Experimenting with the Track Changes feature Writer created a small file with a name beginning with a dot. This file shows in Windows in the Quick Access list as a Download directory file, but the Download directory does not show it, so it cannot be deleted (not allowed in Quick Access). Writer shows this file as one of the documents available, but when selected says file cannot be found. The file cannot be found in Windows search. Writer is messing up the system directory in Windows with this, perhaps a bug exists in the program.
Yes that type. I just have to find how to close a file in this fancy program. Exiting the program does not seem to do anything. Will check more, thought I had hidden files shown, maybe not. Thanks for details all.
Hi. This isn’t an answer. Please hover over the more at the lower right of your answer and click repost as comment. Cheers, Al
Sounds like a lock file, does it look like .~lock.Filename.odt#? If so then it will be deleted when the file is closed. It is to indicate to a program that the file is already open, and prevents simultaneous edits on the same file.
Microsoft came up with the lock file concept for MS Office years ago and Writer implements it for compatibilty. If it worries you to see it, then you can untick in File Explorer the box that says Hidden Files. Cheers, Al
Note that if Libre crashes before it could clean up, lock files will not be deleted. When that happens, you have to delete them yourself.
True. In that case you will have to tick the box that says Hidden files in order to find and delete it.
Curious that it appeared in Quick Access, lock files don’t normally. I shifted an .odt to Downloads, opened it, and then opened the lock file in Notepad; that made the lock file appear in Quick Access
For the curious the lock file contains:
NameIEnteredInLO,PCname/username,PCname,07.12.2020 12:08,file:///C:/Users/username/AppData/Roaming/LibreOffice/4;Maybe LO has crashed? Ctrl+Q should close the program, it will probably ask if you want to save the file.
If nothing happens after a few seconds then try Ctrl+Q again. At this point Windows will ask if you want to wait for LO to respond or to close it now. You can select Close now.
If you had something open that you want to keep, then after LO has closed, open just the program and it will offer to recover the files that you were working on. Accept that and once the files are open Save As another name for the ones you want to keep.
I always reckon that you should restart Windows as soon as possible after a crash