News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:LibreOffice: The Next Five Years by einpoklum on Friday July 10, 2020 @06:36PM (#23797378)
> The ribbon interface is one of the best things to happen to office. It was horrible to use before that.

Says who? Do you have any UI/UX study to back up that claim? Most of us on this page seem to believe the opposite is true.

> For an app as complex and feature rich as word or excel, the ribbon interface is a great way to organise commands.

Exactly the opposite. That is, a ribbon _may_ be relevant to a feature-poor application, but much less so to a feature-rich application.

> my productivity has increased tremendously. I just create a table and automatically go to the last tab to format it.

You're conflating context-sensitive UI changes with the use of ribbons. That's a different argument. Also remember that if a Table toolbar or sidebar appears, you can have the same effect - better perhaps - without ribbons.

For an app as complex and feature rich as word or excel, the ribbon interface is a great way to organise commands.

Not to mention context specific menu tabs.

Especially in Powerpoint, my productivity has increased tremendously. I just create a table and automatically go to the last tab to format it.

Re:LibreOffice: The Next Five Years by kumarvvr on Friday July 10, 2020 @10:18PM (#23798899)
> Says who? Do you have any UI/UX study to back up that claim? Most of us on this page seem to believe the opposite is true.

I never said people found it good. I said, implicitly, I found it good. Perhaps I should have made it explicit in my comment.

Also, it doesn't matter whether most of you believe the opposite was true. I was talking only about myself.

No need to be so, aggressive, perhaps.

> Exactly the opposite. That is, a ribbon _may_ be relevant to a feature-poor application, but much less so to a feature-rich application.

Compared to the alternatives, the Ribbon has more density, in the sense that it packs more buttons and controls than a normal tool bar.

Even AutoCAD uses a ribbon menu. I am guessing because the command density is much more than a normal toolbar.

> You're conflating context-sensitive UI changes with the use of ribbons. That's a different argument. Also remember that if a Table toolbar or sidebar appears, you can have the same effect - better perhaps - without ribbons.

My point was that the context sensitive UI is more apt to be used with a Ribbon system, than alternatives, like in 3DS MAX, where the context sensitive stuff comes up on a right-click. Or in Office itself after we highlight an item.

I reiterate, it is a personal opinion. No need to get so defensive about it.

Some people want their commands and work area to be separated. Some like it otherwise. I prefer the former. When I click my table in PP, I don't want something overlapping it with a menu item, that is not stable, and disappears after a while or after another interaction. It's distracting to me.

Re:LibreOffice: The Next Five Years by Frondo on Friday July 10, 2020 @10:05PM (#23798830)
As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, Microsoft did extensive user testing in the course of development of the Ribbon UI:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23797590