Bug 86016

Summary: SIDEBAR: Easy access to enable and disable the sidebar from within the statusbar
Product: LibreOffice Reporter: Yousuf Philips (jay) (retired) <philipz85>
Component: LibreOfficeAssignee: Not Assigned <libreoffice-bugs>
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX    
Severity: enhancement CC: cno, jmadero.dev, kendy, libreoffice-ux-advise, samuel.mehrbrodt
Priority: medium Keywords: needsUXEval
Version: 4.4.0.0.alpha1   
Hardware: Other   
OS: All   
See Also: https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=84502
Whiteboard:
Crash report or crash signature: Regression By:
Bug Depends on:    
Bug Blocks: 86066, 103459    
Attachments: how it looks in opera

Description Yousuf Philips (jay) (retired) 2014-11-07 19:17:16 UTC
Created attachment 109107 [details]
how it looks in opera

I've heard multiple times that it would be great to have easy access to enable and disable the sidebar without having to go into the menu, but the only possible way seemed to be by adding a button on the right corner of the screen in the same row as the formatting toolbar. As doing this would be quite challenging, i think adding a button to the statusbar would be the simplest way to achieve this.

My current browser, Opera, has this same feature in its statusbar for opening/closing the sidebar. Of course ours would have to be placed on the right side of the statusbar, to the right of the zoom value.
Comment 1 Joel Madero 2014-11-07 19:37:42 UTC
Sounds like a fine request. Confirming.
Comment 2 Samuel Mehrbrodt (allotropia) 2014-11-08 10:10:35 UTC
(In reply to Jay Philips from comment #0)
> Of course ours would have to be placed on the
> right side of the statusbar, to the right of the zoom value.

Did you consider the case when a user moves the sidebar to the left docking area (or has it floating)?
Comment 3 Yousuf Philips (jay) (retired) 2014-11-08 11:12:23 UTC
(In reply to Samuel Mehrbrodt from comment #2)
> Did you consider the case when a user moves the sidebar to the left docking
> area (or has it floating)?

No i hadnt, but that doesnt mean that we need to move it according to where the dock is presently located. We dont change the location of the page number statusbar field when a person decides to dock it on the right. ;D With the statusbar, its best to keep things always in a single place.
Comment 4 Cor Nouws 2014-12-29 08:01:58 UTC
(In reply to Jay Philips from comment #0)
> Created attachment 109107 [details]
> how it looks in opera
> 
> I've heard multiple times that it would be great to have easy access to
> enable and disable the sidebar without having to go into the menu, but the
> only possible way seemed to be by adding a button on the right corner of the
> screen in the same row as the formatting toolbar. 

Sounds as an extra icon on the toolbar, or a toolbar with one button on the same row?

> As doing this would be quite challenging, 

shouldn't be the first to consider.

> i think adding a button to the statusbar would be the
> simplest way to achieve this.

Pls consider there is a control to make comments visible in Writer - top right - and a request to have something alike for the Navigator - top left.

Not saying that the statusbar is no good, but just to keep overview.
And why not a control at the top of the scroll bar?
Comment 5 Yousuf Philips (jay) (retired) 2015-01-01 00:44:52 UTC
(In reply to Cor Nouws from comment #4)
> Sounds as an extra icon on the toolbar, or a toolbar with one button on the
> same row?

Doesnt really work in the toolbar in all apps, because you have jam packed toolbars in calc and impress.

> shouldn't be the first to consider.

I had asked a dev and they said its not possible to fix the position of a toolbar to the right.

> Pls consider there is a control to make comments visible in Writer - top
> right - and a request to have something alike for the Navigator - top left.

Well for this to work, it would have to be a solution that worked in all apps/modules.

> Not saying that the statusbar is no good, but just to keep overview.
> And why not a control at the top of the scroll bar?

Well its position would be hoping around when its placed at the top of the scrollbar when you go from one app to the next, so a fixed location for such an option would be most ideal.
Comment 6 Orion 2015-01-12 00:31:13 UTC
A single button for the Sidebar would be very useful. It could replace the "Styles and Formatting" button, which I find to be less than helpful now that the Sidebar has really taken over.
Comment 7 Heiko Tietze 2020-10-01 09:48:27 UTC
The statusbar is a control to give feedback about various states, sometimes with a context menu for convenience access. Adding a button contradicts this purpose; it would be better placed on a toolbar (as LibreOffice Online does). But considering bug 84502 requesting keyboard access and given that we have plenty of means to show/hide the sidebar we better keep the UI clean. => WF