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With the release of LibreOfffice 4 came some new features and improvements. Among the most interesting is the Experimental Sidebar. The new sidebar puts a lot of the operations and tools in one easy location. The sidebar eliminates the need for the formatting toolbar for many objects.
Today, we will look at the sidebar and how it adapts in accordance with the document you are currently working with. Just remember that the sidebar is an experimental feature, which means it can crash the program without warning. So, when using the sidebar, I recommend saving often.
Setup
Since the sidebar is experimental, we need to activate it. From any LibreOffice screen, Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Advanced. Check “Enable experimental sidebar (on restart)” and click OK. You will need to restart LibreOffice in order for this change to take affect.
Overview
The sidebar for LibreOffice is similar to the sidebar in Calligra or the ribbon in Microsoft Office. While it can't replace everything, you will find yourself using it instead of the formatting toolbars and dialogs. The sidebar actually has more features than the formatting toolbar by default.
By default the sidebar is docked to the right side of the main window. You can show or hide the sidebar using the show/hide button on the inside border, or through the menus View > Sidebar. From the sidebar menu you can undock/dock the sidebar. You can also customize the sidebar by removing the panels you will not use.
The sidebar is a collection of panels. The available panels depend on the program you are using. You can access each of the panels by selecting their icon from the right side of the sidebar or from the sidebar menu. Each of the panels serves as a shortcut to different tools in the program. Of these, I personally use Properties, and Styles and Formatting most often. Let's take a closer look at each one.
Properties
The Properties panel shows you the properties for the current item in the document. You can adjust the different properties using the icons in the panel. Changing properties using these icons is the same as making manual changes through the dialogs and formatting toolbar, meaning it has no effect on the underlying style assigned to the item – only the current item. If you cannot find a property, you can click on the ”More Options” button in the corner of each property type to get a complete properties dialog with tabs. You can collapse and expand any of the blocks using the expand / collapse button next to the block title.
As an example, when typing in a Writer document, you will see three property blocks in the Properties panel: Text, Paragraph, and Page. The Text block allows you to control different settings related to text – font, bold, italics, color, etc. The Paragraph block allows you to control the paragraph's alignment, spacing, margins, etc. The Page block lets you change the page's size, orientation, margins, and columns.
Styles and Formatting
The sidebar takes the Styles and Formatting window and docks it in the sidebar. This allows you quick access to your different styles. Though you could still just use the button on the Formatting toolbar, the new sidebar does provide a central location for this tool and others like it. The window still provides styles broken down by type (characters, paragraphs, frames, pages, and lists), as well as the subcategory drop-down list. You still create and modify styles in the same manner as with the Styles and Formatting window.
Gallery
The Gallery is a collection of images for use in your documents. The Gallery panel presents a list of categories, called themes, at the top, and a list of images underneath. You can use this library of images to insert clip-art and backgrounds into your documents, as well as sounds into your presentations. You can add to and create new themes in your Gallery. A complete how-to on the Gallery library is for a future article.
Navigator
The Navigator is a catalog of your document headings, tables, sections, images, etc. The Navigator allows you to quickly move from one point in your document to another by reference to an object. This becomes quite handy in large documents, and is a good argument for giving meaningful names to your OLE objects and images.
Master Pages (Impress Only)
The Master Pages panel is used for selecting and creating master pages in Impress. I discussed Master Pages in part 16 of this series, FCM#63: http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-63/. This panel is just a translation of the old Master Pages section of the Impress Tasks pane.
Custom Animations (Impress Only)
The Custom Animations panel is used to animate objects on an Impress slide. I discussed animations in part 18 of this series, FCM#65: http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-65/. This is also a translation from the old Impress Tasks pane into the new format.
Slide Transitions (Impress Only)
Slide Transitions control how a presentation moves from one slide to another. For more details see part 18 of this series, FCM#65: http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-65/. This panel is another copy from the old Impress Tasks pane.
Functions (Calc Only)
The Function panel gives you access to all the Calc functions. A drop-down list divides the functions into categories, including “Recent Used” and “All” categories. Below is a list of all the functions in the selected category. You can insert the function into the current cell by double-clicking the function name or selecting the fx button next to the drop-down list of categories. This gives you quick access to the functions and is much easier (in my opinion) to use than the function wizard.
The experimental sidebar is a tool that makes access to common tools quicker and easier. LibreOffice has accomplished this by making the panel’s expansions and combinations of common toolbars, and translating older panels and wizards to the new format. You can compare it to the sidebar in Calligra or the Microsoft Office ribbon bar. I have found it handy to use, but keep in mind that it is experimental and might crash LibreOffice occasionally.