Arch Linux

CavalierBob

Member

From: San Francisco Bay Area

Registered: 2006-07-20

Posts: 110

How do you get Openoffice to look more Gnome-like?

When you install OOo (version 2.2.1-3), some of the output in the termial says

use "export OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=kde" or
use "export OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=gnome" to preset your desired look,
or put it in /etc/profile, rc.local, or ~/.bashrc.

I have tried copying the line "export OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=gnome" (without quotes) to my /etc/profile. Nothing changed, still looks like stock OOo.

Then tried to open soffice using info from the wiki: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/OpenOffice#Setup

# OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=gnome soffice

Again, no change. When soffice opens, it is the stock OOo appearance.

Tried adding "export OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=gnome" (no quotes) into~.bashrc as noted in the wiki. Did not work, still stock OOo appearance.

Searching the our forums, Google, and the Arch wiki has yet to give me a clue. Looked at the 2.2.1-3 PKGBUILD, GTK  switch is set to 'enable'.

I tried Abiword, it looks (as it should) Gnome-like. I would use but it is giving me problems with envelopes that the Abiword mail list has yet to be able to help. I know you can get OOo to look Gnome-like, you can see it in this screen shot:

http://www.phoronix.net/image.php?id=81 … be5_13_lrg

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks!

Bob

icrave

Member

Registered: 2006-04-11

Posts: 193

Re: How do you get Openoffice to look more Gnome-like?

I have at beginning of .bashrc

export OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=gnome

and my OpenOffice looks like you want.

CavalierBob

Member

From: San Francisco Bay Area

Registered: 2006-07-20

Posts: 110

Re: How do you get Openoffice to look more Gnome-like?

Hmmm, maybe I am missing something icrave but the icons in your toolbar look like the stock icons. They look very different than the ones in this screenshot

Am I missing the idea of the intergration? I am thinking it would adopt the Gnome 'look & feel' and use icons that are more Gnome-like.

icrave

Member

Registered: 2006-04-11

Posts: 193

Re: How do you get Openoffice to look more Gnome-like?

Yeah, the icons are different because the icon theme that i use is different.

It isn't a problem of OpenOffice.

If you install the same gtk and icon theme of screenshot's user and put "export OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=gnome" in your bashrc you will view your OOO with the same look & feel.

Last edited by icrave (2007-08-25 21:20:23)

CavalierBob

Member

From: San Francisco Bay Area

Registered: 2006-07-20

Posts: 110

Re: How do you get Openoffice to look more Gnome-like?

I understand what you say icrave, I just do not think OOo is picking up Gnome themes & icons correctly.

This screenshot compares my OOo & Abiword. Note how Abiword has picked up the icon theme from my desktop.

You can see the 'New Document', 'Open...', and 'Back' icons in Abiword have picked up the theme. The same icons in OOo have not. The 'Print' & 'Print Preview' icons show the difference quite well also.

I took a look at Gedit and it is using the same 'New, 'Open...', and 'Print' icons as Abiword.

So is it me or is it OOo not picking up Gnome themes & icons? Could you post a pic of your OOo Writer & Gedit for comparison? My prediction is that your OOo Writer will have a different icon theme than your Gedit.

Appreciate the advice & help!

Bob

icrave

Member

Registered: 2006-04-11

Posts: 193

Re: How do you get Openoffice to look more Gnome-like?

I was mistaken.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=2168119

There is a guide to change the icon theme of OOO.

azwethinkweiz

Member

Registered: 2007-01-25

Posts: 101

Re: How do you get Openoffice to look more Gnome-like?

When you install OOo (version 2.2.1-3), some of the output in the termial says

use "export OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=kde" or
use "export OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=gnome" to preset your desired look,
or put it in /etc/profile, rc.local, or ~/.bashrc.

I have tried copying the line "export OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=gnome" (without quotes) to my /etc/profile. Nothing changed, still looks like stock OOo.

Then tried to open soffice using info from the wiki: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/OpenOffice#Setup

# OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=gnome soffice

Again, no change. When soffice opens, it is the stock OOo appearance.

Tried adding "export OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=gnome" (no quotes) into~.bashrc as noted in the wiki. Did not work, still stock OOo appearance.

Searching the our forums, Google, and the Arch wiki has yet to give me a clue. Looked at the 2.2.1-3 PKGBUILD, GTK  switch is set to 'enable'.

I tried Abiword, it looks (as it should) Gnome-like. I would use but it is giving me problems with envelopes that the Abiword mail list has yet to be able to help. I know you can get OOo to look Gnome-like, you can see it in this screen shot:

http://www.phoronix.net/image.php?id=81 … be5_13_lrg

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks!

Bob

I might be wrong but I believe you want export OOO FORCE_DESKTOP=gnome...NOT OOO_FORCE_DES... (remove the '_' between OOO and FORCE.) Thats what I have and looks fine to me.

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iBertus

Member

From: Greenville, NC

Registered: 2004-11-04

Posts: 2,228

Re: How do you get Openoffice to look more Gnome-like?

No, OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP is correct. If you are using GNOME you don't need it.

CavalierBob

Member

From: San Francisco Bay Area

Registered: 2006-07-20

Posts: 110

Re: How do you get Openoffice to look more Gnome-like?

No, OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP is correct. If you are using GNOME you don't need it.

Ibertus, can you explain a bit more your statement "If you are using Gnome you don't need it.". Is it that the command does nothing in Gnome?

I cannot see a bit a difference in the appearance of OOo if I have 'export OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=gnome' in ~.bashrc or not. When I look in OOo at the Tools>Options>View there is no icon choice that will cause OOo to use my current icon theme.

From what I have discovered poking around more, OOo does not use GTK Icon Theme lookup. I am guessing this is what Abiword does to pick up the icon theme I am using.

Best I can tell, the Ubuntu folks have created a theme to replace (the long outdated 'industrial') the icons in OOo:

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/op … +bug/42061
(This is related to the link icrave posted above.)

I am going to drop the new icon set into OOo and see if it works.

Thanks again all for your replies!

Bob

iBertus

Member

From: Greenville, NC

Registered: 2004-11-04

Posts: 2,228

Re: How do you get Openoffice to look more Gnome-like?

Yes, OOo doesn't seem to use any GTK+ theme icons at all. On my system OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=gnome only does something when GNOME is not running (i.e in OpenBox) where the default and ugly gray OOo interface is typically used. When GNOME is running the GTK style is roughly cloned by OOo without using any environment variable. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP only makes OOo copy the GTK theme when a non-gnome DE is running. OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=kde will do the same thing but with the current Qt theme instead.

onearm

Member

From: Anywhere but here

Registered: 2006-07-06

Posts: 359

Website

Re: How do you get Openoffice to look more Gnome-like?

If I can add something to this conundrum, the OOO_FORCE thing worked when I didn't have gnome installed (using openbox) but after installing it OO has reverted to the stock theme and iconset, ignoring my settings.

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--
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iBertus

Member

From: Greenville, NC

Registered: 2004-11-04

Posts: 2,228

Re: How do you get Openoffice to look more Gnome-like?

If I can add something to this conundrum, the OOO_FORCE thing worked when I didn't have gnome installed (using openbox) but after installing it OO has reverted to the stock theme and iconset, ignoring my settings.

So, you are saying that OOo used the icons from your theme when GNOME wasn't installed?

RedShift

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2004-07-16

Posts: 230

Re: How do you get Openoffice to look more Gnome-like?

You can reach it via Tools -> Options

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iBertus

Member

From: Greenville, NC

Registered: 2004-11-04

Posts: 2,228

Re: How do you get Openoffice to look more Gnome-like?

So how do you install additional icon themes? Is this possible?

luca

Member

From: Rome

Registered: 2005-10-30

Posts: 280

Re: How do you get Openoffice to look more Gnome-like?

I have found this:
http://lokheed.deviantart.com/art/Tango … e-38088601
The right path for the file is:

/opt/openoffice/share/config/

CavalierBob

Member

From: San Francisco Bay Area

Registered: 2006-07-20

Posts: 110

Re: How do you get Openoffice to look more Gnome-like?

I added the Ubuntu Human OOo icons and my OOo now looks like this:

Sooooo much better than the Industrial icons!

Looks like the only option is to replace the old Industrial set with a new set named 'Industrial'. I added a 'images_human.zip' file into the /opt/openoffice/share/config folder thinking that might give me a new icon set selection. But after clearing the OOo icon cache, when I opened OOo I did not get a new selection in the Tools>Options>View icon style spinbox Redshift has noted above.

Oh well, I still have my new Gnome-like icons! The only downside is that when OOo updates, I will have to reinstall my icons as they will surely get overwritten.

Thanks to all for helping do away with one more of life's little annoyances.

Last edited by CavalierBob (2007-08-26 19:53:22)

onearm

Member

From: Anywhere but here

Registered: 2006-07-06

Posts: 359

Website

Re: How do you get Openoffice to look more Gnome-like?

So, you are saying that OOo used the icons from your theme when GNOME wasn't installed?

Basically yes, even if this sounds strange. Obviously I had all the gtk libraries installed and, if I remember correctly, also libgnome but not gnome-desktop itself.

---

To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three persons, two of them absent.
--
My Github

Free Thinker

Member

Registered: 2007-07-11

Posts: 40

Re: How do you get Openoffice to look more Gnome-like?

i'm using openbox and nothing here helped me to make openoffice to use my theme instead of ugly default. partically helped adding the export to ~/.bashrc , but it worked *only* if i started openoffice from urxvt.

after some search, what helped me is adding the

export OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=gnome

to

/opt/openoffice/program/soffice

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chown -R us /home/your/.base

geek.arnuld

Member

From: INDIA

Registered: 2007-05-03

Posts: 135

Website

Re: How do you get Openoffice to look more Gnome-like?

i'm using openbox and nothing here helped me to make openoffice to use my theme instead of ugly default. partically helped adding the export to ~/.bashrc , but it worked *only* if i started openoffice from urxvt.

after some search, what helped me is adding the

export OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=gnome

to

/opt/openoffice/program/soffice

yes, that edit of "/etc/profile" does not work for me. your hack works , I only needed to change the permissions of soffice to edit it. (read-only by default)

Last edited by geek.arnuld (2007-10-31 18:40:15)

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