LibreOffice AppImage Application Menus

[mikeslr]

Hi All,

I realized that it had been a while since I updated my version of LibreOffice. After wasting a lot of time trying to create a new SFS or my own portable, I realized the easiest way to obtain an update was to use the portable MikeWalsh had already created and just update it. You can obtain MikeWalsh's portable here, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 048#p54048. It's at libreoffice version 7.18. When you unpack it, the extracted folder will look like this:

LibreOffice-portable64.png (23.66 KiB) Viewed 1580 times

The file in the above named LibreOffice64 is an AppImage simply edited to that name. To update it, merely download a newer AppImage from https://www.libreoffice.org/download/appimage/, give it the name LibreOffice64, substitute it for the old version and make it executable.

Edit: To use a portable LibreOffice AppImage without first having to download the entire package Mike published, see here: viewtopic.php?p=85684#p85684

It took me so long to discover this easy way to update LibreOffice because I hadn't used MikeWalsh's portable. It works: clicking the LAUNCH script (see the screenshot) will start the application; and clicking the Menu-Add script will add it to the Menu. But either way will only open LibreOffice-Starter, none of its applications directly. And that meant I couldn't use Menu>Setup>Default Application Chooser to make LibreOffice-Writer my default Word-processor, nor LibreOffice-Calc my default Spreadsheet, nor add either to Right-Click menus.

Edit, use the pet attached to Burunduk's post, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 591#p85591. You'll find a Revised Pet here, viewtopic.php?p=95493#p95493

In the light of the above, the following is historical.

Edit: Just to be clear, Burunduk's menu pet will work if his revised LAUNCH Script for LibreOffice-portables is used. His modified script can be found here, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 921#p85921. In other words, create a script [Right-Click an Empty Space, Select New>Script] and give it the name LAUNCH. Copy the script from the referrenced post into it and Save. Rename the old LAUNCH script "LAUNCH-old". Substitute the new LAUNCH script for it. If all is well, delete LAUNCH-old. This substitution isn't necessary if you download LibreOffice-portable64-FrameWork.tar.xz, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 684#p85684. It has been the revised tar.xz to use Burunduk's modified LAUNCH script.

It will create menu entries for Calc, Draw, Impress and Writer. These, of course, will only function if you've used Menu-Add to create a link to the AppImage (and before/during reboot execute a Save to preserve that condition). [Might work (untested) if you merely click the LAUNCH script when you need libreoffice. But as Mike's portable can be run from anywhere --e.g. outside 'Puppy Space'-- and as it and the menu pet cumulatively take up little RAM there's really no reason to not have LibeOffice always available].

Edit: There is an aesthetic problem with the pet. While the contents of the pet include some nice-by-today's-standard's icons which are written to /usr/share/pixmaps* and the /usr/share/applications/...desktop files within the pet via the icon='s argruments specify their use, for reasons beyond me on installation generic icons are used.
I've spent hours trying to figure out why and have decided its a problem 'above my pay-grade'.

Still, the fault is only aesthetic. The menu-listings do what they are supposed to.

Feel free to try to find a solution and advise us of it. Edit: as the strike-outs indicate, Burunduk already has. Thanks, Burunduk.

-=-=-=-=--=
* You can still use them to display appropriate file-types: e.g., Right-Click a .odt file and select Set Icon, click the "for all files of type ODT" and drag the LibreOffice-writer.png from /usr/share/pixmaps into the GUI.

[Burunduk]

Delete the second Icon= in the desktop files.

Edit: Not deleted but duplicated. Seems to work.

[mikewalsh]

@mikeslr :-

I concur with Burunduk, Mike. You need to remove the last couple of lines at the very bottom of the .desktop file.

Since scripts are read sequentially, this 'Icon=' entry then supersedes, or "over-writes" the one previously specified up near the top. Personally, I tend to remove all that 'localization' stuff, and whittle the .desktop entry down to just nine lines.....

• [Desktop Entry]

• Encoding

• Name

• Comment

• Exec

• Icon

• Type

• Terminal

• Categories

Very occasionally, I'll include (or leave) the 'Mime-type' list, if the application warrants it. The KDE, Gnome & 'Bugzilla' stuff always gets removed, since Puppy has absolutely no use for these.

T'other Mike.

[mikeslr]

Thanks, guys: Burunduk for the pet, MikeWalsh for the explanation,

Mike, when I write desktop files from scratch I also just include essential arguments. But I was being lazy and LibreOffice had provided nice ones which weren't only for speakers of English.

'Copy and edit' isn't always the easiest if you don't fully understand what you're copying.

[Burunduk]

It has been the revised tar.xz to use Burunduk's modified LAUNCH script.

Your new tarball includes the MochiMoppel's launcher. Mine was extremely long and full of symlinks. I removed it. This updated package has no launcher. It's experimental. If you want to test it, download the LibreOffice appimage, put it into the portable directory, and run the SETUP script.

libreoffice-setup.png (87.81 KiB) Viewed 1421 times

[mikeslr]

Maybe it was just me. But I couldn't get LibreOffice-writer to open by Right-Clicking an '.odt' file and selecting LibreOfficeAppImage-writer from the pop-up menu. That's the most frequent method I use to open or edit documents I've previously created and/or stored, and is especially useful if I haven't made LibreOffice-Writer my default word-processor; e.g. booting pfix=ram. So I've revised my LibreOffice_AppImage_Application-menus.pet to enable that.

If you've installed the previous version uninstall it before installing the following:

LibreOfficeAppImage_Apps-menus.pet

(40.91 KiB) Downloaded 68 times

This works with MikeWalsh's latest version of the LibreOffice Menu-Add script. Untested with Burunduk's alternate in his LO-portable-directory-2. To have specific Menu entries and Right-Click capabilities for Calc, Draw, Impress and Writer you must both run the Menu-Add script and install the pet.

odt, doc, docx, rtf and abw files can all be opened in LibreOffice-writer via the Right-Click Menu.

Remember, however, that the revised LAUNCH script when used the first time may not make use of a previously created config file. If one appropriate to the version of LibreOffice does not already exist it will create a new folder named PATH-TO-PORTABLE-FOLDER/.config/libreoffice/VERSION_NUMBER. [Capitals in the previous sentence reflect variables that will depend on your placement of the portable and the libreoffice version used. The . shows that it's a hidden folder ],

One setting you may want to change is Tools>Options>Online Update so as to avoid being nagged. You should also examine Tools>AutoCorrect>AutoCorrect Options>Options to see whether the defaults are to your liking.