this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2026

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Welcome Dan Williams, new LibreOffice Developer focusing on UI/UX 🥳 (infosec.pub)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by Wazay2@sh.itjust.works to c/programming@programming.dev

32 comments fedilink hide all child comments

https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2025/12/04/welcome-dan-williams-new-libreoffice-developer-focusing-on-ui-ux/

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[–] Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 hours ago

Congrats Dan!

[–] Korne127@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Honestly, since I switched from LibreOffice to OnlyOffice, I'm much more happy with it; it looks and feels so much better and more mature

[–] RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

The header navigation, and normal scroll bar.

[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 6 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

srsly though it's astonishing just how much global geopolitics hinges on whether this is successful. MS Office is the main blocker to the EU migrating off US tech.

[–] andioop@programming.dev 9 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

Thrilled. I recently started trying LibreOffice thanks to a friend of mine and I admit that as someone used to Microsoft Office or Google Workspace, I feel like a total idiot always searching up "how to [do something] libreoffice" for things I know how to do already in Office/Workspace (or am confident I could figure out by fooling around in them for a few minutes).

[–] Aufgehtsabgehts@feddit.org 9 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

That doesn't make you an idiot, instead it indicates how bad the UI of LibreOffice is.

And they hired someone with a focus on the MacOS-Version, so don't hold your breath for any improvements in the foreseeable future on other platforms.

[–] andioop@programming.dev 2 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

It could just be me expecting a Sheets or Excel-like interface (I would bet Sheets UI was made specifically to be an easy transfer from Excel), and my brain being stupid when asked to learn a new one (or expecting to learn a new interface too quickly… but then again I don't usually have trouble with new software and interfaces, so maybe it really is bad UI), but thank you for the reassurance!

Sad for others who might not see improvements because of the macOS focus but still thrilled for myself, because I use LibreOffice on my Mac. This will only bite me too when my Mac kicks the bucket and I have to get a new laptop which I have already decided will run Linux.

[–] Stitch0815@feddit.org 3 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Do you really think it's that bad? Is it modern? No. But is it necessarily bad? At least I don't think so.

I think it focuses on consitency with other FOSS Software. And the consensus currently seems to be a focus on sidebars, which I personally like.

But also: I know nothing about UX/I design or design in genreal D

[–] RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 4 points 6 hours ago

I just uninstalled it because it's impossible to have a normal full sized static scroll bar that doesn't disappear and has buttons. For an application centered around scrolling, this is a major major major flaw.

[–] Aufgehtsabgehts@feddit.org 5 points 14 hours ago

It is such a powerfull software and capable of so much, at least LibreOffice Calc, which I use a lot. But the UI doesn't keep up with it, a lot feels hidden. And that is a shame, because it prevents new users to see that it is a great alternative.

[–] ap1werks@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 day ago

he's seem some shit, and he's gonna see more!

[–] Saithe@lemmy.blahaj.zone 40 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Thank god

[–] FizzyOrange@programming.dev 6 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

I wouldn't expect the UI/UX to magically improve, in the same way that e.g. Audacity's is, or Blender's did back in the day.

LibreOffice is ancient and enormous. It would take a decent sized team several years to overhaul its UX.

[–] deeferg@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

Has Audacity gotten better since I used it as a teen to record songs around 2010? Loved the product but my god was it ever tough to look at.

[–] DanWolfstone@leminal.space 1 points 4 hours ago

It has! The current project lead shows some of the ideas in a video

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 19 points 1 day ago

Welcome to the team, Dan! Can't wait to see where you take things. :)

[–] myfunnyaccountname@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Liquid glass coming soon.

[–] Kissaki@programming.dev 10 points 1 day ago

Liquid glass? Sounds hot. 🤡

[+] Aufgehtsabgehts@feddit.org -9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

Meanwhile the state of the UI/UX on Linux: I dare you to rotate your paper in LibreOffice Writer to ~~portrait~~ landscape in under a minute, if you haven't recently used the function.

