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openoffice.org package

"Recent Documents" are not so recent

Asked by Frijolie

I'm often working with numerous OOo Writer files, which I save constantly. After closing one (or more) of them they aren't appearing in the Recent Documents (Places > Recent Documents) menu. I've even tried logging out/in, shutting down, restarting, and they still do not appear. It would be great if I could see all of them appear in that menu for speedy retrieval. I know that OOo Writer has it's own Recent Documents menu, but that requires that I load that first. It would be great if I could load it from my desktop (subsequently launching Writer and the specific document with one click)

How does this menu system work? What determines if they appear in there or not? I've google searched this question and I've found many questions about how to disable the menu but I'm looking for the opposite--I want to increase the population of this menu.

Currently I'm using Intrepid and OOo v 3.0

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Sam_
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Revision history for this message
juancarlospaco (juancarlospaco) said : 		#1

Maybe they are stored in Recents of OpenOffice Menu, check configurations for OpenOffice.

Revision history for this message
Frijolie (frijolie) said : 		#2

Right, all are saved in OOo Writer and then some are also saved in Places > Recent documents. What determines which are saved in the Recent documents? That is my underlying question...I would like them all to also be saved to the Recent Documents menu.

Revision history for this message
Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#3

Hi,
also never found any answer about the corresponding file of 'recently opened files' in the menu 'Places'.

Depending on the version of OpenOffice, e.g. 2.4, the recently opened documents show up in Common.xcu
Path is:
.openoffice.org2/user/registry/data/org/openoffice/Office

If your history in OpenOffice doesn't work correct, you may rename or move this file, restart OpenOffice, then try again after opening serveral files if the history appears.
I couldn't find out which setting says to keep 10 and increase it as you suggested.
You may ask developers or search here,
http://documentation.openoffice.org/

To open a specific document right away from e.g. the panel, just pull it there.
If the writer should always start with the same file I'd try to put the path of it into the starter command.
Another way is to add it to templates and give it command standard for opening, in the menu section manage templates.

Hope this helps a little.

Revision history for this message
Frijolie (frijolie) said : 		#4

I'll try moving/deleting 'Common.xcu' and see if that makes any changes. Thanks for the suggestion.

My OpenOffice history works great, all of my recently opened/changed/saved documents appear in their File > Recent Documents menu. My issue is with Gnome and it's Places > Recent Documents menu.

I was just hoping that document history from OpenOffice was also populated in the Gnome Places > Recent Documents history. To me, it's strange that some of the OpenOffice documents make it to the "Recent Documents" in Gnome and some do not. I don't understand why this happens.

Is this a Gnome or OpenOffice issue? How can one tell?

I do not want Writer to open the same document all the time. I just wanted to have the option to choose which document in OpenOffice to open from the desktop, that's all. Is this an unreasonable expectation (I mean this humbly)?

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Best Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#5

Hi,
I'd say it's not an issue it's a 'feature', stating OpenOffice and Gnome are independent apps and not related.
Ubuntu in specific and *nix architecures in general are complex (not obligatory complicated) systems and build of consistent modules.

For the record:
Running OpenOffice from any menu and opening a file within OpenOffice, e.g. through recently used documents, either calc or writer document, will not show up in the Gnome Panel Menu Places 'recently opened documents'.

An OpenOffice file which was opened by double click, e.g. in a folder within Nautilus, will show up in Gnome Panel Menu Places 'recently opened documents'. Nautilus belongs to the several projects of Gnome.
http://library.gnome.org/users/user-guide/stable/nautilus-presentation.html.en

How to open a certain OpenOffice file and not starting an unnamed blank sheet, by not having it saved separate at the desktop or in the panel, my idea would be as follows:
Right click on panel, add to panel, the 'draw'.
Right click at draw, add to draw a user defined starter. Lets name the starter 'private', in the command we write the path to the file 'private', e.g.
oowriter /home/user/myfolder/private.odt
From now on, when we need this specific document right away, left click draw to open it, click on 'private' and there you go.
You can even give the starter a user defined symbol. Click on the symbol and navigate to e.g. /usr/share/pixmaps or /home/user/.icons, to open the folder you have to click again on 'open', choose a symbol, finished.

I'd say further nothing is 'unreasonable expectation', everything is possible.
Options are:
Talk to developers.
Use different architectures, panels, docks, window manager, file browser or whatever the *nix world has to offer.
e.g.
http://www.plig.org/xwinman/

Enjoy Ubuntu

Revision history for this message
Frijolie (frijolie) said : 		#6

Sam, thank you for such a comprehensive response! I think you've cleared it up for me.

I would also agree that this could be considered a "feature" and is not really an "issue". As it only enhances my desktop experience and doesn't provide a required function of the application.

I also believe that you have explained the differences why it appears in the menu and why it does not. I can confirm that it only appears on the Gnome "Recent Documents" menu when I have double-clicked it within Nautilus. I don't know why I didn't notice this before. I cleared out the "Recent Documents" and then double-clicked an .odt file and sure enough--there it was in Places > Recent Documents.

The reason I wanted to get to them from the desktop was because I'm often working on a document over an extended period of time, for many times, and usually for many days at-a-time. I thought it was rather cumbersome having to load OOo Writer then doing the File > Recent Documents > Filename.odt. Then I noticed that only some of the documents were being "pinned" to the Recent Documents menu in Gnome. I found that puzzling why some were and some weren't and I guess I never put it together why it was happening. From here on out, thanks to your help, I will be opening a document from Nautilus (if I plan on using it for an extended period of time). That way it will be "locked and loaded" in the Recent Documents menu in Gnome.

Thanks again for your help!

Revision history for this message
Frijolie (frijolie) said : 		#7

Thanks Sam, that solved my question.