Nov 11: Trick OpenOffice.org2 into using GTK even when not running Gnome (Linux) -- UPDATED
Note: This post isn't really intended for my regular readership, as it's a pretty dull Linux HowTo about a pretty obscure problem. But, I figured it'd get googled and possibly help others who may have the same problem.
Note 2: This post was updated on 11/16/05. The real solution is at the bottom of the post. I'm leaving the original post intact for the detailed explanation. --b
I've just installed OpenOffice.org 2.0 on Linux (Debian, of course). Starting with this version, OOo2 can attempt to fit in better with your desktop by using a more native-looking widget set, as opposed to its internal--quite ugly, in my opinion--widget set. I say native-looking because I'm not sure if it actually uses the native widgets or if it just mimics them. It has the ability to mimic/use either gtk+ (Gnome's native widgets) or QT (KDE's native widgets). So, thanks to this new feature, OOo2 will look at home on either of those desktop environments.
However, when you are running an 'alternative' window manager, and not Gnome or KDE, it defaults to the internal/ugly set. I run the wonderfully minimal evilwm, so when I first fired up OOo2, I got the ugly:
So, I fired up Gnome in an Xnest window. Then, from within the Xnested Gnome, I launched OOo2. As it should, it used the gtk+ widgets and looked nice and Gnomey:
So much better, right? It turns out that it's just searching for a Gnome-specific environment variable called GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID. If that variable is set, you'll get the pretty OOo2. So, in a terminal run:
$ export GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID="Default"
...then...
$ ooffice
...and OOo2 will launch mimicing/using the gtk+ widgets.
I can't seem to figure out how to get it to always open like that, though. I tried setting the env. variable in ~/.xsession, but that didn't work. If I figure it out, I'll post an update.
Update 11/16/05: This post details a pretty roundabout way to achieve the desired goal of getting OpenOffice.org 2 to use GTK widgets. I've since discovered that OOo has the option "--widgets-set". So, the 'right' way to get GTK widgets in OOo2 is to launch it with this command:
ooffice --widgets-set OpenOffice_org-gnome
It also has a "--icons-set" option, but it didn't work for me.
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Thank you for the tip. I was reading through the scripts that run openoffice to find the answer... with no luck.
Now ooo looks a lot better under my icewm 
I updated the entry with some info I found from the google search you performed (the blog software shows your google search as the referrer). So, thank you!
"ooffice --widgets-set OpenOffice_org-gnome" doesn't work for me, it does the same as --widgets-set gtk
It's a little better than the default look, but not the icons, which are the same.
Is there a way to find out what widget sets are supported?
weird, I thought that OOo was just using --widgets-set OpenOffice_org-gnome when it found the GNOME_DESKTOP... environment variable.
I get the same result from --widgets-set and setting the enviroment variable. Are you getting something different with the two?
I'm at home and can't test it right now. I'll try to mess around with it tomorrow and see if I can figure anything else out.
This really shouldn't be so hard.
Here at work, using Gnome, it still uses the OOo icons, not gnome icons. It just uses GTK for the menus and toolbars, etc.
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Note: This post isn't really intended for my regular readership, as it's a pretty dull Linux HowTo about a pretty obscure problem. But, I figured it'd get googled and possibly help others who may have the same problem.
Note 2: This post was updated on 11/16/05. The real solution is at the bottom of the post. I'm leaving the original post intact for the detailed explanation. --b
I've just installed OpenOffice.org 2.0 on Linux (Debian, of course). Starting with this version, OOo2 can attempt to fit in better with your desktop by using a more native-looking widget set, as opposed to its internal--quite ugly, in my opinion--widget set. I say native-looking because I'm not sure if it actually uses the native widgets or if it just mimics them. It has the ability to mimic/use either gtk+ (Gnome's native widgets) or QT (KDE's native widgets). So, thanks to this new feature, OOo2 will look at home on either of those desktop environments.
