Question about LO Writer and "complex documents"

users
#1

I still don't understand that problem of opening at the beginning
only;
          my documents always re-open at the spot where last saved.

#2

anne-ology wrote:

       I still don't understand that problem of opening at the beginning
only;
          my documents always re-open at the spot where last saved.

That's because you have put a/your name in the "User Data" section of
the "Options" dialog.
This is one of the program's little peculiarities :slight_smile:

#3

Anne,

If you are not experiencing the problem then you are probably using an older version of LO. This bug has now been fixed in the latest update of LO. Early versions always opened at the point where the cursor was located when the document was saved/closed. That was lost somewhere in version 3.x.x.x but has now been fixed in version 4.4.4.3.

I found it annoying because I am using LO to read fiction which is downloaded from the internet to my computer. Reading a long novel (>500 pages) and losing your place when closing the book sucks. The work around that I developed was to insert a string of "X" at the cursor point before closing the novel. Then on reopening the book, having to do a search for the string. But if I forgot, it was back to the beginning and having to search for where I was. Very frustrating, especially when compared to reading on the Kiindle which keeps your place even you have gone on and read 3 or 4 other things and then come back to the it.

Jerry

#4

Remember there is a simpler way - which does not require modification of the text.

To set a bookmark:
o Go to Insert | Bookmark... or click the Bookmark button on the Insert toolbar. (You could set a keyboard shortcut for this action if you preferred, of course.)
o Name the bookmark.

To return to the bookmark, either:
o Open the Navigator and double-click the bookmark name.
Or (more easily):
o Right-click the Page Number area at the left of the Status Bar and click the bookmark name.

o Shift+F5 ("Restore Editing View") should return to the last editing position - but this won't help for a document that you are merely reading and not modifying, of course.

Here's another idea: export your text to PDF and display it in Adobe Reader. There is a Preferences setting in Adobe Reader to "Restore last view settings when reopening documents". I suspect this applies only to those documents in the "recently used" list, but you can also configure how many documents that contains.

Brian Barker

#5

Good afternoon
I have been struggling with this for many years too.
(and I second the opinion "it sucks")

Although the offered solutions are "OK", they are still "clumsy".
Many years ago I used to work with WordPerfect.
It had a very simple AND convenient function of inserting a "quick mark" at the cursor position whenever you save a file.
And there was a shortcut key to return to this location.
So sweat; no naming of bookmarks; no entering strings of characters and doing a search etc.

If this was so easy decades ago, I fail to see, why we have to struggle in this hi-tech age with all cumbersome "work arounds".
Thomas

#6

Apparently you don't: I gather WordPerfect is still available.

Brian Barker

#7

As has been pointed out already, Libreoffice does this now (when you
SAVE it), as long as you have personalized it in the User Data.

If you meant just closing it without making any changes, the easiest way
to accomplish the same thing is to just make a minor change (ie, delete
a character then re-add the same character), then save it. The next time
you open it you will be right there.

#8

Thank you.
I am aware of this.
However, sometimes it works, OFTEN is does not.
AND, LibreOffice seems to be very restrictive: the function works ONLY if YOU are the owner and have created the document from scratch in LibreOffice.
Opening a document created by someone else in something else (Word etc.) using Writer and still expecting this to work
seems to be regarded as a form of heresy ...
Problem is: I constantly HAVE to work with these "other people other software" documents. (do NOT want to use Word)
Translation agencies send me those to "work with".

By the way, the same applies to changing the "view": if you dare to switch from "print layout" to "web layout" the cursor ALWAYS jumps to the top of the document.
And if you have one of those 100-page documents you will have to frantically scroll through dozens of pages to find where you were last.
Switching the view does NOT mean I saved the document.
Shift+F5 does not help either. It does not work at all, or it jumps to random places that have nothing to do with my "last position".

This is something I have been struggling with for years, on many computers and multiple versions of LibreOffice.
Unless somebody can actually prove (show me), that these little tricks CAN work .. I am forced to conclude that LibreOffice is not "up to the job".
(I think, I have tried to implement EVERY relevant suggestion ever made on this list over the years .. with no success)

Sorry for the complaining
Thomas

#9

Hi :slight_smile:
Glad you have found a solution that works for you. It is very annoying in
the use-case you describe but that seldom seems to crop up. I dunno why
though. I guess it is a lot less annoying for those of us who mainly use
single-page documents such as short letters or posters or what-not.

Dave Barton's solution, as raised by Anne Ology, has worked for many people
using many versions in the past - ie to use;

Tools - Options - General - "User Data"
(or the Mac equivalent)

to add some data into the name field and others. Note that you can use
completely fictitious names or random characters or whatnot. Years ago we
had some discussion about whether just spaces could be used but that is
probably pushing it a bit far.

It is weird that it usually works and makes no sense whatsoever. It's a
bit quirky but there we go.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile: