I think the best way of handling these types of changes is to create
alternate 'themes', and later determine which theme is the default, and
which will ship with the product. I'm not sure how this works with the
current layout of source control, but it should not be a major problem.
Through the use of alternate themes, we can embrace the evolution of the
look and feel of the product, without having to pick and choose
favorites on the front end. I happen to like the current icon set, as
it is less colorful, it is also more 'professional' looking. At the
same time, I have to acknowledge that I do like what the LO folks have
done with the L&F, which is going in an entirely different direction.
We need to be able to simultaneously develop alternatives on the design
front.
Andrew
On 7/21/2011 4:00 PM, Marcus (OOo) wrote:
Am 07/21/2011 11:35 PM, schrieb Michael Acevedo:
Greetings to all developers of OpenOffice.org in Apache,
I am writing to you to make a suggestion for the branding of
OpenOffice.org. After Oracle bought Sun they decided to simplify
document icons by changing the color codingto a unified blue color. This
was a departure for the previous color coding for OOo.
Pre-OOo 3.2.1:
* Blue Doc Icon - Writer
* Green Doc Icon - Calc
* Orange Doc Icon - Impress
* Yellow Doc Icon - Draw
* Violet Doc Icon - Base
* Blue/Gray Doc Icon - Math
Post-OOo 3.2.1
* Blue ODF icons now represent all applications only the icon shape
varies.
In my opinion although the unified version of OOo icons is nice, I think
that some users might confuse the icons if they look at a minimized
version of them if using the "List" view in Windows Explorer of Mac OS X
Finder.
In an effort to reduce user confusion, I would like to forward the
following suggestion. Rather than redesigning the document icons, why
not change the background color of the box that says "ODF" from blue to
the previous color that were used for each document icons that were
created by the different OOo modules. I have taken the liberty to do a
rendering of the finished product for your consideration.
Thanks to all developers for your time, and keep up the good work in
OOo.
I don't like the idea to change the color of the icon part with the
term "ODF". ODF is nowadays also a kind of an own brand, so we should
keep using it the unified color blue. IMHO also others are using this
with only one color, so we shouldn't change it.
But, of course, a clear +1 to bring back color in general to the
document icons.
So, my suggestion is to color the now used icons or to bring back the
old ones that were used before the monochrome icons.
Marcus
