Comments on: OpenOffice.org needs themes.

By: sirox

sirox — Sat, 10 May 2008 08:13:16 +0000

Mike is right. Sorry. A remarkably concise and fundamentally accurate summary. Hats off

By: aj

aj — Sat, 03 May 2008 21:28:29 +0000

I completely agree that OpenOffice needs themes. If you are staring at it whilst working, why not at least give people the option to create their own “nicer” themes. I’m sure loads of people in the community could design some great themes that are so much nicer to look at than the horrible defaults!

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:51:24 +0000

Anyone who says looks doesn’t count is kidding themselves. Why else would companies like Microsoft and Apple spend so much to update the “look” of their operating systems year after year. If it was all about productivity, we’d still be sporting the “classic” Windows look!

And the reason more people use MS Office over OpenOffice.org—simple—MS has a gazillion dollar ad budget that OpenOffice.org can’t match. They can afford to brand the image of a more superior product in the minds of users—and top company execs. Give the folks over at OpenOffice.org that kind of ad budget and see how popular OOo would be in a few years.

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:33:38 +0000

Anyone who disagrees with the option of having themes is a moron. Sorry, but you are. Every application needs themes and skinnability - it allows a user to customize the feel of the application to their liking.

As to what should come pre-installed, the current theme is fine. Modular coding design would allow one to swap out themes with barely any overhead. Themes could be even more minimal than what is currently provided, or more fancy for those who want eye candy.

I am not advocating these themes be built into open office, just the framework to use the themes, and the flexibility for a user to choose what he feels suits him best. Themes should be available for download but not bundled with the install kit.

*That* methodology is what sells software.

By: Edward

Edward — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 12:16:49 +0000

I think skinning is a great idea, I was looking for a great skin and so I ended up on this site.
I liked open office a lot, but now office 2007 is out I think open office is out of the picture for me. Open office looks so much better since office 2000. Well I don’t think the buttons was a bad choice, the special effect behind de paper is awesome. Typing stuff is boring, and looking at a great nice screen just make you feel better. Also I would like to add that in the history of management development they have discover that light, colors and a happy looking surrounding just make you work better. Wich = productive.
Further I would like to tell you that in the Netherlands (can’t tell or this is true for the whole world) office first made a hit my students because it was free given on school, because people used a lot at home it also went to the office. So, make a program popular under the public (with ofcours quality spellingscontrolle and so on) and the company will follow.
Now imagine this, I have to type a long story, I open my flashing new design notebook, flashing backscreenpicture, all modern and good looking. Will I go to office 2007, flashing design and so on, or an old boring screen gray screen (open office).

By: Dara k

Dara k — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 17:49:38 +0000

It must have skins. “if it ain’t pretty, windows addicts won’t useit” convince the end user, and the rest will follow.

By: daniel hamilton

daniel hamilton — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:16:00 +0000

Just came across this page searching for OOo skins, and would like to say first that i am in favor of such customizing by principal. As a Christian i appreciate that God enables us to see in color, and made different personalties, and intelligence to improve our lot, and enabled a whole lot of variety. We are not to be clones, and it is a good thing for a person to be able to express things with a certain degree of uniqueness, not only in writing but in the appearance of the program. I am one that is a tweaker at heart, and i really like the extensive customization that Firefox allows.

This is by no means criticizes the hard working Open Office people, and the MAIN thing is it’s functionality, and OOo is also quite customizable but as one that uses and recommends OOo, i think it would be more attractive and inspiring if it included themes like Firefox, etc.

Lastly, i like the looks of this page itself (easier on the eyes too). Thanks.

By: DFGoodwin

DFGoodwin — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:58:18 +0000

Some of you just don’t get it. In this day and age of downsizing in the office, also goes along with the IT budget. I cannot convince the company to switch to a product unless it acts the same as MS Office no matter how free it is.

The question should not be why would you want the look to change, it should be here is how you change it. It’s human nature to have change and diversity. People get used to the way a product works and when they are faced with something new, spend more time complaining than trying to use it.

A couple of problems are looks and cross file associations as stated earlier. Until then you cannot sell it to the boss by saying, it’s almost like MS Office.

IT Director - City of Creve Coeur

By: Aldrin

Aldrin — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:53:59 +0000

Hi Guys,

Just an FYI, openoffice 2.3 was just released.

To spruce up the openoffice toolbar look, go to:

tools>options>view>option size and style>

then try Industrial (Gnome look),Tango or Crystal toolbar themes.

The Tango theme looks very nice, without being too detracting.

If you’re looking for an openoffice derivative, try Lotus Symphony Beta (it’s free):

http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.jspa

I believe it’s some derivative of openoffice using eclipse development platform. In any case, the UI looks pretty nice and so do the default file association icons. Be sure to go to lotus symphony options>file associations, and choose if you want it to associate to .xls/,doc/.ppt, etc.

cheers,

Aldrin

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 08:54:13 +0000

You are all saying appearance doesn’t matter, I’m an open office user on Windows, but I have had the opportunity to use Office 2007 and after getting around the the initial shock of the theme and appearance of it, they way in which it is themed and laid out does absolutely make you much more productive. I thought it was stupid at first and very unproductive because I didn’t know where everything was, but after a little - I would half hour or so, you think why didn’t someone think of this kind of interface sooner!