The latest LibreOffice features different options for toolbars and icons. This tutorial explains how to change the LibreOffice default look and feel with the help of those user interface options and icon styles.
LibreOffice 6.1 onwards introduced some significant and visible improvements which were long due. Among all, this version comes with options to choose cool icon styles and user interfaces.
Since the 6.1 release, all the following features became stable and are now available for all the major releases of LibreOffice. We give you a run down of the features and show you how to change the look of your favourite office suite.
How to Change LibreOffice Default Look and Feel
Icon Styles
LibreOffice has the below list of incredible icon sets:
- elementary
- Breeze
- Tango
- Karasa Jaga
- Colibre
- Sifr Dark
Sifr
All the icon styles are modern looking and carefully designed by maintaining a standard to align with other Office products. For Linux, elementary is the default icon set. And for Windows – Colibre.
How to apply Icon Styles in LibreOffice
- Open LibreOffice.
- Go to Tools > Options.
- Under the View section, you can find the Icon Style drop-down. Select the Icon Style you want.
You can also change the other options related to Icons – such as – Toolbar Icon Size etc.
- Press ok. And you can see the new Icon Style applied in the toolbar.
User Interface
LibreOffice is slowly moving toward developing more modern interface options along with traditional standard toolbar types. Most popular office products have tabbed, grouped icons today. It is an evolution towards that.
LibreOffice introduces the below types of User interfaces, and here’s a quick look at them.
Contextual Group
Contextual Single
Tabbed (recommended)
Tabbed Compact
Grouped Bar
Grouped Bar Compact
How to Change User Interface in LibreOffice
Follow the below steps to change the user interface.
- Firstly, open LibreOffice.
Secondly, go to menu Tools > Options. Under Advanced, select Enable Experimental Features.- Then go to menu View > User Interface.
- Finally, select your option as shown in the below image.
- You can now see the toolbar is changed with the new user interface.
Watch the Video on how to change the default look and feel of LibreOffice
You can have a look at the below video on how to change the default look of LibreOffice.
Tip
- If you select Tabbed, Grouped Bar UI option – you can find the Menu option at the extreme right section to go back top UI chooser.
- If you are looking for Dark Mode in LibreOffice in combination with the above icon and toolbar styles, check out the below article.
Download
If you are interested in LibreOffice and want to give it a try, head over to the below link for download options and details:
Summary
New styles and UI options give LibreOffice an edge over other free Office suites, and this is a step in the right direction for user adoption and user base increase. Besides, it is a welcome change in this free and open-source office suite to conquer the office productivity space.
Drop a comment below if you have any questions or feedback.
Looking for something else?
Read our complete tutorial index of Calc, Writer, Impress and Draw.
Is this performing better than Open Office?
Not sure. However, LibreOffice’s new modern looks and approaches looks promising.
Do you know any option to bypass a blur display of icons ? I try something, looks better but still a bit blur :/
Here is what I try if you want to see : https://ask.libreoffice.org/fr/question/191758/icones-floues/
Is there any way to get a dark theme? I look at computers for my job and much of my free time and find that bright white backgrounds tend to give me eyestrain. I can’t seem to find any way to change the appearance to be darker. I’d even be willing to make the graphics for one, if anyone is willing to show me how to apply it.
Yes, you can. Check out here:
https://www.debugpoint.com/2020/01/how-to-enable-dark-mode-libreoffice/
Wow, my hero <3 Thank you! That really wasn't even buried that deep, I guess I'm just that oblivious
Is there a way to actually edit the user interfaces?
I really like the look and feel of contextualized groups, but I feel as though I can put more icons/functions on that toolbar. However, there doesn’t seem to be any feasible way of accomplishing this.
There doesn’t seem to be any way to edit this under the Customize > Toolbars.
As per I know, it is not yet possible to edit the user interface as of latest version.
I’m using a Windows Surfacebook 2, I just installed Libre Office and the user interface option window pops up blank.
How can I regain former iconstyles like Tanga, Galaxy which I have accustomed to for years until I updated
I hate when a page describes a feature that is out dated and the actual program, the newest version, doesn’t have it!
And this is something very common at LibreOffice Suite.
Now I can not change theme because something is wrong… of just different.
Yor computer resolution is preventing the drop-down box of the theme from displaying correctly in Windows. Please change your resolution. The article is correct.
Thank you!
I know that computer resolution some time affect programs and webpages because they are not well designed or they are asking for a long width at 2.35:1 aspect, but I prefer old style 4:3. That is it.
No need to change “computer resolution”, I just resized the “option window” and then, voilà, theme changing is working. It could be easier if it had those “marks” at bottom to say “this is a resizable window”, as it was usual/default.