Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 37201
File > Recent Documents should be deletable
Last modified: 2016-04-09 10:51:22 UTC
To protect the user's privacy if more than one user uses the same computer, or for various other reasons, it may be necessary to delete the contents of the File>Recent Documents menu, but I can find no way of doing this at present. I would suggest putting an additional menu item at the bottom of this list, separated from the list of recent files by a horizontal line, with a name along the lines of "empty this list", which immediately removes the list of recently used files (possible with a confirmation dialog), and also clears the contents of the LoadURL drop down list (when reinstated).
RU: reassigning enhancement to bh
This feature is present in Office and is one of the most fundamental issues that affects computing security. This is neccessary, or rather, mandatory in environments where government or even military usages is expected of.
Still present in 1.9.72.
Requesting that "Summary" be changed to "File > Recent Documents should allow configuration of number of items to display". We have a need that is the reverse of this item, and that's to display more than the 10 documents in the list. On higher resolution monitors (1600x1200) there is a lot of room to display additional documents. If the configuration allowed you to configure "0" (zero) items then it would meet the needs of this original report. Let me know if you want me to break this off into another feature request issue.
drichard: This should really be a separate issue. While allowing changes to the number of displayed items may provide a work-around to the problem depending on how it is implemented, it woul not be a real soultion. Indeed, if the configuration option oinly changes the number of items displayed, and does not change the number storred in memory, it would not provide a solution at all. What is needed is a simple option to remove all storred file paths from memory. As for changing this issue title - the issue described by drichard is not the same issue, so should be handled as a separate issue.
This isn't fundamental to computing security, really, is it? If you want privacy, run each user in their own account.
This is important to many users and questions about how to clear the list are posted often on www.oooforum.org. Sometimes you want to protect your privacy, sometimes you just need to clear the list because its full of temporary files you opened on your desktop etc. Adding a "Clear recent documents" menu item at the bottom of the list is a good solution.
I need this too. Not for security reasons, as I am the only one using my PC, but just for my convenience. The Recent File List is OK, but what is needed is to be able to add or remove any file from the list, making it more like a list of favourites. An option to clear the list or change the number of items would be a help, but is not that useful. I use a free Wordpad replacement called Jarte that implements this perfectly. When you have a file open you can opt to open it at startup, include it on the File menu recent file list, or remove it from the list. You can also add favourite directories to the list, but that may be too much for most users. Just a simple checkbox is all that is needed to add or remove an open file from the recent file list. I attach a screen shot from Jarte's open file menu.
Created attachment 33328 [details] Suggestion for Recent File List
So... I wandered the web for a while and was unable to find any resolution on this. There are a couple places that suggest that Recent Documents can be cleared via macros - but I found no concrete list of steps. There are lots of macros and after 15 minutes or so I got sick of hunting through them. Being very serious about putting off more productive pursuits - I continued to look at this issue. I searched my profile information and found the file where recent documents are stored. I'm running Fedora Linux 4 - other OS's may vary. Looking at file dates, I determined that most OO config info is under the .openoffice.org2.0 folder in my home directory. After running openoffice and opening a new document I ran the following command, to determine where information about that document might have been stored: % find . -mtime -1 -ls I ran this under the .openoffice.org2.0 folder. I got back a bunch of files and with help from grep discovered that the new document location was stored in ./user/registry/data/org/openoffice/Office/Common.xcu relative to the .openoffice.org2.0 folder. This looks like a custom xml format, file entries are bounded by <node> </node> delimeters and appear to consist of 14 lines. I edited out the files I didn't want appearing in my recent documents list and started up openoffice again. This file appears to contain a more extensive history of documents viewed than what shows up in Recent Documents. I backed it up before editing it in case there were some unanticipated effects. Everything appears to have gone as planned. I too would like to see a way to clear Recent Documents but until one shows up - the above method, while admitedly cumbersome, seens to work.
I'd like to have this facility. It does seem odd that something so simple, with implications for acceptability of the product in sensitive environments, can have languished since 2004.
