LibreOffice - ArchWiki

# LibreOffice

Related articles

- Apache OpenOffice

From Home - LibreOffice:

  LibreOffice is the free power-packed Open Source personal productivity suite for Windows, Macintosh and Linux, that gives you six feature-rich applications for all your document production and data processing needs: Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Math and Base. Support and documentation is free from our large, dedicated community of users, contributors and developers. You, too, can also get involved!

## LibreOffice in Arch Linux

Official support for OpenOffice.org was dropped in favor of LibreOffice, the "Document Foundation" fork of the project, which also includes enhancements and additional features. See Dropping Oracle OpenOffice (arch-general).

## Installation

Install one of the following packages from the official repositories:

- libreoffice-fresh is the feature branch, with new program enhancements.
- libreoffice-still is the maintenance branch.

Note:

- In the past, the installation of at least 1 language pack was required. Currently, LibreOffice detects your system defaults; manual installation of a language pack is no longer mandatory. See help.libreoffice.org for additional information.
- If you want the UK-English language pack, install libreoffice-fresh-en-GB, not libreoffice-fresh-uk (Ukrainian) or libreoffice-fresh-br (Breton)!
- For SDK install libreoffice-fresh-sdk.
- For Qt and GTK+ visual integration, see #Theme.

Check the optional dependencies pacman displays. A Java Runtime Environment is not required unless you want to use Libreoffice Base: see Java. You may need hsqldb2-java to use some modules in LibreOffice Base.

## Theme

LibreOffice includes support for GTK+ and Qt theme integration. See also Uniform Look for Qt and GTK Applications.

As of LibreOffice v3.5.x toolkit libraries are checked in the following order:

    gtk > kde4 > generic

This article or section is a candidate for merging with Uniform_Look_for_Qt_and_GTK_Applications.

Notes: Instructions not exclusive to LibreOffice. (Discuss)

To force the use of a certain VCL UI interface use one of this:

    SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen lowriter
    SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=kde4 lowriter
    SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gtk lowriter
    SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gtk3 lowriter

It is convenient to save `SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN` variable in your shell configuration file, e.g.`/etc/bash.bashrc` or `~/.bashrc` if using Bash.

Note: The new GTK3 UI is experimental and will only be available if you enable "experimental features" in LibreOffice main configuration dialog.

However, if it looks like it is using Windows 95/98 icons, go to Tools > Options... in the menus (which presents the Options Dialog), then select LibreOffice > Accessibility and uncheck "Automatically detect high-contrast mode of operating system".

If that does not work immediately, you may need to change the icon set that is in use; this is also in the Options Dialog, under LibreOffice > View with two pop-up boxes for "Icon size and style" (the latter pop-up box should be changed to something other than "High-contrast").

You can force the use of a certain VCL UI interface by editing the file `/etc/profile.d/libreoffice-fresh.sh` (and possibly also `/etc/profile.d/libreoffice-fresh.csh`) and uncommenting the suitable line.

### Firefox themes

LibreOffice 4.x series is able to use Firefox themes. Enter LibreOffice options and choose Personalization > Select Theme, then paste the URL of your favourite one. A convenient button in the dialog box lets you open the browser.

Themes can be found on Mozilla's theme repository.

### Disable startup logo

If you prefer to disable the startup logo, open `/etc/libreoffice/sofficerc`, find the `Logo=` line and set `Logo=0`.

Note: This variable is unrelated with the Logo scripting support.

## Extension management

The following additional extensions are available in the official repositories:

- libreoffice-extension-texmaths
- libreoffice-extension-writer2latex

For more extensions, check the AUR, the built-in LibreOffice Extension manager, or libreplanet.

## Language aids

### Spell checking

For spell checking, please make sure hunspell is properly installed; this should be the case for both still and fresh LibreOffice versions. Then install a language dictionary for hunspell like hunspell-en for English, hunspell-de for German, etc.

French
  hunspell-fr is sourced from Dicollecte, if the ArchLinux version is outdated, please install it manually from here in Dictionnaires Hunspell. The dictionaries packaged as a LibreOffice extension is also provided.

Finnish
  However, for Finnish users, there are four packages to be installed instead. Install them in this order: malaga, suomi-malaga-voikko, libvoikko and voikko-libreoffice.

### Hyphenation rules

For hyphenation rules, you will need hyphen and a language hyphen rule set (hyphen-en for English, hyphen-de for German, etc).

French
  hyphen-fr is sourced from Dicollecte, if the ArchLinux version is outdated, please install it manually from here in Césures.

### Thesaurus

For the thesaurus option, you will need libmythes and a mythes language thesaurus (like mythes-en for English, mythes-de for German, etc).

