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I have installed libreoffice as a snap. In Ubuntu it uses th default gtk theme but in Elementary OS it doesn't. Is it possible to enable this or do i need to wait for the Elementary team to implement it.

This is how it looks right now:

Screnshot Libreoffice

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  • Can you post of image of what it looks like in elementary? It should have the new elementary window border at the top at least. Not being a native elementary app though it will not have the same themeing that apps like Files, Terminal, Epiphany, Maya, and others have.
    – pretz
    Mar 3, 2017 at 15:15
  • I dont know how to add screenshots to a post so i've edited my post, In other apps like VLC it uses the window border, but in libreoffice it doesn't. That is the biggest problem. Mar 3, 2017 at 15:52
  • It's certainly odd there are no window controls. But other than that it looks correct for non-elementary apps.
    – pretz
    Mar 3, 2017 at 17:22

3 Answers 3

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Snaps don't always work with the system stylesheet. An easy alternative is to use Flatpak apps from Flathub when apps exist in both places, because Flatpak has a mechanism to work with the elementary stylesheet.

To install an app from Flathub:

  1. Visit the app's page on Flathub
  2. Click the Install button on the web page
  3. Depending on your browser, Sideload may open automatically. If not, choose to open the downloaded file with Sideload.
  4. Read and agree to the implications of installing an untrusted app from Flatpak.

If this is the first Flatpak app you've installed, it might not show up in the Applications Menu until you log out and back in—future Flatpak apps will show up instantly. You can then uninstall the snap version.

It's typically recommended to use Flatpak apps on elementary OS instead of snap because elementary has officially backed Flatpak, elementary OS supports Flatpak out of the box, and elementary developers have put significant work into making sure it's easy to install and update Flatpak apps without having to use a Terminal.

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Snaps are what is called a "sandboxed" or "confined" package format. This means the amount of access that these apps have to your system is very limited. One of those limitations is that Snaps don't have access to the system stylesheet shipped with elementary OS.

LibreOffice is able to use the Ubuntu stylesheet on Ubuntu because it has been pre-bundled either with the LibreOffice snap or with the Platform Snap that it depends on. In order for LibreOffice to use the elementary stylesheet, the distributors of that snap would have to pre-bundle it.

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    This used to be accurate, but both Flatpak and Snap have implemented (or are working on) ways to get theming to work. So it might be slightly out of date, now. :) Dec 19, 2019 at 20:13
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use flatpak and run the bellow command, it will allow flatpak apps to use your theme, no idea why canonical doesn't expose the theme and icon folders already, snaps are doa just because of the theming, then again they are also perform much slower than any other option out there

flatpak override --filesystem=~/.themes
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    I never ran that command, and the flatpaks I have look exactly as they should.
    – rasmus91
    Nov 28, 2019 at 10:38

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