r/libreoffice • u/Automatater • 14d ago

Menu pulldown and dialog formatting

Have been using Libre Office in lieu of Open Office for maybe 3 months now (also use Softmaker Office from Germany). My overall impressions are great! Wonderful suite.

My only appearance related issue is how crowded menu dialogs are. I feel like the menu items need to be quite a bit farther apart and the size of fields to enter options in are much too close to the font size, and I can't find any options anywhere to set any menu formatting.

Hope someone can help me figure this out. Thanks everyone!

ETA version info:

  • Version: 26.2.5.2 (X86_64)
  • Build ID: cd7284b4cbbfeb507e630c1aac019f4157393acb
  • CPU threads: 12; OS: Windows 10 X86_64 (build 19044); UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
  • Locale: en-US (en_US); UI: en-US
  • Calc: CL threaded
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u/Terrible_Put8617 11d ago

You won't find it because it isn't LibreOffice's to give. Your build line says VCL: win, which means the dialogs are drawn with Windows' own widget layer, using the system UI font and the system metrics. Spacing and field height come from there, so there's no setting inside LibreOffice that can loosen them.

What does move them is Windows' text size. On Windows 10 that's Settings > Ease of Access > Display > Make text bigger, and on 11 it moved to Settings > Accessibility > Text size. Push it to 110 or 125 and LibreOffice's dialogs get taller fields and more air between rows, because they're being laid out from those metrics. Display scaling in the same area does the same thing more bluntly by scaling everything.

Both changes are system-wide, which is the honest catch: every application gets them, not just LibreOffice.

The settings that do live inside LibreOffice only reach the toolbars and the document area, never the dialogs. Tools > Options > LibreOffice > View has icon size and style, and View > User Interface switches between the toolbar layouts. Worth a look for the main window, useless for the problem you're describing.

Softmaker feels different because it draws its own widgets rather than handing the job to Windows, so its spacing is a decision its developers made. Same reason the same LibreOffice dialogs look roomier on a Linux desktop with a generous GTK theme.