webfork wrote:Wow, that was stupid. That will teach me to try doing things when I am unusually tired. Sorry about that.
No problem, webfork.
webfork wrote:Can it be closed? I liked the bar in Symphony ok, but if memory serves, it was something you could collapse but not close. Softpedia's screenshots seem to suggest it's the same.
Respect to the sidebar: it's of little use if you already have the toolbars customized to fit your needs, but for casual users or begginers it will certainly be very helpful to quickly find the most important functions. It's sensitive to what you have selected to edit and using widescreens it results in a better use of space.
Finally, the sidebar can be closed, not only collapsed. Just untick Sidebar under the View menu. It's also possible to make it a floating box: go to the sidebar menu and click on
Undock.
I use LibreOffice, but if the Apache Foundation follows this path and migrates the tabs from Lotus Symphony, I'll switch to OpenOffice. It's a considerable advantage for me.
webfork wrote:How do you edit the bootstrap.ini file to make it portable? And is it stealth / works with relative paths? It's discussed previously, but in an argument between two portablizers (PA and WPP). No word on native portability that I was able to find.
To make OpenOffice or LibreOffice (they are still very similar) natively portable you have to edit the
bootstrap.ini file, which is located in the
program folder, modifying the line
Code: Select all
UserInstallation=$SYSUSERCONFIG/LibreOffice/4
with
Code: Select all
UserInstallation=$ORIGIN/../Settings
(Settings or whatever you want to name the folder)
As the settings are stored in a relative path, you can use your LibreOffice/OpenOffice from removable drives or move it to another computer.
I don't know if it's stealth (and I'm not able to test it), but it's portable.
For the installation, do one of the follow:
1) Install LibreOffice/OpenOffice, copy the program files to another folder, uninstall it. Then edit the
bootstrap.ini.
2) Install LibreOffice/OpenOffice normally directly to your portable software folder and edit
bootstrap.ini. (This is my method now, because I've been lazy and the associations with MS Office are kept automatically. Off course, the result is far from being stealth)
3) The third option is to copy or move the LibreOffice/OpenOffice folder located inside the
bin folder (winPenPack's versions) or the
app folder (PortableApps.com's versions) to another place and edit bootstrap.ini (with this option you'll perhaps have a bigger package with unneeded dictionaries, GUI languages, etc.)
Advantages of the natively portable installation:
1) You can choose exactly what you need and what you don't need to install (not true if you choose the third installation option).
2) The program starts faster.
3) You can use parameters. For example, it's possible to open .odp, .ppt and .pptx files directly in presentation mode using the
--show parameter.
4) In the case of LibreOffice, you can easily install the help files in other languages rather than in english.
Disadvantages:
1) It's preferable to place the LibreOffice/OpenOffice folder next to the root of the partition, otherwise you may have problems (but this is under your control).
2) Perhaps there are other disadvantages, I don't know.
Finally, LibreOffice has adopted the sidebar in its 4.1 version (although it's an experimental feature). To enable it go to
Tools > Options > Advanced and tick
Enable experimental sidebar (on restart).
