In Writer, on the status bar, there is no indication of insert mode. also, the Insert key does not work, although it is assigned to Insert Mode. In other apps (e.g. Sublime Text) the Insert key works as expected. Is there something that I can do to switch from insert to overwrite mode and back?
from Switching Between Insert Mode and Overwrite Mode :
On the Status Bar, click on the area indicating the current mode in order to switch to the other mode:
- Insert
The area in the status bar is blank, when Insert mode is active. The text cursor is a blinking vertical line. Click on the area to activate the overwrite mode.
try in Safe Mode , you should get : 
and of course : more-details-3
2 Likes
Strange. When I opened Writer from Start Menu (which I never do), in normal mode, then pressing Insert shows the dialog and is working.
But then, when I click on a odt document (which I always do) and Writer opens, then the Insert key is not working in that document. The document was created in Writer 7 or so, my current version is 25.2. Other documents created in that old version have no problem with Insert key.
When I copied and pasted content from the old to the new document, then Insert is working, but the document requires some formatting. That’s acceptable.
Just for curiosity, is there something inside the document itself that could prevent the Insert key from working?
There are two layers of keyboard shortcuts: one for the current application, one for general LO. I don’t know the precedence order between them though I’d bet that current appl is queried first, general conf second. Consequently, if you defined Insert in the Writer layer it should always be taken into account.
Just for fool-proof, look at the other layer by clicking on the LibreOffice radio button.
Ok, the document where Insert was not working had enabled tracking changes (Edit > Track Changes > Record). No idea, because both Writer and Libre Office keyboard shortcut for “Insert Mode” was “Insert” key. Anyway, after disabling recording tracking changes, the Insert works now in that document