I’ve tried the following experiments with Common.xcu (Go to <Documents and Settings – [username] – Application Data – OpenOffice.org2 – user – registry – data – org – openoffice – Office - Common.xcu): 1. deleting references to recently opened files that appear below <node oor:name=PickList”>; 2. deleting files that appear below “History” and/or “List”; 3. deleting everything in Common.xcu; 4. actually deleting Common.xcu. For experiments 1, 2 and 3, Calc’s “Recent Documents” (after rebooting) showed “no documents” – which is a start! However: any subsequently opened file then appeared in Recent Documents – and in Common.xcu. This occured even in experiment 3, where everything in Common.xcu was deleted. This must mean that some other file or app within OO has either preserved Common.xcu’s scripts, or re-written them. The strangest results occurred in experiment 4: with no Common.xcu around, Calc not only listed subsequently opened documents as Recent Documents, but also re-created the Common.xcu file! Again, this must mean that some other file or app either preserves or re-writes Common.xcu. So, if you want to erase a previous Recent Documents list, you can try to duplicate my experiments (after creating a backup Common.xcu to use in case things don’t turn out the way they did for me!). But if you want to disable Recent Documents, you’ll have to join me in waiting for a more computer- literate volunteer to come forward. Let's hope we don't have too long a wait ; - ) - Michael
Note that on Mac OS X, apps that have a Recent Documents menu have "Clear Menu" below a separator at the bottom of the menu, so this RFE would help OOo fit in better on Mac OS X, too.
Common.xcu is built from OpenOffice.org when the program is run. This file is needed to carry settings from one session to another. File History is one of these features carried forward. @sardisson: Yes, this is a standard per Apple HIG. Maybe this is something that the Mac team can bring into the mainstream program? James McKenzie
*** Issue 75438 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
Adding cc for users from duplicate issue. Also under Mac OS X, there is a System Wide option to determine the number of items in the recent documents list. I have taken a look through the GUI options for ooo and cannot find them.
I first complained about this issue a couple of years ago. I am an end user and do not write code. Quite simply, there is a list of ten documents. I cannot clear away any that are no longer relevant. An active "delete", with a right click of the mouse, would make me happy. My two cent opinion. Thanks
Please see how well this is implemented in PDF-XChange Viewer. 1. The Recent Files list is configurable in preferences with up to 200 entries 2. Favourite files can be pinned to the recent files list so that they are not removed when the user-defined number of entries in the list is exceeded. 3. Clear recent files list will clear all unpinned files from the list or (optionally) all files.
Would like the ability to disable this menu completely or to clear the menu.
What is the status of completing this feature? James McKenzie
To grep the issues easier via "requirements" I put the issues currently lying on my owner to the owner "requirements".
cd->robertzhou: You want to make changes to the popup menu and toolbar controller which control the recent file list. Please take over.
cd: Add draft specification. Must be filled with more information and design proposals for the UI,
Looks like the file to delete is Histories.xcu (OOo 3.2, on Fedora) /home/user/.config/.openoffice.org/3/user/registry/data/org/openoffice/Office/Histories.xcu
This is not an Accessibility and AT related issue, changing component to UI from AccessBridge. Also clear that the requested enhancement of original post was resolved with commits to uielement -> recentfilesmenucontroller.cxx at the http://svn.apache.org/viewvc?view=revision&revision=1354497 build. The Recent Documents -> Clear List feature is functional. Although, unclear as to disposition of the additional enhancement to allow changes in number of recent files shown of comment 4 & 5--but that should be tracked in its own issue. Closing bug 37201 as Fixed.
(In reply to comment #30) > Also clear that the requested enhancement of original post was resolved with > commits to uielement -> recentfilesmenucontroller.cxx at the > http://svn.apache.org/viewvc?view=revision&revision=1354497 build. Actually, it was done in Revision 1341725 Setting target
fixed in 4.0.0