Create Firefox Personas for LibreOffice 4 in LibreOffice 4

Hello!

Great to share how to make Firefox Personas for LibreOffice 4 in LibreOffice 4!

It is very hard to measure the size of the image to be used in a Firefox Persona. Feel free to learn more about that:

Create Firefox Personas for LibreOffice 4
http://youtu.be/AZeZzxN83HE

After trying many times, I got the right size of the image and submitted the Firefox Personas for LibreOffice 4.

http://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/gallery/All/search?p=libreoffice&search.x=0&search.y=0

For your information, in LibreOffice Draw:

Header image
Width: 82.00cm or 32.28"
Height: 5.52cm or 2.17"

Footer image
Width: 82.00cm or 32.28"
Height: 2.77cm or 1.09"

The gradient background is recommended.

Regards,

C. H. D.

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In the Persona instructions on the Firefox page that help you through the process, they tell you the exact size of the image files. Also, there are some example download images files to start the process as well. I looked into this last month. What I would do is download the image files they use as examples and then use them. These files are shown in pixels not inches or any other measurement. That is best.

Just created a "Felt style" of a background with the text of "LibreOffice".
I submitted it and there are 44 in the queue for review.

The header was 3000px by 200 px
The footer was 3000px by 100px

all according to their web page.
https://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/demo_create

Simple and easy.

Hello!

I did not find "pixels" in LibreOffice:

Tools -> Options -> LibreOffice Draw

-> General -> Unit of measurement

That was why I used cm instead.

Thanks.

Regards,
C. H. D.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

<snip>

https://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/demo_create

This is Firefox's site that walks you through the creation of Persona designs. Since LibreOffice uses their Persona guidelines, currently, I am going by their information.

They describe using a header image of 3000 pixels wide by 200 pixels high.
The footer size is 3000 pixels by 100 pixels.
They also have a file size limit of no more than 300KB for the images [total size of the two combined, I believe].

Now here it the sticking point.
Draw seems to want you to create pages, not specific images, like Corel Draw and Inkscape. You must be able to create a specific image size, in pixels, and I do not know how to do that in Draw.

I just looked - There is a Pixel definition in the File > Export using the exporting to a JPG format. There you can take your design and make it the correct pixel size. All you have to do it make the image proportional to the needed pixel size. Make your page/image be in centimeters and use a "box" 300 by 20 cm in size for your design area. Then export it to the 3000 by 200 pixels.

- - - -

What I did when I created a "felt texture" Persona was this:

I created a page wide design using all of the filters and texture-fills that Inkscape has. I played around with them till I got a background image that I liked. That was using "vector graphics" way of making designs, the way Inkscape and Draw does.

Then I exported the design to a "bitmap" image that is pixel based, like photos are. I made sure it was exported to be at least 3000 pixels wide and 200 high.

Then I used a package, like GIMP, Paint Shop Pro, or Photoshop, to do some editing of the image to get the final design to be EXACTLY the 3000 pixel width and the 200 and 100 pixel high required for the Firefox specifications for a Persona.

At that point I tested the Persona design, to make sure it did look well and was not interfering with the header and footer menu and icons. If you want to use it for LibreOffice 4.0.x and/or Firefox, you test the design[s] and tweak them before you decide they are working well for you.

At that point, currently, you can go through the posting process to get your Persona listed in the Firefox Gallery. It is a simple process.

I have asked the question about the approval process and a gallery placement within a LibreOffice page, like we have fore templates and extensions. We need approval if we use the official logo[s] for LibreOffice and TDF.

So, look into the Person design specifications on Firefox's page. See if there is a way to create and export an image to a specific pixel size. Since I have not learned how to use Draw properly, I do not know this process.

- - - -

I use Corel Draw and Inkscape for my "vector graphics" images and Paint Shop Pro [5] and GIMP for the bitmap/pixel editing work. I use Ubuntu/Linux for my default OS on my desktop that I do most of my work. I use Inkscape and GIMP on them. I do use a Win7 and a Win XP/pro laptop[s] that I have Corel Draw, Inkscape, Paint Shop Pro [5] and GIMP installed on them. I have been using specific packages for specific design processes. Since I have used Paint Shop Pro 5 [and other] for many year before I looked into using any Linux system, I find it easier to use it for some image editing needs. Since I now use Linux for my desktop, I have been learning how it use GIMP for these editing processes.

