When I open (or switch) docs, they open in new windows. I usually prefer to use just one window. Is this possible in Writer? It seems there are no file tabs, but can I view one file at a time and replace it with another as needed in the same window?
OS is Windows 10. LO version 24.8.4.2 (X86_64). Save format docx.
To the best of my knowledge, you can’t.
An approximative workaround is to use the Window menu to navigate between your documents. It works also with maximised windows without the need to shrink them to grab the target one.
PS: when asking here, always mention OS name and LO version (because there are subtle differences between platforms) and, when relevant, save format (because most recipes are only valid in native format .odt, .ods, .odp, etc.).
EDIT
You save your documents as .docx. Unless you have a stringent external requirement, don’t. This is not Writer native format. Therefore, it needs conversion when you open the document and yet another one when saving. Since ODF and DOCX are not based on the same primitives, there no one-to-one correspondence between how features are encoded. This results in approximative translations. Even a roundtrip does not return the same original document. This results in cumulative degradation of your document formatting. Beyond some number of edit cycles, your document would no longer accept deep editing without problems.
That is also my impression.
I believe I have heard that the MDI approach was abandoned because …
The feature request for it is 37134 – Tabbed UI: Document-per-tab (similar to Firefox, Opera, gedit) MDI