Restrict Apps - Writer Behavior

#1

Hi team,

I love the ability to restrict apps for users, thank you!

Is there a way to limit users to just the Writer app within Libre Office (this seems to have changed with 3.5.8 but was nonfunctional anyways in 3.5.7)?

In lieu of this, I’d at least like to just link to Writer on the desktop, how can I create a shortcut to just Writer and not the full office if it is possible?

Also, is it possible that the default is no access to apps for a new user unless proactively given? Basically, the UI is very difficult to use when creating a managing a user to deselect lots of apps or find apps quickly in the small window. Maybe a command line tool?

Lastly, is it possible to turn off the “more apps” section entirely for a user? Even limiting their choices to “disabled” or “early childhood” will present many apps that when a user is totally offline, they will never be able to get.

thank you,
Jeremy

#2
  1. Abra la aplicación llamada ‘Terminal’
  2. En esta aplicación, ejecute el comando:

eos-add-to-desktop org.libreoffice.LibreOffice-writer

1 Like
#3

Thank you, I’ll leave these as now the only open items:

Is there a way to limit users to just the Writer app within Libre Office (this seems to have changed with 3.5.8 but was nonfunctional anyways in 3.5.7)?

Also, is it possible that the default is no access to apps for a new user unless proactively given? Basically, the UI is very difficult to use when creating a managing a user to deselect lots of apps or find apps quickly in the small window. Maybe a command line tool?

Lastly, is it possible to turn off the “more apps” section entirely for a user? Even limiting their choices to “disabled” or “early childhood” will present many apps that when a user is totally offline, they will never be able to get.

#4

More Apps is special-cased and cannot be removed from the desktop.

#5

Is there a way to limit users to just the Writer app within Libre Office (this seems to have changed with 3.5.8 but was nonfunctional anyways in 3.5.7)?

Also, is it possible that the default is no access to apps for a new user unless proactively given? Basically, the UI is very difficult to use when creating a managing a user to deselect lots of apps or find apps quickly in the small window. Maybe a command line tool?

#6

Sorry, no, this is not possible. These apps are all part of the same Flatpak, and the app filtering system is based on entire Flatpaks. As you noticed, there was a bug where these “sub-apps” were shown separately.

There’s no UI for this at present, no. I believe that internally this can be done, but I don’t know how you would set it.

Agreed that this UI is hard to use. A redesign is underway – see this blog post by Georges Stavracas for some more details – so I’ll pass this feedback on.

I’m afraid not, but this isn’t the first time this has been requested. We could perhaps tie this to whether “App Installation” is disabled in the parental controls settings.

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#7

Also, “Disabled” here means “No restrictions” so it is not surprising that many apps are offered. There is an open ticket to change this label :slight_smile:

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#8

Thank you!

This was a great post to see, the metrics portion of it got me particularly excited also.

That would be fantastic.

#9

I realised after writing this that it’s not quite right to tie these two together because the app center’s “Installed” tab is the only place that you can see all installed apps that are available to you, but still, maybe we can do something around this.

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#10

Yes, good point. We still want users to be able to add from the Installed tab to their desktop, just not add new apps.

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#11

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