Please add a lock zoom feature on LibreOffice

[fugueink]

@Hrbrgr

@Hrbrgr

You have entered “Base” as the tag. Is it really the “Base” component of LibreOffice to which your question refers?

I think so. I use Writer and Calc, and I want the zoom frozen in both. I suspect if I start using other parts, I will want the zoom frozen in those as well. Do you advise some other tag?

@Hrbrgr

Which LibreOffice version are you working with?

Sorry! I do know better than to leave that out! LibreOffice 7.5.9.2 (X86_64), build cdeefe45c17511d326101eed8008ac4092f278a9 .

In which file format are you saving?

LibreOffice Writer (.odt) and Calc (.ods).

What zoom level is available when you open a new document?

It starts as 100 percent but like I said, it dances all over the place. I assume I am hitting the trackpad when I don’t mean to. It’s an oft-complained about problem with the MacBook, but my system is too old to run the third-party solution.

Have you entered your first and last name under Extras > Options > LibreOffice > General?

I can’t find the place to which you refer. Under LibreOffice > Preferences... > User Data, I have my first and last name and initials, and they have been there for several versions of LibreOffice. (I forget how long I have been using LibreOffice, but a very long time.)

@ajlittoz, I have the graphics is native on my MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012), which the ‘About this Mac’ says is Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB.

Did I miss any questions?

Thanks!

[ajlittoz]

@fugueink

I use Writer and Calc

Then the tag is common because the problem is “common” to several components.

@fugueink

I assume I am hitting the trackpad

Does the trackpad zoom requires two-finger touch? Sorry, I have no longer Macs. My laptop has a trackpad with a dedicated area at right for vertical scrolling or other special function. These functions are only activated when my finger is there. On the main area, I need two fingers at least to trigger “special” features.

[fugueink]

@ajlittoz

Does the trackpad zoom requires two-finger touch? Sorry, I have no longer Macs.

It says I need to pinch in and out, which is what I do when I do want to alter the Zoom.

The problem is that, given the size and placement of the trackpad, it is very common for other parts of the user’s hands to touch the trackpad. The trackpad assumes that is two fingers, and for whatever reason, when I do it, it triggers the zoom.

I cannot just turn it off, though. I am not young (pushing sixty), and my eyes don’t adjust as well as they used to. I need my computer to do the adjusting.

Thank you.

(How do a leave a blank line in this system? The preview for the post looks correct, but the post doesn’t!)

[ajlittoz]

@fugueink

How do a leave a blank line in this system?

There is a discrepancy between Answer (where everything is correct) and Comment (blank lines are suppressed). My trick is to add <br> at start of paragraphs to cause a blank line in-between.

@fugueink

I cannot just turn it off,

I’m afraid this is intrinsic to the OS. However, you can add a custom keyboard shortcut with Tools>Customize (this menu item may be located under Preferences in MacOS):

1. in Keyboard tab
2. select *View` in Category
3. click on 100% in Function
4. click on LibreOffice radio button at top right (because you want this function available in all components)
5. choose an available Shortcut Key (or replace a used one you’d prefer)
   but take care the same key is not used in Writer and Calc specific settings because it would take precedence
6. press Modify

This doesn’t disable the trackpad zoom function but you can quickly recover from it.

[fugueink]

@ajlittoz (Thanks for the <br>!)


The only Keyboard settings I can find are for the whole system, not just LibreOffice. And this is the closest to what you describe.

Of course, that doesn’t allow me to individualize by application. I need it frozen in LibreOffice and usable everywhere else.


I do have a View listing in LibreOffice, but it won’t let me post the image. Let me know if you want to see it, but I don’t see a way to do it there.


Please may I have a freeze zoom feature now? There really is no other way for me to do it.

[robleyd]

Feature requests

View | Zoom should give you some zoom options but it doesn’t have a freeze/lock option; note that it is at the very bottom of a fairly long list - you may have to scroll a little.

Shortcut keys should be accessible from within LO via Tools | Customise.

[fugueink]

@robleyd

Feature requests

Well, I *think* I filed an enhancement request. (I hate Bugzilla/GitHub/GitLab/etc. It's for programmers and I am not one.)

@robleyd

View | Zoom should give you some zoom options but it doesn’t have a freeze/lock option; note that it is at the very bottom of a fairly long list - you may have to scroll a little.

I don’t have a long list for Zoom anywhere. Not in LO, not in the OS, a very sadly short list is all I see.

Shortcut keys should be accessible from within LO via Tools | Customise.

Okay, there is a long list here.

There is a way to get it back to 100 percent, but I can already do that with my trackpad. What I want to do is to not have to do that.

Thanks. . . .

[ajlittoz]

The dialog you show is very different from the other platforms (Linux, Window$). I would never have imagined platform-customisation could do such a thing as to change the overall appearance of configuration dialogs.

[fugueink]

The only image I shared was within the macOS preferences, not LO.


The LO prefences under View make no mention of zoom or keyboard. I also poked about in Customize…, but I could find nothing that allowed me to freeze the zoom.

[robleyd]

tdf#159156

[JohnSUN]

@fugueink

Please may I have a freeze zoom feature now? There really is no other way for me to do it.

@fugueink

The problem is that, given the size and placement of the trackpad, it is very common for other parts of the user’s hands to touch the trackpad. The trackpad assumes that is two fingers, and for whatever reason, when I do it, it triggers the zoom.