To be honest, right now, I do not know much about Draw's abilities and how to use it properly. It seems to be a "vector graphics" editor. It would be nice if I learned that package well enough to use it for that, but I know other vector graphic package much better and therefore easier for me to do the needed design work. I have been using some packages since they came out in the Windows 95/98 and XP days. You use what it easier for you to use. Maybe I will take the time to learn how to use Draw as well as I know the other packages, but that is not "for the near future".

Thanks for all the ideas.

The same task can be done in your ways as well.

Regards,

C. H. D.

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I can't access to Youtube. Can anybody tell me what the video say or the
steps to Create Firefox Personas for LibreOffice 4?

The Personas used by LibreOffice is stored in the User/Gallery/Personas
folder. The access information is stored in the
User/registrymodifications.xcu file. The settings are in the
PersonasSettings. An example is given below.

<item oor:path="/org.openoffice.Office.Common/Misc"><prop
oor:name="PersonaSettings"
oor:op="fuse"><value>Header.jpg;Footer.jpg;#ff0000;#f5f5f5</value></prop></item>

Where the header and footer are .jpg or .png format. The text colour is
#rrbbgg format and the accent the same. Where #000000 is black and #ffffff
is white. The Firefox footer and accent are not currently used in LibO.

By careful copying and renaming, you can change the LibO personas without
needing the Firefox website.

Be careful when modifying the registrymodifications.xcu file. Always take a
backup before making any changes. Peter

My original response was just to show where the Personas were actually kept
on the LibreOffice system. These notes may be of interest for those who wish
to dabble further.

Adding Personas to LibreOffice does seem slightly convoluted, especially
compared with Firefox and Thunderbird. Don't forget that F and T are
designed to be online and provide an online repository for the images.
Originally you needed to download each image to update the Personas, only
one image was stored on your system using a common name. This was obviously
not ideal for private Personas either for private personal or business use.

The F/T PERSONAS PLUS Add-On provides a facility to manage Personas,
together with their Text Colours directly on your machine. This function is
called CUSTOM PERSONA. I actually use this function to test Personas using
Firefox and only add them to LibreOffice when they are ready to go.

One of this year's LibreOffice Google Summer of Code projects is to “Improve
Usability of Personas” which Rachit Gupta is carrying out. I, for one look
forward to what he produces. Personas Plus is an obvious starting point.

Oh, another wrinkle. It is only when you add the first Personas using
LibreOffice that the Personas folder “/Gallery/Personas” and the entry in
the registrymodifications.xcu file are created.

Changing the text colour may seem like an unnecessary luxury. However, the
default of black does not show up well on a dark image. Hope this helps..
Peter

Hi :slight_smile:
I think you can just follow the Firefox instructions to create a persona
that would work in Firefox.

Is it really as complicated as Peter's way or is that just a better and
more precise way of by-passing Firefox?
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

I wish there was a better way to do this.
I added a number of personas to the FF system, but LO did not [back then] take the text color option correctly from the FF persona settings. Yes the font color is really important for the darker backgrounds. Also, the icons in the toolbars might have problems with darker backgrounds, or at least it did when I created them when LO first started to use personas.

It would be nice to have a "persona editor" built in to the personalization option[s] so you can choose the background image[s] and the font color within LO and not have to do the "hard coding" in the setup file[s].

I currently use this "stone" persona. The "user count" states "0" but I know of at least 8 systems that are using this on for their version of LO.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/libreoffice-stone-one/

krackedpress wrote

I wish there was a better way to do this.
I added a number of personas to the FF system, but LO did not [back
then] take the text color option correctly from the FF persona
settings. Yes the font color is really important for the darker
backgrounds. Also, the icons in the toolbars might have problems with
darker backgrounds, or at least it did when I created them when LO first
started to use personas.

It would be nice to have a "persona editor" built in to the
personalization option[s] so you can choose the background image[s] and
the font color within LO and not have to do the "hard coding" in the
setup file[s].

The Font Colour option is currently broken when displaying the STARTUP
CENTER screen. This is fixed in 4.3. However you can bypass this problem by
reloading the Personas.

I have found that defaulting the Font Colour to RED #ff0000 gives a more
flexible look that suits more Personas than plain BLACK #000000. In that
case you can reload a Personas stored on you own system without the need to
restart LibO. Simply use a default header name, in my case Header.jpg for
the Personas, overwrite or rename the exisiting Personas in the folder and
do the following

Remove the Personas TOOLS > OPTIONS > PERSONALIZATION > Plain Look > OK
Reload the Personas TOOLS > OPTIONS > PERSONALIZATION > Own Theme > OK

You can use an image editor such as GIMP to create the Personas, save it
into the /Gallery/Personas folder and you have a basic in-house Personas
management system. Works for me..Peter