Quickstarter is missing from LO3.5.5. on Debian

AG1 · July 12, 2012, 3:09pm

Hi list

As the subject line says really - there is no option to activate the quick starter for LO3.5.5 using Debian squeeze. I downloaded and installed the LO3.5.5 today (after removing the previous version, which also did not have a quick start option), and find again that 3.5.5 lacks this.

Is this now standard with LO to not have a quick starter option or is this something peculiar to Debian packages or something else?

Can anyone advise how I can get this option back, because it really is helpful.

TIA

AG

Cley_Faye · July 12, 2012, 3:54pm

The quickstarter option was the source of many issues, and disappeared at
some point, since libreoffice now startup is way faster than before...

This discussion showed up some times ago. If I remember correctly the main
point of still looking for the quickstarter was to have a "handy" menu with
all libreoffice programs at hand, and this can be replicated with all
desktop environment.

elderdanlewis · July 12, 2012, 4:19pm

AG wrote:

Hi list

As the subject line says really - there is no option to activate the
quick starter for LO3.5.5 using Debian squeeze. I downloaded and
installed the LO3.5.5 today (after removing the previous version, which
also did not have a quick start option), and find again that 3.5.5 lacks
this.

Is this now standard with LO to not have a quick starter option or is
this something peculiar to Debian packages or something else?

Can anyone advise how I can get this option back, because it really is
helpful.

TIA

AG

The quick starter seems to be missing from the Debian versions on the LO website. I noticed that it is not in LO 3.4.6 nor 3.5.4. Specifically, what do you want to do? Open a component (Writer, Calc, Draw, or Base)? Open the splash screen? Depending upon what you want to do, a script could be written, made executable, and put on the desktop. Clicking the script's icon would do it for you.

--Dan

AG1 · July 12, 2012, 4:26pm

Thanks for this.

Can you please elaborate - or direct me to a site that explains - the "handy menu" part that can be replicated with the desktop environment?

Cheers
AG

Regina · July 12, 2012, 4:31pm

Hi,

AG schrieb:

Hi list

As the subject line says really - there is no option to activate the
quick starter for LO3.5.5 using Debian squeeze. I downloaded and
installed the LO3.5.5 today (after removing the previous version, which
also did not have a quick start option), and find again that 3.5.5 lacks
this.

Is this now standard with LO to not have a quick starter option or is
this something peculiar to Debian packages or something else?

Can anyone advise how I can get this option back, because it really is
helpful.

Is it only disabled, or is it build without Quickstarter? Do you have a executable file "quickstart". If yes, then I would try to run it and then check the option "Load LO During System Start-Up". If no, can it be enabled in the custom install? Do you can modify the installation (on Windows it is possible)? If it is build with Quickstarter, you should find it in the category "optional components".

Kind regards
Regina

AG1 · July 12, 2012, 4:45pm

Thanks Regina

Where would I likely find such an executable file, because it is not showing up when I run "locate quickstart"?

Thanks
AG

AG1 · July 12, 2012, 4:47pm

Hi Dan
I would prefer to select the component (e.g. writer, calc, etc.) that I require at the time rather than the entire splash screen, which is currently what's happening, unless I use the Applications/ Office/ menu in Gnome where I can select each component.

Thanks
AG

Tom_Davies · July 12, 2012, 5:10pm

Hi :)
During install/repair i got the option to add Quickstarter when i chose to go the "Custom" route, which i did due to asking a similar question about the quickstarter in WIndows.
Regards from
Tom

AG1 · July 12, 2012, 5:13pm

Thanks Tom, but I'm not sure that a Windows solution would apply to GNU/Linux Debian, but thanks anyway.

AG

planas · July 12, 2012, 5:27pm

Check Synaptic for an uninstalled libreoffice/lo package that provides integration with the desktop. I know Ubuntu has an LO quickstarter, so it appears that it is not installed by Debian by default. (I assume the quickstarter is part of the LO package and not an Ubuntu extension.)