Let’s look at the problem from the other side. Zoom jumps are just one manifestation of trackpad’s paranoid behavior, aren’t they? Do you need a trackpad that just interferes with your work? Or do you actually sometimes use it for its intended purpose?
If it is not needed (not needed every minute), then perhaps it would be easier to turn it off? In fact, if you connect a mouse, you will be able to block the trackpad and it will stop interfering with your work.

[fugueink]

@JohnSUN

In fact, if you connect a mouse, you will be able to block the trackpad and it will stop interfering with your work.

I use the trackpad constantly. I have had a trackpad for all my computers since the late nineties or early aughts, I forget which. I really don’t like mice. Never did. (Well, the computer ones, anyway. . . .) I tried trackballs and trackpads and trackpads won.


Besides, this computer is a laptop, quite literally. There is no room for mousing.


I don’t understand. What is the huge deal with a lock on a setting? Why not do it?

[JohnSUN]

@fugueink

Why not do it?

Well, maybe the developers are thinking about thousands of users with new and very large monitors and are afraid that if they fix zoom at 100%, then all these users will start writing a demand to return it to how it was because it’s too bad?

Update Okay, if you want it done, do it yourself. How good are you with macros? Perhaps something like this script

Sub setMyFavoriteZoom(Optional oEvent As Variant)
Const MY_FAVORITE_ZOOM = 119
Dim oViewSettings As Variant
  oViewSettings = ThisComponent.getCurrentController().getViewSettings()
  If oViewSettings.ZoomValue <> MY_FAVORITE_ZOOM Then oViewSettings.ZoomValue = MY_FAVORITE_ZOOM
End Sub

If you assign this code as a handler for the appropriate event, then with each accidental (and even intentional) zoom change, the macro will restore the zoom value specified in the first line of the macro. Yes, this will not block the change, but will allow you to immediately return to the desired value.

[fugueink]

@JohnSUN

Well, maybe the developers are thinking about thousands of users with new and very large monitors and are afraid that if they fix zoom at 100%, then all these users will start writing a demand to return it to how it was because it’s too bad?

I am not asking for it to lock as a default. I am just asking for a toggle that says “Freeze zoom at [field in which a percentage can be entered].” Or just a click box next to the zoom level that is “Lock”.

Update Okay, if you want it done, do it yourself. How good are you with macros? Perhaps something like this script

I am not a developer/programmer. If I was I’d be on Unix rather than Mac. And the whole point is to have it stay at a level. I can always get it back easily enough; it’s having to constantly get it back that is the problem. It sounds like a macro may not do what I need anyway.


I could do a little coding back in the nineties, but there’s no way I could get up to speed now. My brain is not what it was when I was in my twenties and thirties or even forties. My fifties, for reasons beyond my control, have not been kind to my brain or my coordination. Please consider that you may find yourself there someday, too.


If someone would code a macro that would actually freeze the zoom for me, I would be content with that. I just am spending all my time fighting the Zoom in LibreOffice. I’d hate to have to leave it—I’ve been for Open Source since I first heard about it all those many years ago.

[JohnSUN]

@fugueink

Please consider that you may find yourself there someday, too.

No, thanks, I’ve been there before. To be honest, I liked it there more than here.

I did a little research, trying to find a solution from LibreOffice - so far without success, the intervention of developers who know this part of the program better will be needed. An alternative solution would be to change the behavior of the trackpad on the operating system side. For example, this free program could probably help.

It could help, but it won’t. You said you are using macOS 10.15.7? Unfortunately, the MagicPrefs home page reports that

What can we do, none of us are eternal, especially free programs are not eternal.
Anyway, you can try. If it doesn’t work out, then there is also an alternative - BetterTouchTool. These are asking for money

Other words that Google told me on the same topic - Mos, GestureBlocker, HandsOff, StayFocusd, KillSwitch
I didn’t bother researching information about them (after all, my touchpad hasn’t worked for many years, I connect a bluetooth mouse)

[robleyd]

I love the TL;DR

[v_2e]

@fugueink

It starts as 100 percent but like I said, it dances all over the place. I assume I am hitting the trackpad when I don’t mean to. It’s an oft-complained about problem with the MacBook, but my system is too old to run the third-party solution.

I use MacBookPro9,2 (13-inch, Mid 2012**, according to their website) running Linux Mint 22.1, and I experience the very same problem with touchpad. Say, if I open a document in LO Writer, and put my two fingers on the touchpad area, the zoom starts to change very rapidly back and forth while I am holding the fingers. So it does not even necessary to make any gestures with the fingers. It also happens of course if I accidentally touch the touchpad with other parts of my palm while typing. It is really annoying, and I encounter such weird behavior in LibreOffice only. I would be happy to just turn it off, but I do not know how to do that.

So, it is not a MacOS-specific problem. I would rather expect this to be a hardware-specific problem.

[melonbird]

It’s more than the trackpad. I’m on a MacBook Pro and don’t use my trackpad, but use keyboard shortcuts. About half the times I click cmd+tab to go to a different app, I come back and the sheet has randomly zoomed in anywhere from 20 to 150 times what I had it set. I checked to see if cmd+tab was set as a keyboard shortcut for zooming in, and it isn’t. it seems to be some combo of cmd+tab plus using my mouse, but I can’t figure out a pattern.

[robleyd]

Cmd +scroll may zoom in Mac depending on system settings.

[fugueink]

My Mac has died. Until I pay a bunch of other unexpected bills down, I am stuck using a smartphone as a computer.

I am sorry I can’t try it. Thanks for the suggestion.