar to Appendix A Keyboard Shortcuts.

I know it means creating an extra chapter for a guide, but I think it is worth it. Also users would not be scratching heads wondering where all the tools are.

Please let me know what you think. I am prepared to create an Impress Appendix B as a trial so everybody can see what I am trying to do.

With regards
Peter Schofield
psauthor@gmail.com

Hi Peter,

I think that's a great idea. Having an appendix as a toolbar-dictionary of
sorts, would be helpful for speed and accessibility (to the various tools
available). I think it would also help some of the flow and bulk of the
Impress chapters because you could simply refer to the appendix.

Cheers,
Sam.

Hi Peter,

Thanks for generating the idea.

From the Calc Guide perspective, it's an interesting idea. Calc's View > Toolbars menu identifies 20 toolbars so a new appendix might get quite thick (although I know that Calc won't win the prize for the most toolbars in an LO component)! On the plus side, some of the toolbar descriptions within the other chapters could be pruned. However I am confident that some of these toolbars are not mentioned anywhere in the 6.4 Calc Guide, which possibly should be addressed. I think it is also possible that some of them aren't mentioned in the Help files (Olivier might have a view of that).

In summary I am concerned about the scope of the task. With respect to toolbars, I would be happy if we agreed to include an appendix that listed them, included a short, summary statement about the purpose of the toolbar, and listed the names of the functions that are visible in the toolbar's default configuration. I don't think it would be cost effective (in terms of volunteer effort) or useful to include an out of context description of each option, because many of the options will already be described in context within other chapters. I also don't think we should bother including lists of the assigned but invisible options.

In addition, before we dive into it, we should think about other implications:
Would an additional appendix be proposed to list all the options available in the (default) Menu bar?
What about the organisation of the options available in the other user interface options (e.g. Tabbed, Tabbed Compact and Groupedbar Compact)?
Is there any commonality across the various LO components that could be covered in the Getting Started Guide rather than being replicated in the individual guides?
Regards,

Steve

Hello Steve

My intention ws not fully explained as I was still thinking about it.

The prospect of fully explaining all Impress toolbars and the tool functions would make the appendix somewhat large. I want to try and keep it simple so that the appendix is mainly a visual reference for the toolbars. That is an illustration of each toolbar and an illustration of all the tools available for that toolbar.

Where a toolbar does not become visible until something else becomes active, this will be explained. For example, the Image toolbar does not become active and visible until an image is selected and it also replaces the Line and Filling toolbar.

There may also be a brief explanation of the purpose of each toolbar.

I will prepare an example appendix and put it on NextCloud in the Impress folder for comment.

I do not want to create an encyclopaedia.

Regards
Peter Schofield
psauthor@gmail.com

Hello Everybody

I have place an example appendix about toolbars in Impress 7.0 Drafts folder. This is to give everybody an idea about my idea of a toolbar appendix.
Please review and make comment.
The appendix os only an example and is definitely NOT a finished piece of work.

Regards
Peter Schofield
psauthor@gmail.com

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your efforts drafting that.

Some initial thoughts:
I presume that much of the material in the section entitled "Using toolbars" will be the same for each LO component? If so, would it be more effective to include it in the Getting Started Guide and cross-reference from the other guides?
In terms of identifying the options that are assigned to a toolbar in its default configuration, I think I'd prefer simple lists of bullet points (rather than screenshots of lengthy menus). Probably a personal preference, but this approach reduces possible distraction from different icon sets and ticks, etc. One list of bullet points could come directly after the screenshot of the toolbar and list the visible options in the toolbar, from left to right. A subsequent set of bullet points could list the "invisible" items, presented in the order that they appear in the toolbar's right-click menu. (I suppose we could also try listing all assigned options in tabular form, with headings "Command", "Visible", and "Invisible", putting a tick in the 2nd or 3rd column as appropriate).
I'm happy to hear other views!

Regards,

Steve

Hello Steve

Initial reaction — I agree somewhat as it would be easier than grabbing screenshots of visible buttons and possibly make a better layout. I shall try your suggestion.

I think this appendix should be in every guide. Each module has its own set of toolbars and would make it easier for the user. No need to go looking for another guide when wanting to find out something about toolbars. This appendix is easily adapted for use in another guide. I am already thinking about the Draw Guide.

More thoughts later

Regards
Peter Schofield
psauthor@gmail.com

Hi, Peter,

I have taken a brief look at the toolbars appendix, and I really like it.
While I understand how this type of document could become really large,
really easily, I found myself learning basic LO features I didn't know
before. I'm a very visual person, and the images helped guide me through
the different options. I feel that your draft has helped my LO user
experience.

Cheers,
Sam.

  Samantha Hamilton
  darling docs

  <https://darlingdocs.wordpress.com/> <https://github.com/samanthahamilton>
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/shamilton-64b4b71b0/>

Hello everyone,

I was checking the new appendix suggestion from Peter and I think it would
be a very nice improvement to the guides

As Peter pointed out, I believe this should be in every guide to allow the
user to quickly access some information regarding the toolbars.

I agree with Steve about the list of bullet points instead of the
screenshots of long menus, but in my opnion this should be restricted to
really long ones, giving priority, to the image.

Best regards,
Felipe Viggiano

Hello Felipe

Thanks for the positive feedback.

Thinking about Visible Buttons and the extra tools, some points to consider.

1. A really long list of Visible Buttons does make for a long screenshot or a screenshot split into parts (as I have done).
2. Listing the Visible Buttons as bullet points would also be long for some toolbars unless that bullet list is put into columns.
3. Splitting bullet points into columns means some way of matching the tool position on the toolbar to its position in a bullet list.
4. Visible Buttons screenshot follows the left to right placement of tools on a toolbar and is not alphabetical.

I will put the thinking cap to create a different format.

Watch this space.

Peter Schofield
psauthor@gmail.com