However, when you are running an 'alternative' window manager, and not Gnome or KDE, it defaults to the internal/ugly set. I run the wonderfully minimal evilwm, so when I first fired up OOo2, I got the ugly:
So, I fired up Gnome in an Xnest window. Then, from within the Xnested Gnome, I launched OOo2. As it should, it used the gtk+ widgets and looked nice and Gnomey:
So much better, right? It turns out that it's just searching for a Gnome-specific environment variable called GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID. If that variable is set, you'll get the pretty OOo2. So, in a terminal run:
...then...
...and OOo2 will launch mimicing/using the gtk+ widgets.
I can't seem to figure out how to get it to always open like that, though. I tried setting the env. variable in ~/.xsession, but that didn't work. If I figure it out, I'll post an update.
Update 11/16/05: This post details a pretty roundabout way to achieve the desired goal of getting OpenOffice.org 2 to use GTK widgets. I've since discovered that OOo has the option "--widgets-set". So, the 'right' way to get GTK widgets in OOo2 is to launch it with this command:
It also has a "--icons-set" option, but it didn't work for me.
Note 2: This post was updated on 11/16/05. The real solution is at the bottom of the post. I'm leaving the original post intact for the detailed explanation. --b
I've just installed OpenOffice.org 2.0 on Linux (Debian, of course). Starting with this version, OOo2 can attempt to fit in better with your desktop by using a more native-looking widget set, as opposed to its internal--quite ugly, in my opinion--widget set. I say native-looking because I'm not sure if it actually uses the native widgets or if it just mimics them. It has the ability to mimic/use either gtk+ (Gnome's native widgets) or QT (KDE's native widgets). So, thanks to this new feature, OOo2 will look at home on either of those desktop environments.
However, when you are running an 'alternative' window manager, and not Gnome or KDE, it defaults to the internal/ugly set. I run the wonderfully minimal evilwm, so when I first fired up OOo2, I got the ugly:
So, I fired up Gnome in an Xnest window. Then, from within the Xnested Gnome, I launched OOo2. As it should, it used the gtk+ widgets and looked nice and Gnomey:
So much better, right? It turns out that it's just searching for a Gnome-specific environment variable called GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID. If that variable is set, you'll get the pretty OOo2. So, in a terminal run:
$ export GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID="Default"
...then...
$ ooffice
...and OOo2 will launch mimicing/using the gtk+ widgets.
I can't seem to figure out how to get it to always open like that, though. I tried setting the env. variable in ~/.xsession, but that didn't work. If I figure it out, I'll post an update.
Update 11/16/05: This post details a pretty roundabout way to achieve the desired goal of getting OpenOffice.org 2 to use GTK widgets. I've since discovered that OOo has the option "--widgets-set". So, the 'right' way to get GTK widgets in OOo2 is to launch it with this command:
ooffice --widgets-set OpenOffice_org-gnome
It also has a "--icons-set" option, but it didn't work for me.
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Thank you for the tip. I was reading through the scripts that run openoffice to find the answer... with no luck.
Now ooo looks a lot better under my icewm
Now ooo looks a lot better under my icewm
I updated the entry with some info I found from the google search you performed (the blog software shows your google search as the referrer). So, thank you!
"ooffice --widgets-set OpenOffice_org-gnome" doesn't work for me, it does the same as --widgets-set gtk
It's a little better than the default look, but not the icons, which are the same.
Is there a way to find out what widget sets are supported?
It's a little better than the default look, but not the icons, which are the same.
Is there a way to find out what widget sets are supported?
weird, I thought that OOo was just using --widgets-set OpenOffice_org-gnome when it found the GNOME_DESKTOP... environment variable.
I get the same result from --widgets-set and setting the enviroment variable. Are you getting something different with the two?
I get the same result from --widgets-set and setting the enviroment variable. Are you getting something different with the two?
I'm at home and can't test it right now. I'll try to mess around with it tomorrow and see if I can figure anything else out.
This really shouldn't be so hard.
This really shouldn't be so hard.
Here at work, using Gnome, it still uses the OOo icons, not gnome icons. It just uses GTK for the menus and toolbars, etc.
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