Sidebar

The sidebar is a UI feature that was introduced for all OpenOffice applications in version 4.0. It is based on the Symphony Properties Panel which in turn is based on the old Impress task pane. The sidebar looks like this:

Information about the implementation of the sidebar and how to extend it with new panels can be found in the Sidebar for Developers page.

A glossary is available below.

Overview

The sidebar window is located on the right side of the edit views of Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base. It contains one or more panels, based on the current document context. Panels are organized into decks. A tab bar on the right side of the sidebar allows to switch between different decks.

The Properties deck is context sensitive. When text is being edited then it contains panels for changing the font or text attributes, when a graphical object is selected then other panels give access to fill and line style as well as the object's position and size.

Different panels in Properties deck for different contexts (from left to right): text editing, logo pasted as outline, logo pasted as bitmap

A panel is basically a mix of a toolbar and a non-modal dialog. That means that sidebar panels do not lock the document. The user can freely mix working in the edit view to eg enter text and use the Text panel to change text attributes.

At the moment, toolbars and sidebar panels share many functions. For example, the buttons for making text bold or italic exist in both the text toolbar and the Text panel. This duplicity is the result of a design decision to allow users to gradually learn to use the sidebar. It is our plan to reduce functions provided in toolbars and provide them only in the sidebar. The speed and scope of this change depends on feedback from our users.

The width of the sidebar is variable. The controls in its panels are adjusted accordingly. When the sidebar becomes too small to be usable it collapses to the tab bar. This transitional state is indicated by an arrow that is displayed in place of the deck. A click on one of the buttons on the tab bar restores the deck to its former width.

Panels

Eleven property panels have been migrated from IBM Lotus Symphony: Alignment, Area, Cell Appearance, Graphic, Line, Number Format, Page, Paragraph, Position and Size, Text and Wrap. Seven panels come from the old Impress tool panel: Available for Use, Custom Animation, Layouts, Recently Used, Slide Transition, Table Design, Used in This Presentation. Four are non-modal (ie non locking) dialogs: Functions, Gallery, Navigator, Styles and Formatting. One is new: Insert Shapes.

Some of these are displayed in the context sensitive 'Properties' deck, others are displayed in a deck on their own. In that case the panel title bar is usually not displayed and the deck title is the same as the panel title. When the panel title bar is shown then a mouse click on it collapses the panel to just its title bar. Another click and the panel is expanded to its former size.

Some panels have a 'More Options' button in their title bar. A click on it opens a dialog with many more options than would fit into the panel. These dialogs, however, are modal, ie. the edit view is locked while the dialogs are open.

Alignment (Calc only)

Alignment of cell text (horizontal, vertical, rotation)

Area

Fill style of shapes like color, gradient, bitmap, hatch, transparency.

Available for Use (Impress only)

List of all available templates.

Cell Appearance (Calc only)

Cell background color and border.

Custom Animation (Impress only)

Add or modify animations of shapes.

Functions (Calc only)

Insert functions (mathematical, string related, other) to a Calc cell.

Gallery

Gallery dialog as sidebar panel.

Graphic

Adjust bitmap attributes like brightness, contrast, colors, gamma.

Insert Shapes (Draw only)

Buttons and drop down menus for inserting shapes into Draw documents.

Layouts (Impress only)

Assign a predefined layout to a slide. There are different sets of layouts for the different edit modes standard, handout and notes.

Line

Adjust color, width and style of lines and outlines.

Navigator

The navigator dialog as sidebar panel. Small differences between the different applications.

Number Format (Calc only)

Set the number format of selected cells.

Page (Writer only)

Set page properties like orientation, margin or size.

Paragraph

Adjust paragraph properties.

There are small differences for different contexts.
From left to right: Impress/Table, Writer/Annotation, Writer/DrawText, Writer/Table, Writer/Text.

Position and Size

Change position, size and rotation of shapes. Not all of these attributes can be modified in any context. Free positioning is not supported in Writer. Bitmaps can not be rotated in Writer.

This results in three different versions of the panel: with position, size and rotation (left) with size and rotation (center) only size (right)

Recently Used (Impress only)

List the recently used templates/master pages.

Slide Transition (Impress only)

Add or modify transition animations between slides.

Styles and Formatting

The styles and formatting dialog, aka Stylist, as sidebar panel.

There are small differences between the applications: (from left to right) Writer, Calc, Impress

Table Design (Impress only)

Properties of tables in Impress.

Text

Adjust text properties like font, size, bold, colors.

There are small differences in different applications and contexts. Not all controls/attributes are available everywhere.

Used in This Presentation (Impress only)

List of the templates/master pages that are currently used by the document.

Wrap (Writer only)

Select how to wrap text around a graphical object.

Decks

A deck is a container for one or more panels. In some cases, where there is only one panel and the panel title and deck title are the same, the panel title bar is not painted.

The deck title bar is not an active element, ie mouse clicks are ignored, but it can receive the keyboard focus. That is an accessibility feature.