### Grammar checking

For grammar checking, you will need to install an extension such as LanguageTool, which can be found in the AUR: libreoffice-extension-languagetool or the LanguageTool Website.

Other grammar tools can also be found on the LibreOffice Extension Page or OpenOffice's Website. Not all OpenOffice extensions are guaranteed to work with LibreOffice.

Note: Languagetool uses Java and may slow down or briefly hang LibreOffice, particularly while opening documents. Fortunately this is usually only when initially opening a document and is usually not apparent otherwise.

### Offline help for en-US

The US English packages in the official repositories do not include the offline help files. Users who desire offline help for en-US can install the libreoffice-still-en-us-help or libreoffice-fresh-en-us-help packages from the AUR.

## Installing macros

If you intend to use macros, you must have a Java Runtime Environment enabled. A Java Runtime Environment is enabled by default, but disabling it speeds up the program.

The default path for macros in Arch Linux is different from most Linux distributions. Its location is:

    ~/.config/libreoffice/4/user/Scripts/

## Speed up LibreOffice

Some settings may improve LibreOffice's loading time and responsiveness. However, some also increase RAM usage, so use them carefully. They can all be accessed under Tools > Options.

- Under Memory:
  - Reduce the number of Undo steps to a figure lower than 100, to something like 20 or 30 steps
  - Under Graphics cache, set Use for LibreOffice to 128 MB (up from the original 20 MB)
  - Set Memory per object to 20 MB (up from the default 5 MB).
  - If LibreOffice is used often, check Enable systray Quickstarter
- Under Advanced, uncheck Use a Java runtime environment

Note: For a list of functionality written in Java only, see: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development/Java.

## Troubleshooting

### Font substitution

These settings can be changed in the LibreOffice options. From the drop-down menu, select Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Fonts. Check the box that says Apply Replacement Table. Type `Andale Sans UI` in the font box and choose your desired font for the Replace with option. When done, click the checkmark. Then choose the Always and Screen only options in the box below. Click OK. You will then need to go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice > View, and uncheck "Use system font for user interface". If you use a non-antialised font, such as Arial, you will also need to uncheck "Screen font antialiasing" before menu fonts render correctly.

### Anti-aliasing

Execute:

    $ echo "Xft.lcdfilter: lcddefault" | xrdb -merge

To make the change persistent, add `Xft.lcdfilter: lcddefault` to your `~/.Xresources` file, and make sure to run `$ xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources` (source. See X resources for more details.

If this does not work, you can also try adding `Xft.lcdfilter: lcddefault` to your `~/.Xdefaults`. If you do not have this file, you will have to create it.

### Hanging when using NFSv3 shares

If LibreOffice hangs when trying to open or save a document located on a NFSv3 share, try prepending the following lines with a `#` in `/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/soffice`:

    # file locking now enabled by default
    SAL_ENABLE_FILE_LOCKING=1
    export SAL_ENABLE_FILE_LOCKING

To avoid overwriting on update you can copy `/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/soffice` in `/usr/local/bin`. Original post here.

### Fixing Java framework error

You may get the following error when you try to run LibreOffice.

    [Java framework] Error in function createSettingsDocument (elements.cxx).
    javaldx failed!

If so, give yourself ownership of `~/.config/` like so:

    # chown -vR username:users ~/.config

Post on Arch Linux forums.

### LibreOffice does not detect my certificates

If you cannot see the certificates when trying to sign a document, you will need to have the certificates configured in Mozilla Firefox (or Thunderbird). If after that LibreOffice still does not show them, set the `MOZILLA_CERTIFICATE_FOLDER` environment variable to point to your Mozilla Firefox (or Thunderbird) folder:

    export MOZILLA_CERTIFICATE_FOLDER=$HOME/.mozilla/firefox/XXXXXX.default/

Certificate detection.

### Run .pps files in edit mode (without slideshow)

The only solution is to rename the `.pps` file to `.ppt`.

Add the following script to your home directory and use it to open every .pps file. Very useful to open `.pps` files received by email without the need to save them.

    #!/bin/bash

    f=$(mktemp)
    cp "$1" "${f}.ppt" && libreoffice "${f}.ppt" && rm -f "${f}.ppt"

### Media support

If embedded videos are just gray boxes, make sure to have installed the GStreamer plugins required.

### Default paper size in Writer and Draw

If the default paper size in blank Writer and Draw documents is persistently incorrect for your locale, try installing the libpaper optional dependency and either updating `/etc/papersize` (for a system-wide change) or exporting the `PAPERSIZE` environment variable (for a user change) with your preferred paper size.

Note: libpaper defaults to Letter paper size if nothing else has been set.
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