Scalable GUI for GNOME?

[grune]

I am new to FreeOffice, and liking it thus far, except for the GUI.

FO seems to be complied in QT. On a GNOME o/s like Ubuntu, FO GUI is very small.

Would anybody know how to scale (increase size) the FO GUI for the GNOME o/s?

[grune]

I found a partial solution, so excuse the question on grounds I am new.
The approach is to go through the FO menus; tools, options,,,
I cannot remember the entire sequence, because...

I found my way eventually to a menu button that enabled a larger UI.
I clicked the button, and the UI is indeed larger.
But I did not click the largest UI. I need the largest UI.

Now I have a new problem.
Everything in FO menus works, EXCEPT the Tools/Options menu.
When Tools/Options is chosen, the FO freezes.
I must use xkill to kill FO, then open FO again.

[SuperTech]

Thanks for reporting the problem. Please share a screenshot or screen recording (preferably) of the problem and sminfo.txt file which you can generate by clicking on '?' > About > Write system information.

[grune]

Greetings and thanks for taking notice.

Your suggestion to record the screen proved to be helpful in a very unexpected way. My Ubuntu 22.04 desktop is configured to use both ports of the nvidia card: 1 connects to 4k monitor; 1 connects to an hdmi-av converter, which then connects to the stereo. This makes the o/s think I have 2 monitors, which I cannot over-ride. If I screenshot, the pic shows 2 monitors.

Taking a screen video of the FO, revealed a very unexpected and unusual result: the FO Writer shows in monitor 1, while the Tools dialogue box shows in monitor 2. Weird. So I disconnected the hdmi and rebooted into 1 monitor. This allowed me to open FO Tools and configure the GUI (by playing with every button I could find) to something workable.

I then connected (live) the hdmi port, to find the FO GUI had resorted to the microscopic default. I clicked Tools, and lo the dialogue box appeared. I then played/set all options to a workable state. Rebooted with the hdmi connected. Lo, the boot succeeded and the FO GUI was preserved. So, I have now a workable FO GUI.

I have never encountered such a circumstance in 30 yrs experience; and never would have expected the main screen for an app would show on one monitor, and its dialogue would show on another monitor. weird.

Having resolved, I can see FO has many benefits and is simple to use for those who understand wordpro.

Is FO open source?

[lgsl]

I have never encountered such a circumstance in 30 yrs experience; and never would have expected the main screen for an app would show on one monitor, and its dialogue would show on another monitor. weird.

It's not weird at all. This is a normal occurrence when working with several monitors in desktops like KDE, GNOME, XFCE and so on. The way they handle monitors is quite poor and is by design. It's probably a remnant from the old days with Xinerama, where you just had a huge root window (aka desktop) that was split between screens. This is one of the reasons why you can't handle workspaces/pages per monitor. This could also be why if a screen is filled the desktop/window manager may choose to span the window in the other screen where there is room. However this also may have to do in the way how the window manager is configured. Also keep in mind that recent versions of GNOME defaults to Wayland. GNOME claims Wayland is ready for end users. Reality is that it is not, and this may also the cause of the annoyances you have been experiencing.

Is FO open source?

No. FreeOffice is not opensource. And by the way you did post in the wong place. This part of the forum is for the payed version that is called SoftMaker Office.

[grune]

Many thanks for your kind explanations: so very good to receive. I use X11 windowing, but this too seems to be susceptible to the issue you raise. And, my double apologies for posting here. But fyi, the "service/forum" button on the FO webpage links to this forum.
https://www.freeoffice.com/en/

[lgsl]

Here is the direct link to the FreeOffice 2021 forum: https://forum.softmaker.com/viewforum.php?f=407

And as I said: the behavior is due the way GNOME's Window Manager works. If you try with another Window Manager that is truly screen aware like Enlightenment or FVWM this should not happen, unless you tell it to always try not to place a Window over another one.

[grune]

Many thanks for your advice. I shall try one of the windowing you mention.

[grune]

Hello again.
I tried to install Crystal-fvwm, but no success.
However, I found a work-around... by changing system settings to 1 monitor. This change solves the disappearing windows, but disconnects my audio. This change enables the freeoffice to work fully, but in silent screen mode.
fyi... this windowing problem occurs for freeoffice only. No other apps are affected.
Thanks again for your help.

[lgsl]

It works for me in FVWM3.

You could add a style for FreeOffice in FVWM to force it to always open windows in your desired screen.

Something similar can ve achieved in KDE, as well as in Enlightenment 25.

The advantages of FVWM and Enlightenment over other Desktops and Window managers are that they are truly screen aware.

[grune]

Thanks again for reply.
Definitely, I shall attempt to install a different windowing system in Ubuntu 22.
If successful, I shall post the process and results.

[alphayash]

So in latest release of KDE Plasma folks presented a way to deal with blurry xwayland windows when using fractional scaling - either (if possible) try to scale app through app itself or just dont scale it. And honestly - it's amazing.! It worked flawlessly and actually most of xwayland apps i tested (discord, telegram, vlc i think) where scaled and just worked..

So my question is - is there any chances for this kind of feature to be implemented in GNOME (at least as a experimental feautre)?