I tried using this for the first time. Opened a new document. Can’t type anything. All I see is a blank page. Can click on the header but can’t type there either. Do not understand why this is so complicated. Been using MS Word for many many years so I am not an idiot when it comes to using a word processor. So how do I get this to work, and why is this so difficult when all I want to do is create a document?
You seem to have some files created with MS-Word. The files should have an extension like .doc or .docx .
What happens if you first start LibreOffice, go >File>Open then ,pick one of those files, and confirm the choice?
It might be a graphics issue, an anti virus issue, an installation issue or something else.
.
What operating system? What exact version of LibreOffice did you install?
In LibreOffice click Help - About LibreOffice then, in the dialogue that comes up, click on the icon just after Version information with tooltip Copy details to clipboard. Paste the details into a comment (click a comment bubble on another comment)
See Ask/Guide - How to use the Ask site - The Document Foundation Wiki
No problem when I open a Word doc. Problem is when I open a new file in LibreOffice.
Windows 25H2
LibreOffice Version: 26.2.1.2 (X86_64)
Build ID: 620(Build:2)
CPU threads: 32; OS: Windows 11 X86_64 (build 26200); UI render: Skia/Vulkan; VCL: win
Locale: en-US (en_US); UI: en-US
Calc: CL threaded
Can you see and use the menu? If so, click Tools - Options - LibreOffice - View and tick the box that says Force Skia software rendering. OK and allow LibreOffice to restart.
Does that fix the problem?
[Edit]
If you have selected the Tabbed user interface then you will have to toggle visibility of the menu by clicking the Menubar icon
I’m contributing now for more than 10 years to this forum (Q&A site) and I contributed to similar forums even earlier. There were thousands of questions and also very many bug reports which I read. Zero posts I read reported an issue like yours.
So I’m sure there will also not be anybody who has “a solution on stack”. There must be a very special problem.
Very strange problems can occur if the user profile is corrupted. It also contains document templates which might be afflicted, but in your case only the built-in template seems to be used. Otherwise you surely would have told us.
So, neither whining nor ranting will help, and you may need to consider suggestions based on guessing.
Thus:
- Did you already try a complete de-install/re-install of LibO?
- Can you find a second computer (same OS) on which you can try a new install with a newly downloaded installer (.msi)?
- Generally it’s not recommendable for newcomers who don’t need the newest features, to install a very fresh version (as 26.2.1 is currently). The LibreOffice site from which you downloaded should have told you so. I just visited the standard place and found it a bad idea how they pointed to 26.2.1.2.
I would have pointed you to 25.8.5.2
(available from Index of /libreoffice/old/25.8.5.2) or even to the final and best bug-fixed release of the 25.2 series: 25.2.7.2 .
BTW: What’s Windows 25H2 ?
This is a version number of Windows 11.
Thanks.
What about the "Win 11" then? Was it released in 2011? Or AD 11?
They’re crazy, I suppose
Win 11 = Windows 11,it has nothing to do with the year.
Are you interested? :
or in German:
I just was joking, of course.
This doesn’t mean that they are not crazy.
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That would be a Windows install which has been upgraded to the OS version published in the 2nd half (H2) of 2025, AFAIK.
No clue what changed. Rebooted machine, and now after opening a new LibreOffice Writer doc all seems to be working fine.
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