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Nextcloud 34 introduced a new top toolbar which now only shows the current active app and a drop down menu for the remaining apps:
This is quite confusing for users who now don’t know, where all the apps have gone. Also you now need always two mouse clicks to switch the app. Also I don’t need the search box. The search icon on the top right corner is totally sufficient since the main use for the toolbar is not to start a search but to easily access apps.
Is there a way to get the old toolbar back or at least have more than just one app visible so the apps can be opened directly by clicking them?
As far as I know, there’s currently no way to do so. However, there are several open issues on GitHub with discussions and suggestions on how the new menu could be improved.
My favorite idea would be the ability to pin your most frequently used apps to the top bar, similar to how pinned apps work on the Windows taskbar or Start menu.
I also don’t think the old menu is likely to come back, as I doubt the Nextcloud team wants to maintain two different menu implementations. The old menu had its own drawbacks as well, especially for instances with many installed apps, where the navigation could become quite cluttered.
So, I think it would probably have to be a community effort to get the previous menu bar back , i.e someone bothered enough by the new menu would need to create and maintain an app for it.
Well - the old menu was totally fine for me. The current solution is complicating things a lot by forcing you to click the “menu” icon on the top left and not using the empty space besides the “search” box.
My users don’t use “search” anyway, but they miss their app icons now and I had to explain about 20 people how it works now. Some even complained, that it’s bit like with Microsoft and Windows - constantly changing the UI and look & feel just to have something “new”
Oh - and by the way: in this forum the “search” feature is also used by clicking the magnifying icon on the top right next to the user avatar. So people should be totally fine with this, since Discourse is also widely used and many other websites implement that in the same way.
Yeah, for me too, but you and I aren’t necessarily the measure of all things. If you have a lot of apps installed, it eventually gets cluttered.
Well, I wouldn’t necessarily call it “complicated”, and certainly not by “a lot”. It takes one more click, and it’s the same concept as Google (which is almost certainly the main reason they made it) and every other Start Menu-like app launcher thingy.
“Not using space” is one of the worst arguments, especially when you use the word “complicated” in the same sentence. I’d call it “distraction-free”, seeing only what you need right now, and for me, that’s the opposite of complicated. Cluttering up every bit of free space with icons, menu items, and a thousand options is what makes things complicated.
But yes, it’s less convenient, which is why my suggestion would be to combine the old and the new, keep the new menu, but offer the option, just like with the Windows Start menu, to pin apps to the empty space next to the “start menu”. The best of both worlds, so to speak.
Well - I defined “complicated” not as “there are many things to see” but as “things are harder to find”.
Many operating systems provide a kind of “task bar” to access frequently used apps like Windows 11, macOS with the “Dock” or KDE and Gnome in Linux. So the concept of having shortcuts to access apps is not the worst idea.
And just because Google provides a drop down menu to switch between GMail, Google Drive etc. does not mean, this is the best way to do this.
Yep, exactly. The problem, imho, is that they switched from one suboptimal solution to another, at least in its current state. I really hope the new Waffle menu, which I don’t think is a bad idea per se, will be further improved.
Yes, but that’s probably one of the reasons why it was done this way, because it’s familiar for users who switch from Google to Nextcloud. Also, the disadvantages of the old solution can’t be completely ignored, so instead of going back to the old menu, I have the following suggestions:
The ability to arrange the icons directly via drag and drop
The ability to pin apps, preferably in a taskbar-like arrangement next to the Waffle menu in the top bar.
Option to configure whether apps should open in a new tab or in the same tab.
Yes, indeed you must think about what people are used to, when you want to motivate them to use an alternative. But why is it then on the left and not on the right where Google has it? Ok, this would confuse long time Nextcloud users even more.
I agree that a configurable toolbar would be the best compromise. Those who are fine with a drop down menu can keep it this way, but others may decide to have some apps directly accessible in the toolbar.