I did not find a quick method to turn on the quickstarter.

elderdanlewis · July 12, 2012, 6:24pm

Jay Lozier wrote:

Hi,

AG schrieb:

Hi list

As the subject line says really - there is no option to activate the
quick starter for LO3.5.5 using Debian squeeze. I downloaded and
installed the LO3.5.5 today (after removing the previous version, which
also did not have a quick start option), and find again that 3.5.5
lacks
this.

Is this now standard with LO to not have a quick starter option or is
this something peculiar to Debian packages or something else?

Can anyone advise how I can get this option back, because it really is
helpful.

Is it only disabled, or is it build without Quickstarter? Do you have
a executable file "quickstart". If yes, then I would try to run it
and then check the option "Load LO During System Start-Up". If no,
can it be enabled in the custom install? Do you can modify the
installation (on Windows it is possible)? If it is build with
Quickstarter, you should find it in the category "optional components".

Kind regards
Regina

Thanks Regina

Where would I likely find such an executable file, because it is not
showing up when I run "locate quickstart"?

Thanks
AG

Check Synaptic for an uninstalled libreoffice/lo package that provides
integration with the desktop. I know Ubuntu has an LO quickstarter, so
it appears that it is not installed by Debian by default. (I assume the
quickstarter is part of the LO package and not an Ubuntu extension.)

I did not find a quick method to turn on the quickstarter.

If Ubuntu has an LO quickstarter, what is the name of it? What version of LO are you talking about? Ubuntu places its installed folder in /opt/. It then creates a link in /etc/ to the /opt/libreofficeX.X folder. When installing LO from the LO website, the LO installed folder is /opt/libreofficeX.X. I have both version of LO on my hard drive. On the command line, I entered "locate quickstart" one time and "locate quick". Neither one gave me a result in the /etc/ nor /opt/ folders. Ubuntu does have several files named quickstart, but none of them apply to LO.
These files will open LO in the corresponding component: swriter(Writer), scalc (Calc), sdraw (Draw), smath (Math), sbase (Base), simpress (Impress), soffice (the splash screen), and sadmin (printer administrator). In the shell script below, enter the name of the file you want to use based upon which component you want to start.

      To create a shell script file to start a specific component of LO you need to create a text file with two lines:
               #!/bin/sh
               /opt/libreoffice3.5/program/"specific file"
When writing the shell script, use the associated file name in place of "specific file" as in the two examples below.

Both of these scripts work on Ubuntu:
#!/bin/sh
/opt/libreoffice3.5/program/sbase

#!/bin/sh
/opt/libreoffice3.5/program/scalc

Save the file to the desktop, and then use the command line to make the file executable. Do this for each component that you use.
If you have a toolbar on your desktop where you can put these files, do so. I have Ubuntu, so I don't know about Debian.

--Dan

AG1 · July 12, 2012, 6:36pm

Thanks.

I did download and install the desktop integration packages for Debian from the ODF site, and there's nothing in synaptic.

Perhaps the quickstart has been deprecated in the 3.4.* and 3.5.5 releases?

AG

planas · July 12, 2012, 7:13pm

Dan

LO 3.5.5.2 Ubuntu/Mint 12.04 with Cinnamon desktop

Villeroy · July 12, 2012, 7:16pm

Am 12.07.2012 20:35, AG wrote:

I did download and install the desktop integration packages for Debian
from the ODF site, and there's nothing in synaptic.

Perhaps the quickstart has been deprecated in the 3.4.* and 3.5.5 releases?

AG

There is no quick-start application. When this anti-feature is enabled the normal soffice starts in a different way.
Do yourself a favour and abstain from any quick-starter. It is a true trouble maker when you install/update/remove extensions, when you update Java or the whole suite. Simply add your prefered starter buttons to your desktop environment.
Starting the pure application with its welcome screen takes one single click more. How many clicks could have been performed instead of piling up comments in this thread?

elderdanlewis · July 12, 2012, 8:10pm

Andreas Säger wrote:

Am 12.07.2012 20:35, AG wrote:

I did download and install the desktop integration packages for Debian
from the ODF site, and there's nothing in synaptic.

