Joana Ottenbacher, I got your email, I imagine that everyone on this list got it also.
Your idea sounds great to me. If I had a choice everything would be dark mode and there wouldn't be any conflicts or things that don't show. I will tell you that at least for FireFox that doesn't seem possible and I end up turning off my user styles and dark script a lot. That however, is just a click or two. I found a .pdf reader that does colored backgrounds. They say it is impossible to change the font color of a .pdf. Also, some documents override Okular's colors with white. Okular is part of KDE but they made it as a standalone and it works on Windows. New Edge browser has a 'Dark Mode' but it doesn't color Gmail, back to black-on-white again. It would be nice if OO could do documents and spreadsheets in white on black. Thanks for the idea! Linda On Mon, Dec 5, 2022 at 12:57 AM Joana Ottenbacher <xdonnervog...@gmx.de> wrote: > Disclaimer: I am new here, just subscribed. Please be kind if this ended > up in the wrong place. > > Hi. > I have a mixture of a discussion but also a proposal I would like to > make. I ended up here after doing a fair share of search engine digging, > not finding a good solution for the initial problem. Apparently, about > 12 years ago, there started to be demand for what I'm going to discuss, > according to old Open Office forum posts I found in the process. > > Problem part A: > As far as I can understand the software, there is not an easy structure > to user-friendly switch color themes in Open Office Writer (I haven't > looked at other programs, but it could be true for them as well). > Yes, there is one solution to switch colors. > You go... What was it? Edit, Settings? No, maybe View... Extras... > Appearance? No, not either. The correct way is > Extras>Settings>OpenOffice>Appearance (as an example, I'm myself still > confused about whether that now applies to all programs under the Open > Office wing, or just Writer??). > You see the first problem? > I as a user/dig my way through the whole interface/, potentially even > missing the settings for program appearance. This is not only very > difficult to find, it leads to *frustration*. > What I've been experiencing through the years of usage is the same > problem over and over again. We do have functions, but the amount of > clicks required to find them, is inefficient and brain-wrecking. > An analogy: Some updates ago, the 3D Software Blender moved their "User > Preferences" window from "Files" to "Edit". Why? It's more logical, it's > convenient and easy to find by one click, containing everything you need > in one single window with a couple of tabs. Blender also lets you choose > your "Theme" on first startup and later in the preferences and add new > themes as you please. > > Which leads me to problem part B: > There are people who do have issues with bright light screens. Websites > these days update to "Dark Mode". > I could imagine following scenario: A person who needs accessibility > aids like a customized dark theme, would they even manage to find the > according settings to change the program appearance to their needs? > Would a person who is already puzzled by where to even save their file > or how to print find such an option? > Maybe, if it were easier to find, AND what I think of an improvement: If > there were well-designed pre-installed examplary color themes one could > just switch by clicking a button. There is a list of color schemes (for > me, there is only the OpenOffice light theme in the list!), but again, > until a user finds this option, they might have given up on it already. > Users are not designers. They might struggle with color values, how > light or dark the font color should be displayed and also, they might > worry that changing these colors might make their printer switch colors > as well. (I saw somebody in a forum stating you should revert appearance > before printing, they were likely scared of exactly that!). The concept > of a "Dark Theme" or "Dark Mode" is not so easy for them to understand > when they get a long, long list of colors they are to change themselves. > So what to do to improve? Instead, let the user have a standard one they > could switch by clicking one button a light theme button and a dark > theme button with an icon to determine what's going on. > Voilà. We have an accessible, easy system to make these changes. Just > like clicking a different theme in a PowerPoint presentation. And if > there is none the user likes, they can add a new one and have a new > button or a list for their themes, as well, selecting each color > individually just like you can do right now in version 4.1.7. > > Now there's one extra point to the mix. We have users who are using > OpenOffice under Linux. I read that for some reason there is a Dark > Mode, but I don't understand the details at all. I cannot speak for > anybody using that OS, so this here is all from a Windows perspective. I > though do believe that a standardized option to do this throughout each > program *regardless* of OS or the like, would make things so much easier > for everybody. > > In my own POV there are enough reasons to overhaul this part of the > system. Possibly, there are menu parts that could be put in one large > window containing everything you might need. The problem when you look > at your own project for too long is that you cannot see what your users > see anymore. You get "designer-blind" as some call that phenomenon. You > forget about those who don't have the structure in mind that you had, > building this. They just look at it and try to figure out how to solve > their problem. I grew up as one of those people, so I know the struggle > firsthand. And according to my research, people tried achieving this > before. We have 2022 now. I believe this is possible. > > Still, I would love to hear other voices out there. Any concerns? Are > there technical reasons for this specific situation we find ourselves > in? I might not know. Do enlighten me. Maybe just nobody actually voiced > it before? > > Either way, thanks for reading to anybody out there who recieves this. I > hope I did this first E-Mail to the list correctly. I'm apologizing if I > didn't. I'm just human, after all. >
