Sticky Toolbar panels

System - Ubuntu 12.10 32bit
LO Version 4.0.1.2 (Build ID: 84102822e3d61eb989ddd325abf1ac077904985)

I am not sure if this is a bug or feature request. It concerns Writer mainly.
I have discovered that I like to work with the Toolbars undocked and arranged either side of my Document. Here they form nice accessible floating panels, closer to the edit area, give me a taller edit area - nicer for my full page view and cover some of the blank space. (Screenshot attached).

Problem is, every time I close down LO, the position of the Toolbar/panels is lost and the program opens with no toolbars showing at all. Should the undocked position be remembered? However, the Toolbars/Panels appear correctly if I load a document saved in this layout. If you open a second window, it opens with no panels.

I tried docking at the side, but the drop down List boxes disappear, and the vertical toolbars just don’t seem to be as good as a width adjustable, movable floating panel.

Hi @Oldbwl,

Looks related:

Based on your experience, it sounds like the toolbar layouts follow a particular document, not the install or the user profile.

Here’s a bug that looks relevant:

  • fdo#60411 - CONFIGURATION: Writer don’t remember the toolbars - NEW

Thanks for the links. The bug is relevant. LO does retain the layout on a per document basis. It does of course also have contextual toolbars which I understand. But if it can remember the position for saved documents, then I should be able to create a master document? Something like the Normal.dot for Word? There should be a file somewhere which currently stores the colours, docked toolbars (and which icons show on them) which I could edit?

@Oldbwl – It sounds like you might want to set a new Default Template. I believe toolbar position, etc… is saved in this case. Take a look at the information in the Online LibreOffice help for Changing the Default Template.

Thanks, the perfect answer

Well, it would be the perfect answer - I checked the links saw the advice and thought, yes, I could do that. So sat down today to do the changes, and found that File/Template/Organize does not exist in 4.0.1 or 4.0.2. So I am back to square one.

@Oldbwl – Please take a look at @manj_k’s answer to this question.


Bug fdo#59427 - [Template Manager] low discoverability of new template manager - we could use “File → Organize templates” menu asks that the documentation be updated.

Thanks!

Followed the actions from the bug report and quite easily made the template I wanted. I now have the layout exactly as I wanted. Thank you for your help