Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 2022
MRU file list should be user-configurable to more than 4 entries
Last modified: 2005-02-11 13:36:42 UTC
At present the MRU list is only 4 files long --- it should be possible to make this larger, up to, say, 10 files. This is particularly the case since the list contains files of mixed type (word processing, spreadsheet, etc.) Many users, like myself, who edit a lot of documents, often find it helpful to have a longer MRU list.
Reassigned to Falko. Remark: In the old 5.2 days, an entry like "pick=8" in the soffice.ini's [soffice-Picklist] section did this job (to be "hacked manually" = without UI, but at least it worked)
Please open the file <office installation>/share/config/registry/instance/org/openoffice/Office/Common.xml and search for the following subtree: <History> <Size cfg:type="int">100</Size> <PickListSize cfg:type="int">4</PickListSize> <List cfg:type="set" cfg:element-type="HistoryType"/> <PickList cfg:type="set" cfg:element-type="HistoryType"/> </History> The number of entries is defined by <PickListSize...>number</PickListSize. Set from 1 to 99 if you want. Currently there is no GUI to change this value.
This issue is re-assigned to Christian Jansen for further evaluation.
Normaly 4 entries are enough. Due to Carstens hint it is in my opionen not so important to add an item to the UI to allow more than 4 entieres.
In Microsoft Office the MRU list is user-configurable to up to 10 entries. Most users in our small company reconfigure this entry to list 10 entries in each application, and Microsoft Office has separate MRU lists for each application. It is easy to do this in Office: just open a single settings dialog box. Requiring users to open up an XML subtree is the same thing as saying that 99.9% of users will not have access to this feature. Average users simply cannot deal with this sort of thing, at all. I can imagine someone like my father trying to do this --- impossible. There are a large number of settings in Microsoft Office, and changing the size of the MRU list is one of the maybe 10 or so things that I find useful to change.
*** Issue 1360 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
For security reasons I need to be able to turn OFF the MRU in total. Will changing the PickListSize to 0 have that effect?
Mitsuharo, would a Basic macro to run inside OOo which does the same as modifying the XML file manually (and which would do this in a "more official" way, as it will not touch files which are an internal implementation detail of the configuration backend) change the chances of users accessing this? If so, we (okay, I assume it would be me :) could provide this. Chris, I do not know if changing the config entry to 0 would have the desired effect. However, I do not think that this would solve your security problem, as there still is the history list (available in the URL bar in the drop down list). At least this list would need to be adjusted, too. However, I strongly encourage you to open a new bug for this instead of misusing this one here - this definately is a very different problem. Thanks. Ciao Frank
I would like to add my voice as one of those who would like to see the ability to more easily lengthen the MRU file list. For one thing, even when I did as suggested and changed the PickListSize entry to 9 it did not change in the application - at least not under Windows 2000. Also, to be most useful, it should be application sensitive so that when in Writer you are only presented with Writer documents on the pick list. A macro to do this would not be as effective as being built into the application unless a reference to it was included in the help file.
Related issue http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=3077
*** Issue 3077 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
What about a submenu at the bottom of the "FILE" menu which says "Less recent files..."?
We should move the MRU list from its current location to a sub menu of in the file menu. This entry could be called "Open Recent" the sub menu should store 10 items. Reassigned to Bettina
This issue is listed as a duplicate of a similar issue against Linux. It needs to be fixed generally, not just for Windows. I modified Common.xml to set a limit of 20 files, but had to open Common.xml as root to do it. This limit should be settable from within oowriter, and should set a separate MRU list for each application.
This is terrible, this issue is almost two years old now, and nothing has happened! Some users want to extend the MRU list, others want it removed. I tried removing the menu item from Tools>Configure>Menu but I could not remove it from there, any reasons for this? Also, why can't there be a single input for the number of files in the list in Tools>Options>Load/Save>General ? If the list would be a menu item just as all other menu items, then users could remove it or move it to a submenu (ie. File>Recent Documents) In MacOSX applications the MRU list is a submenu with one menu item to clear the list.
Is anyone ever going to do something about this issue?
Here we are in 2004, and still nothing seems to have been done. There is a duplicate in issue 5114, which is nearly as old as this one, if not older (I haven't checked). Well as a voluntary qa member, I'm going to set the oooqa keyword too.
As a new user, currently operating in Win2000 but moving to Xandros when I can, I would like to add my support to those calling for a longer MRU list. It doesn't matter TOO much if it is a mix of applications, though separating thwm would be useful. But restricting it to 4 is just too small, esp if I am in WP mode and all 4 are spreadsheets! I agree wholeheartedly with the small business user - you cannot expect SMEs to use the product if it does not have at least the useful functions which are in the product they are giving up (MSOffice). Ian
*** Issue 28971 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
We run into the problem, that the history in Common.xcu grows up huge. We generate temporary documents and load them into writer via CLI. After viewing and printing, the file is deleted because not needed any more. So we have a history grown up with files that do not longer exist. Will try to use the <Size cfg:type="int">100</Size> pragma mentioned in a similar issue. But it would be better to limit the history size by gui. And: it shouldn't only limit the visible MRU but also the stored entries in Common.xcu.
No go! On 1.1.0 the "<size>"-pragma has no effect. It is ignored and deleted by OOo. So the history grows indefinetely?!
I tried to look for this file: <office installation>/share/config/registry/instance/org/openoffice/Office/Common.xml which a comment from 2001 suggested would contain this setting. However, in my installation there is no Common.xml file at all (OOo 1.1.1 on Win XP) Is there a way to change it in the current version of OOo?
as a workaround you can use this macro: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=87718&package_id=100070
When I run the suggested macro from sourceforge, it happily tells me that my list has been updated to contain 12 entries, but there's no discernible difference in the way that Writer actually behaves :-( I have to agree with the earlier posters: OOo should work much more like Word in this regard. Perhaps having a list that has only four entries would (maybe, possibly, although admittedly unlikely) be OK if the list was maintained separately for each application, but it's almost useless the way that it is currently implemented. After editing four documents in Writer, it is very frustrating to open Calc and see that none of the four entries on the MRU list has anything to do with the Calc application.
We now run in the problem, when the history is to big (don't know how mutch entries) the COMPLETE Common.xcu is set to the default values!!!! All user settings are thrown away. Not very good :-( This only happens to users who use many different documents.
*** Issue 19145 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
*** Issue 16308 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
setting keywords, reassigning, OS/Platform: ALL, fixed typo in summary
*** Issue 39000 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
For OOo2.0 the MRU list moved to File>Recent Documents. It is also extended to 10 items. See spec for details.
// task closed