Perhaps the quickstart has been deprecated in the 3.4.* and 3.5.5
releases?

AG

There is no quick-start application. When this anti-feature is enabled
the normal soffice starts in a different way.
Do yourself a favour and abstain from any quick-starter. It is a true
trouble maker when you install/update/remove extensions, when you update
Java or the whole suite. Simply add your prefered starter buttons to
your desktop environment.
Starting the pure application with its welcome screen takes one single
click more. How many clicks could have been performed instead of piling
up comments in this thread?

Some information from the past. Using the executable files listed here, various parts of LO can be opened.(I've included the path to them since I have not made the program folder part of PATH.)
/opt/libreoffice3.5/program/swriter
/opt/libreoffice3.5/program/scalc
/opt/libreoffice3.5/program/simpress
/opt/libreoffice3.5/program/sdraw
/opt/libreoffice3.5/program/sbase
/opt/libreoffice3.5/program/smath
/opt/libreoffice3.5/program/soffice .uno:NewDoc
/opt/libreoffice3.5/program/soffice .uno:Open

soffice .uno:NewDoc opens the Templates and Documents dialog.
soffice .uno:Open opens the Open dialog. From here you can browse to wherever your document is located.

Since all of these files are executable, they can be made into applications with each of the lines above can be used as the command line entry.
Gnome allows me to add a list of applications to the panel. One of items on the list is Application Launcher. Using this, one of the folders within the Menu can be added to the panel. I can even create a new submenu within the Office menu.

--Dan

Miroslaw_Zalewski · July 13, 2012, 10:11am

I have never used quickstarter (for LO or OOo), but I can imagine it's
something like:
right-click on icon in tray
→ Open LO Writer
→ Open LO Calc
→ Open LO Impress
and so on.

So, it's a way to quickly open LO component of choice. And this indeed can be
easily reproduced with any/most of environments.

Anthony_Easthope · July 13, 2012, 10:28am

I thought most debian releases had unity or at least GNOME 3 as their
GUI and they all feature a Dock.
It could be that quick starter is unique to the windows release as
windows has that proviso on the taskbar

Miroslaw_Zalewski · July 13, 2012, 10:48am

There is no Unity for virtually anything apart from Ubuntu (+derivatives, such
as Kubuntu, Mint etc.). Fedora and Arch had packages for 2D version (that is
fallback version without desktop effects), but at least Fedora strongly
considered removing them. Unity was never in Debian repository. There was some
team that wanted to package Unity and put it Debian's repo, but there hasn't
been any progress for quite long time. It's unlikely to see Unity in Debian
anytime soon, if ever.

But most of distributions out there has packages of GNOME 3, yes.

Tom_Davies · July 13, 2012, 1:26pm

Hi
You are right. It didn't work when i got back to an Ubuntu machine. I made a right mess of uninstalling and then trying to reinstall to an unsupported (ancient) version of Ubuntu. I should just update Ubuntu on that one or perhaps try something else like Mageia or something.

The Windows version is quite different from the Gnu&Linux/Mac/Bsd one but things do often end-up working the same. Not the repair option tho.
Regards from
Tom

Hi
During install/repair i got the option to add Quickstarter when i chose to go the "Custom" route, which i did due to asking a similar question about the quickstarter in WIndows.
Regards from
Tom

Thanks Tom, but I'm not sure that a Windows solution would apply to
GNU/Linux Debian, but thanks anyway.

AG

krackedpress · July 13, 2012, 1:27pm

I use MATE with my Ubuntu 12.04 desktop, instead of GNOME 3 or Unity. Works better for me.

I do not like a tablet-looking environment for my desktop work. Win8 went this route and it was just bad.

As for the quickstart, well I prefer to have start icons on my top panel. Some extensions need the quickstart to be "turned off" to update, of at least they use to when I used a quickstart.

I find that with a desktop running a mid-range 2 year old CPU, LO starts up very fast compared to what it did last year, so a quick starting option is no longer needed.