I recently had to do a complete OS reinstall and have lost my extensive list of recently used files from Libre Office? Is it possible to backup these up so they are available in a similar situation in future?
Yes, and it is as old as computer technology … called back-up.
Maybe starting to use a portable version of LibreOffice from a USB memory stick would help you big time with little effort. Keep your LO-portable installation and your files on a USB stick. This way any copy of this stick to an other stick, data carrier included your new reinstalled OS, ill contain all your files and all your presets of LO where ever you go.
Down side: this introduces the problem of managing multiple copies 
Hi Henk, thanks for the input.
I already backup all data files in multiple locations and wondered if I could get access to this “recently used” list so that it could be back-ed up also. Is there a specific file which contains this list?
I like the idea of LO on a USB stick but would also need KMyMoney, etc etc to avoid similar issues with those progs. The problem might then be that if there is a problem with the USB stick… I could lose my LO recently-added files list this way also?
Thanks,
Hello @Boca,
To export your Recently Used Documents list to a separate text file, you could call the following Basic macro:
Sub exportRecentDocumentsList( Optional strFile )
REM Exports the list of LibreOffice Recent Documents as URLs to a text file, in order of recency.
REM <strFile> : [OPTIONAL] Path to the text file to which the list of Recent Documents shall be exported.
REM If no argument is specified, the text file will be saved as "recent_documents.txt" inside your Home Folder.
Const strDefaultFile As String = "$(home)/recent_documents.txt"
If IsMissing( strFile ) Then strFile = strDefaultFile
Dim strHeader As String : strHeader = "LibreOffice Recent Documents ( Listed on " & Now() & "):"
Dim oPath as Object : oPath = CreateUnoService( "com.sun.star.util.PathSubstitution" )
strFile = oPath.substituteVariables( strFile, true )
strFile = ConvertToURL( strFile )
Dim aProps(1) As New com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
aProps(0).Name = "nodepath"
aProps(0).Value = "/org.openoffice.Office.Histories/Histories/"
aProps(1).Name = "enableasync"
aProps(1).Value = False
Dim oConfig As Object, oHistory As Object
oConfig = createUnoService( "com.sun.star.configuration.ConfigurationProvider" )
oHistory = oConfig.createInstanceWithArguments( "com.sun.star.configuration.ConfigurationAccess", aProps() )
Dim oOrderList As Object : oOrderList = oHistory.PickList.OrderList
Dim sOrderNames() As String : sOrderNames = oOrderList.getElementNames()
Dim iMaxIndex As Integer : iMaxIndex = uBound( sOrderNames )
REM Append the Recent Document URLs to the end of the file strFile.
Dim i As Integer
Dim iFNum As Integer : iFNum = Freefile()
Open strFile for Append as iFNum
Print #iFNum, strHeader
For i = 0 To iMaxIndex
Print #iFNum, oOrderList.getByName( sOrderNames(i) ).HistoryItemRef
Next i
Close #iFNum
End Sub
The list of recent documents can also be reached via the menu Tools : Options : LibreOffice : Advanced : Open Expert Configuration,
and then in the dialog that appears browse to the node org.openoffice.Office.Histories/Histories/PickList.
Hope it helps, lib
2 Likes
Excellent… thank you.
For now, I can just screen-shot the <<org.openoffice.Office.Histories/Histories/PickLis>> until I can sort out the macro… thanks again, Tony
You’re welcome @Boca,
After your question was answered, always remember to mark the accepted answer as Correct, and karma-permitting upvote it, so that other users on this forum can also see that it is a usable answer.
With Regards, lib
1 Like
Thanks for the reminder… I’m new to this board and wasn’t aware of the etiquette.
I think i have now marked as correct and up-ticked it…
Thanks again for your help.
Hello LibRebel,
Thank you very much for sharing your wisdom on this issue. Several times the Recent History list has vanished when an solicited s/w update occurred and I have searched many times for a resolution or work-around.
Have created the Macro and will run it frequently.
I can’t compete with @librebel. But he himself has not been active in this community for years.
Because this thread was revived today, I have edited the old very clear code a bit and rebuilt it to make the result sortable according to different criteria. I’m sorry if the code is no longer quite so clear.
See attachment:
pickListExperiment.ods (11.0 KB)
The recent files list is in the registrymodifications.xcu file. On my Linux machine with LibreOffice 5, this file is in ~/.config/libreoffice/4/user/. (The “4” subdir may be a leftover from my previous LO version?).
On Windows, I would expect that file to be somewhere under %APPDATA% (usually C:\Users\YourUserName\Appdata\Roaming).
The best is probably to copy the whole libreoffice directory to the new install.