The Problem: When opening the LibreOffice Basic IDE (Macro Editor), the interface becomes practically unusable due to several specific UI bugs:
- Invisible Text: The code text is not visible or appears “pushed” above the top edge of the screen. Only the very bottom of the text cursor (caret) is visible.
-
Enter Key Broken: Pressing
Enterdoes not move the cursor to a new line; it simply returns the cursor to the start of the current (invisible) line. - Right-Click (Context Menu) Not Working: Right-clicking in the “Object Catalog” or the code editor window does nothing.
-
Persistent Issue: Reinstalling LibreOffice, using “Safe Mode,” and deleting the user profile (
registrymodifications.xcu) do not fix the problem.
Root Cause: This issue is caused by a conflict between the IDE’s rendering engine and the assigned editor font. If the default font has incompatible line metrics or if Windows scaling (DPI) interferes, the IDE fails to calculate line heights correctly, “locking” the text input area and breaking the UI hitboxes (which disables Right-Click functionality).
The Solution:
Follow these steps to restore the IDE functionality:
1. Change the Editor Font (Most Effective)
Forcing the IDE to use a standard monospaced font fixes the line-height calculation error.
- Go to Tools → Options.
- Navigate to LibreOffice → Fonts.
- In the right-hand pane, find the section: Font Settings for HTML, Basic and SQL.
- Set the font to a standard monospaced font like Consolas or Courier New.
- Set the size to 10 or 12.
- Click Apply. The text should now appear correctly within the window boundaries, and the
Enterkey will function normally.
2. Disable Graphics Anti-Aliasing
If the text is visible but Right-Click still doesn’t work or the UI feels “laggy”:
- Go to Tools → Options.
- Navigate to LibreOffice → View.
- Under the Graphics Output section, uncheck Use Anti-Aliasing.
- Also, try unchecking Use Skia for all rendering (if applicable in your version).
- Restart LibreOffice.
Result: Changing the font settings forces the Basic IDE to recalculate its coordinate system, which restores both the text visibility and the context menu (Right-Click) functionality.