Writer not focusing on text - scroll does not follow while typing

[mdrich]

Software: Mac OSX edition of LibreOffice writer on an Intel Macbook pro laptop

What is happening: Typing and reaching the bottom of a page does not scroll forward automatically. I can continue to type, but I have to manually scroll down to see new text. This happens indefinitely, meaning I could type a whole page blind if I don’t scroll forward.

What should happen: When reaching the bottom of a page, focus should follow to see what I am typing.

When did it start: I believe it was a shortcut of some kind that I accidentally pushed yesterday that I can’t find now. I think it was something to do with the bottom left side of a qwerty keyboard and the cntrl, fn or option keys.

Steps attempted to fix: Reviewing top bar in the window, reviewing “view” options and “Window” options. I don’t even know what the option would be called. Restarted LibreOffice (cmd+Q and restart).

Is this an option or a bug? If it’s an option, what would it be called? It’s a bit surreal to know that I’m typing and it’s actually entering data off screen. I’m not used to that in a word processor.

[EarnestAl]

You could test with a temporary user profile to see if problem is resolved, LibreOffice user profile - The Document Foundation Wiki

If the issue still exists in LibreOffice safe mode or with a temporary profile then you should report a bug, How to Report Bugs in LibreOffice - The Document Foundation Wiki

You could check that View > White space is ticked, someone mentioned that it might cause problems for people if unticked.

[ajlittoz]

A fool test (but you never know with computers): your window may have grown to a size much taller than you screen so that you no longer see the bottom of it. Move the cursor to the top border (it should change to something with up & down arrows). Click and drag the border down. Release. Click in window title bar and move upwards. Can you see the bottom border (and the status bar) now? If not, do it again until the window has a size compatible with your screen size.

[LeroyG]

@ajlittoz

Click and drag the border down

Or just, double click in the title bar. Not sure if that works in OSx.

[ajlittoz]

@LeroyG it should work too, but it is important to then force a manual size. Otherwise, next time you click on the “maximize” button in the title bar, it will return to the mammoth size and bottom will be lost again.
Forgot to mention that I met this mishap.

[mdrich]

Thank you everyone for the suggestions,

Fortunately and unfortunately the problem was solved spontaneously before applying any attempt from this list properly. For record keeping, I will reply to each answer that I do have information for.

@EarnestAl I was going to try the safe mode and then white space, but restarting for the next day and I don’t know how many times suddenly had it working again before testing. I will say that the “show whitespace” was likely not unchecked only because the other view changes that appeared were very jarring and noticeable otherwise.

@ajlittoz Good suggestion, but I often work in reduced window mode with the view centered or just off center with some other windows behind or around with reference information. I did extend to full screen to check before the spontaneous resolution mentioned above. Full screen up from my usual view size didn’t solve it.

At this point I have no idea what the issue was or what the solution was beyond sleep and another restart. I believe the issue did persist in other files as well. I often have two files saved per project, and the backup also had the same issue at one point during this issue.