Since several updates ago, Writer will not open where I left off. It used to be that I could fill in user details (name, company, email, all that) and it fixed the problem. However, this is no longer the case. I tried the old Shift-F5 trick, but no luck. Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? TIA
To get useful help, mention minimal technical information: OS name, LO version. Have you filled in user details? (Please, check twice)
In case you’re under Windows, try to restart in safe mode. Also, reset your user profile (updates under Windows tends to corrupt it).
It works for .odt files; it might not work for non-native formats like .doc.
2 Likes
Hi,
Yes, it’s saved in .odt format. Windows 10, latest build, completely updated. Latest version of LO 7.3.3.2 Win64.
Yes, every field in user details filled out. Really weird. At some point - an update I assume - it quit.
Thanks for your reply; sorry for my slow response.
1 Like
tdf#146988 fixed in 7.4
1 Like
Unfortunately, it is still not fixed in v. 7.4.5.1, Running Arch Linux here.
It is NOT fixed in v. 7.4.6. Running Windows 10 Pro.
Still not fixed: 7.4.7
This is one of the basic things a writer app should do, before all other fancy stuff. Trying to find the spot where i left off, really kills the workflow. Let’s hope one of the volunteers will here our calls 
1 Like
Imo there is a zeroth law of bug-hunting:
Where there is no unambiguos specification of the correct behaviour, nobody can tell if current behaviour is a bug or not.
Somebody may now call me a fool because “it’s completely clear what’s needed”. What about a document edited by many users who may want to continue at their last position (different profiles)? How would the “user” re-opening the document be identified? Should they be at all? Should the “last position” be stored to the document and nowhere else? Should the next different user openening the dcument know at what position the previous user was editing? Shall each user decide on their own if they want their “last position” remembered? Shall …?
Is it really just about “Opening where I left off”? Who is me and how many are they?
Hi Lupp, I tend to disagree
It is not that complicated. There is no need to have a “bug report” for a common sense practice. In that logic, you could also argument, that the program is not broken, when it is no longer possible to type - maybe some users would like to add graphics instead?
A (modern) document writer should always resume, where a user left off. And IF there are multiple users in a document, of course it should resume for each user accordingly. If this (intuitive behaviour and comfort functions) is igniting a debate, than the state of FOSS is worse, than I thought.
Me too! Definitely.
A usual demagoguery: an idea “if you disagree, then you are idiots”, wrapped into a good-looking wording. As if what you thought had any value for others.
But this exact issue creates debates and changes implementations in e.g. MS Word: for long time, Word used the single _GoBack hidden bookmark; but in later versions, they do not write it, and instead, write bookmarks (in an undocumented form) somewhere to the user profile (again, undocumented place - it is likely in cloud, maybe also locally). This, indeed, allows to store positions per user; but (1) it requires to know who the user is (see @Lupp’s points) - trivial for a suite requiring you to authenticate yourself to use it; and (2) it brought the same problem - unreliable re-positioning (I was amazed when Word couldn’t reliably find the last position in a document, which BTW was only edited by myself) - likely because their new system is not based on exact position in text (because the text and the bookmark are separate), but on some coordinates, like we have in LO.
I don’t even start asking what “last position” would be in a multi-user editing scenario, when your last edits were overwritten by others, when their editors don’t know your position (it is only known to your profile), and so can’t move it accordingly…
Hey Mike, no need for insults. No, I don’t think everyone else but my opinion makes them an idiot. Actually, I never meant this to be about opinions at all. It’s about regular joes (aka users, aka me) and developers (you, Lupp, and the army of volunteers) and misunderstandings. The developers describe a user case, that is sth like a rocket ship - actually, I never thought of something so simple to be described so complex. Of course, you can add more and more possible cases to the problem, like “what happens when multiple users work in a document and then the last cursor position is deleted” and so on.
But a) we are talking about a word processor here. 90% of user cases is (which is just a complete wild guess) a single user writing in its own personal documents. No, I don’t have a statistic for that.
And b) the problem seems exagerated. The function already exists as working shortcut (shift + f5): Resume, where the last cursor position left off. A modern and intuitive, user friendly app resumes, where the user left off - You are right, this is an opinion.
Now, you can argue against that. Maybe for you, this is neither modern, nor intuitive, nor necessary. I get it. Maybe, I am just wrong. Maybe that is what you mean by arrogant demagoguery, speaking only for my own use case, screaming in everyones faces how stupid they are for not sharing MY wishes. So, before this gets out of hand. I rest my case and switch to another word processor, that works for me.
See also: Apache OpenOffice Community Forum - Set document to open where you left off typing - (View topic)
(I wouldn’t post the Shift+F5 as a solution, however. But a Master Of The Code -I’m talking of @mikekaganski- might check the hypothesis posted in the linked bug comment, and even derive a possible partial and limited fix from it.)
If you look at tdf#141586, you would see that the on-going layout process was mentioned there, as one of the factors affecting the complex problem.
The mentioned values are defined as coordinates related to application window, as shown in the steps below. This makes the restoration of the position error-prone, dependent on application window size, multi-page view, ongoing [r]e-layout, etc.
The current problem, as funny as it is, IMO is that MS abandoned their _GoBack for unclear reason. If they wouldn’t, then implementing this in LO would be unproblematic; but at this stage it looks like we would implement a bad, abandoned feature. And I am personally unsure why would they abandon it - maybe there’s more than just “we don’t need it anymore” - maybe there’s e.g. some security concern, or the like. Having a bookmark in the text itself would kill the problem once and for all (it wouldn’t solve a “multiple users with own points” situation, but why not have a user name in the bookmark, too…), because then the position would not depend on anything but the text itself, and putting a cursor to a point in text (as opposed to coordinates in window) is something we can do reliably.
Yes I’m a coward 
As always: Extremely interesting! (As far as I understood.)
Did you also throw a glance on my (all but perfect) suggestions here?
I would even assume such bookmarking would survive most of “editing accross”. (Disagree?)
The fundamental problem with my suggestion is (imo) the need of user code. A “core” feature allowing to set special automated bookmarks would help. Alas! Additional options/settings must be limited, and common (vulgar?) users would surely insist on using idiotic “locale” DT formats, when actually UTC should be mandatory.
1 Like
Agree. We are on the same page. Having bookmarks would be good, solid solution. I didn’t think about more flexibility, like having a stack of older positions, or putting it at will (not only at save) - but that indeed could be achievable. Having the extra information could be done not as bookmark name part (which could not survive DOC(X) roundtrip, which is always a concern for us - because Word’s bookmarks only allow <=40 character long names), but as a bookmark attributes (which would not survive DOC(X) roundtrip because of lack of format support for the feature 
)
… but what is missing is a brave soul to implement storing that single _GoBack bookmark as a starting point, after which, further evolution built on top could become possible.
1 Like