Does OpenOffice need a new interface?

[bash]

After someone started asking in this thread what in OpenOffice needed fixing, I discovered that its not just me that thinks OOo needs a new interface, but also quite a lot of other people.

So I am curious of how people think that the interface should be changed/improved. Should it be an evolution of the current one with adjustments here and there. Or should it be a revolution with a completly new and unseen layout. Or should OOo just try to copy the MS Office 07 layout.

For me personally the problem with the interface is that for the eye candy perspective just looks plain and dull. It just looks like a clone of the old MS Office interfaces. But that is imo not the most important aspect. What is think is quite an issue is that I half the options I regularly use are hidden away behind 15 menues while the settings I never use, take up the space in the menu bars. MS Office 07 demonstrated in that regard that it also possible to make the features the user need accessible quickly.

Another thing that bugs me is that if you click on an image, the image toolbar gets added to the top of your "screen". But instead that page you are editing would stay the same it moves down. Which is quite annoing if everything hops around the whole time.

These are just my thougths. Wondering what other people think

[jkblacker]

Certainly not a clone of Office 07 - for a start, the whole ribbon shebang will probably be protected by a slew of patents that it just wouldn't be in Sun's interests to go anywhere near infringing.

The fact is, as it is Oo mostly works just fine. I voted for a few tweaks because it's not perfect but doesn't need a radical overhaul.

[miggols99]

I think that things like the shapes/lines etc. need to be anti aliased. It looks unprofessional, especially in presentations. Please don't copy the Office 2007 layout. I hate it.

[Martje_001]

The interface is fine.. maby some other colors and icons.

[Spr0k3t]

The visible level of OOo is perfect... I wouldn't change much. However, I always welcome change if the change is good.

The method of configuration and right-click menus needs attention. Granted there are many similarities between the applications of the OOo suite, but there are some components of configuration that only go with one or two of the applications. These need to be set into individual application controls somehow. Some of the layout of MS Office pre 2007 has some good points that should be followed. The print features are clustered into an area on the file menu, where in OOo they are scattered throughout the system.

The view menu has an option for toolbars which is good... but why not add the ability to right-click a blank spot on the toolbar area to add more if you need them.

Something I don't want to see happen to OOo, the "Ribbon" interface commonly found in MS Office 2007... what a nightmare! My employer uses Office 2007 and has removed the ability to launch OOo from a USB key. So unless I bring in my personal laptop, I'm stuck using the latest trash from MS. I've been forced to use it for six months and I hate it more and more each day.

[Tom Mann]

I think the new Koffice should be watched, and something along them lines brought into the fold.

[Dark Star]

Changing whole interface won't be good idea .. But little /better placement and easy navigation would be gr8 OOO FTW

[flossgeek]

Open Office Interface is fine, yes it is a replica of Microsoft Offices UI in many cases. This isn't a bad thing, we must accept that a very large % of users use Microsoft office so giving them a transition which is similar helps the new user pick it up easily.

Now Office 2007 has been released with its new interface, from what I can see it is an annoyance as Microsoft office users will have to retrain in companies, and relearn everything again.

So what I'm saying is the interface at present on Ooo is a BENEFIT as it could make people use open office instead of buying into 2007.

If anything needs improving it ain't the U.I, but the speed of the application on load, back end stuff like better macro programming support in calc for example.

[Alex Fernandez]

An interface that looks good, like KOffice

OOo should move away from Java to C++ and Qt

[jomiolto]

Well, I wouldn't mind it terribly if they came up with a new user interface, especially if it was somehow better than the current one, but I don't really see anything wrong with the current interface either -- not that I'm really such a power user, and I don't actually use much more than the basic formatting functions.

So, no, I don't think it really needs a new user interface, but of course if someone came up with a really improved and better one, it might attract more people to use OOo and that would be great thing in so many ways (especially for ODF support).