[–] kaulquappus@feddit.org 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

To add one datapoint: I actually installed LibreOffice just now just to try it out. I went via

Format > Page Style > General [this tab was open by default] > Orientation: Landscape

If that is the correct way, then it was, IMO, hard to miss and fast to find. If it was the wrong way*, however then I'd say I find the menu labels misleading.

*I am not quite sure, because the dialogue had the Title "Page Style: Default Page Style", so I would have expected pages in all new documents to now start out in landscape orientation, but I opened a new document, and the page was in portrait orientation. So, I think I did what I tried to do - change orientation only in the current document - in spite of that (misleading, thus proving your point?) dialogue title.

[–] ulterno@programming.dev 0 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

<15 seconds.
Including starting LibreOffice Writer. This is on a 5400RPM HDD and Writer was definitely not cached, since I haven't opened it in days.

Now how long did it take to start MS Word on my laptop again?

[–] Aufgehtsabgehts@feddit.org 4 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I think you and many of the downvoters are missing my point:

If the default setting leads me to an UI, where I, an average user, needs so long to find such a basic function, then the UI is bad. And I am very patient, but if you want to convince the average MS Office user, that Linux + LibreOffice is an alternative, then it needs to be better then this.

And I am obviously disappointet that they hired someone with a focus on MacOS and not Linux, where a big UI/UX overhaul would be needed. It sais in the article, that the new hire will also look at overall improvements beside MacOS, but that won't be enough to polish the UX to the point where people would prefer LibreOffice over MS Office.

[–] ulterno@programming.dev 0 points 14 hours ago

where I, an average user, needs so long to find such a basic function

I am not sure about that.
The default UI is similar to the old MS Office Word and the new alternative (which from what I remember, LibreOffice actually asks you to choose from in a dialogue on first start, so you don't need to look through menus to set your preference) uses the newer tabbed paradigm.

And while I do prefer the new one, I didn't find the old one any harder than MS Office Word 2003 or the older version that came around Win 98.

The only thing that made me different from the average user back then, was that I actually read and understood user prompts before clicking "Next" or whatever.

[–] PumpkinSkink@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

42.07 seconds. Have never used the function before. I just used the "search commands" function.

[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 7 points 1 day ago

24 seconds.

[–] tomenzgg@midwest.social 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Layout > Orientation > Landscape (I presume you meant that since the default orientation is Portrait)

Took me about 3 seconds.

[–] Aufgehtsabgehts@feddit.org 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

For me it was under Format - Page Style, burried in some long dropdown menu. It is absolutly not user friendly, if you are new to the software or don't use it very often.

I needed one minute to find it and I kind of knew what I was searching for (a window with all the settings for the page). The UI should be made in a way where the slowest user (apparently me) will find such essential functions fast, like in every other writing software (MS Office, OnlyOffice, Google shit, ...).

So for me the UI of LibreOffice is a bad one.

[–] tomenzgg@midwest.social 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

To be fair, you seem to be using the original UI that mirrored Word 2003's UI (which, when I first switched over to Linux back in 2012, I was positively thrilled about Writer having as it was basically a drop-in replacement for Word, then).

I dunno if I just occasionally used Word too many times since then but I find the old UI impenetrable now, as well; but LibreOffice has support for the Ribbon UI (and 2–3 similar ones, I think), as well. Maybe you might find it easier?

I almost never switch the orientation of Writer so I genuinely was pretty much finding how to do it for the first time.

[–] Aufgehtsabgehts@feddit.org 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Maybe that's a point that Dan Williams can address: The default presets are important. With your UI I would have found it much faster, because it is where I would expect it to be.

Tantacrul/Martin Keary has some nice videos about how he redesigned Audacity and Muse Score. The point about how important sane presets are comes up quite often.

[–] egrets@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

When you install LibreOffice now, the set-up guide encourages you gently to use the newer, friendlier tabbed interface. I don't know if the same is true for in-place updates.