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It's possible to have Java Swing applications look like Office 2003 (http://officelnfs.sourceforge.net/). Maybe SWT/Eclipse can also provide assistance to build RCP applications that look like Office 2003.
I've been working on something similar. Isn't the only thing that is shown in the screenshots from your link, that isn't possible today, the ability to specify a gradient background for a toolbar? The way I see it, the look is a combination of the different (light blue) background color and the blue gradient background on the toolbars? The background colro you can obviously change in base SWT. I also have requested the ability to change the entire Eclipse background color similarly. Thus, the only real problem is the toolbar gradient.
Can we retitle this bug report as a request for gradient backgrounds in tool bars?
What about the look of the Menu. It's pretty interesting too. Ben
We shouldn't do anything other than use the standard native menus.
Isn't everything what Microsoft does in or with Windows kind of standard? I wouldn't say that Office 2003 UI is NOT standard.
It's different from other desktop apps.
I'm not sure. It's different because it relative new. I think there will be more dektop apps covering this look on Windows and probably it will be possible for SWT apps, too? This bug should not discuss if this will become standard for Eclipse or not. I don't think that the Office look should be adapted from Eclipse. I was just thinking of an alternative look on Windows for pure SWT apps.
Hey there, I totally agree with Gunnar. Although the look&feel of standard Eclipse SWT looks quite nice, I would greatly appreciate to have something like (maybe pluggable) a more modern looking UI available for Eclipse SWT and RCP Applications. Would be a great benefit for the Eclipse UI ! Cheers, Eric
It appears to me that the trend is to move away from standard menus and use toolbars for the menus instead. What is the advantage of using standard menus over toolbars? Now that we have drag handles all over in 3.2m4, we might as well put the main menu on a toolbar with a drag handle as well.
Is this trend also popular on non-Windows platforms?
I think it is time that we updated this to be a request for the Office 2007 look. See some screenshots here: http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2006/03/09/547281.aspx and here: http://www.devcomponents.com/dotnetbar/screenshots.html
(In reply to comment #11) > I think it is time that we updated this to be a request for the Office 2007 > look. I agree. I think it would be really cool if SWT would be the first toolkit to "port" the Office 2007 UI to other platforms in a platform neutral manner. However, I think it's quite challenging because the controls don't look like default controls and it doesn't make sense to introduce special controls that won't work on other platforms. According to the screen shots it looks like the classic look supports the Office 12 look in a way that is actually not too bad. For example, the icons in the shell border are placed next to the menu bar (http://www.devcomponents.com/dotnetbar/img/RibbonPadKeyTips.png). So I'm confident that it's possible on SWT.
i saw the feel in office 2007 in following video http://officeblogs.net/UI/MenuTabs.wmv i think this is a very nice idea/solution for getting a better usability. Remember the many confused user (Should i use the menu or is there toolbar-button..) and the many never ending discussion about menus and toolbars for same actions in different places..
Here are some pointers on the subject. Office 2007 UI in Firefox : http://weblogs.java.net/blog/kirillcool/archive/2006/09/office_2007_ui.html JRibbon https://flamingo.dev.java.net/docs/jribbon.html Ribbon (RSS) http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/category/11716.aspx
Mono will integrate a Ribbon Component : Google SoC: Gtk# Ribbon Library http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2007/Aug-30-1.html
Steve: It looks like the Ribbon is graduating into Windows 7 as a standard widget: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/miscctrl/rib.aspx I updated the description to make this bug current. +1 for this to be considered for Eclipse 3.6/4.0. Some of the applications I use have already adopted the Ribbon (e.g., MindManager). While advanced users may still gripe about it, it looks like it's here to stay, and as soon as it's part of the API applications that don't provide it may start looking dated.
I've used the CustomDrawn widget from Hexapixel you can find at http://hexapixel.com/projects/ribbon
+1 The ribbon is coming with Windows 7. Having SWT-based software look as good as the other native apps on Windows is important for keeping Eclipse an attractive app development platform.
Please note that in Nebula we failed to get a ribbon like widget in (the widget didn't passed the IP review) because of M$ license politics (http://msdn.microsoft.com/officeui) on this.
FWI, I'd like bug 90145 to be considered as part of bug 293226 as well. I opened bug 293637 to find a way of making this happen.
I've opened CQ 3711 (https://dev.eclipse.org/ipzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3711) to track the legal issue for the native ribbon
+1 ...for a very old request. But is there any chance the get this for the Windows SWT? This would by a very very welcome addition for RCPs on high-res monitors running on Windows. Currently the RCPs tend to have noticeable disadvantages compared to Windows rich clients implemented based on latest technology provided by other frameworks.
