I recently installed Libre Office 7.1.8.1. I noticed I could not save a
file (.odt) I created to a folder on C: drive. It seemed like it wanted
to save to a folder named My Documents, which I don't have. I could try
to create such a directory, however I actually would like the option to
save to a folder of my choice.

QUESTION: If I create a My Documents folder, should it be located in the
directory named Users\my_name ?

Also I noticed the program settings options in LO 7.1.8.1 seemed to be
limited or incomplete.

I will appreciate all comments and info you may have about Libre Office.

I plan to replace LO 7.1.8.1 to a newer version.

TIA Bill S.

bilsch01 <usenet@writer.com> wrote in news:st2029$b1r$1@dont-email.me:

> I recently installed Libre Office 7.1.8.1. I noticed I could not save a
> file (.odt) I created to a folder on C: drive. It seemed like it wanted
> to save to a folder named My Documents, which I don't have. I could try
> to create such a directory, however I actually would like the option to
> save to a folder of my choice.
>
> QUESTION: If I create a My Documents folder, should it be located in
the
> directory named Users\my_name ?
>
> Also I noticed the program settings options in LO 7.1.8.1 seemed to be
> limited or incomplete.
>
> I will appreciate all comments and info you may have about Libre
Office.
>
> I plan to replace LO 7.1.8.1 to a newer version.
>
> TIA Bill S.

I have been using Libro Office (a lot Writer and a little of Calc) for a
long time and have never had a problem with saving files where I wanted.
I just us 'Save File As' and put it where I want it. I have one file
folder on D: with 514 files in 148 subfolders, not counting other file
folders with a few files in them.

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Fri, 28 Jan 2022 16:00:02 -0800, bilsch01
<usenet@writer.com> wrote:

>I recently installed Libre Office 7.1.8.1. I noticed I could not save a
>file (.odt) I created to a folder on C: drive. It seemed like it wanted
>to save to a folder named My Documents, which I don't have. I could try

I'm sure you do have it but I save such things in C:\data\text, or
whatever I choose to call it. When you try to save it, doesn't it give
you a box in the upper left. Use that to navigate where you want to save
something. There is a part called New Folder, which will make a new
one. And some arrow or something that goes up one level in t he
directory.

>to create such a directory, however I actually would like the option to
>save to a folder of my choice.
>
>QUESTION: If I create a My Documents folder, should it be located in the
>directory named Users\my_name ?

I'm sure you have one already. Personally I had the users directory
because they have long names with 4 or 5 parts. It would be one thing
if someone else was using this computer, but like at least 50% of PC's,
I'm the only user. Probably some other software, like backup software,
is designed to backup from user by deefault, but they will all let you
add your own directories/ folders.

>Also I noticed the program settings options in LO 7.1.8.1 seemed to be
>limited or incomplete.
>
>I will appreciate all comments and info you may have about Libre Office.
>
>I plan to replace LO 7.1.8.1 to a newer version.
>
>TIA Bill S.

Am Freitag, 28. Januar 2022, um 16:00:02 Uhr schrieb bilsch01:

> I recently installed Libre Office 7.1.8.1. I noticed I could not save
> a file (.odt) I created to a folder on C: drive. It seemed like it
> wanted to save to a folder named My Documents, which I don't have.

Do you have the proper permissions to save to the folder in c:\?

bilsch01 wrote:
> I recently installed Libre Office 7.1.8.1. I noticed I could not save a
> file (.odt) I created to a folder on C: drive. It seemed like it wanted
> to save to a folder named My Documents, which I don't have. I could try
> to create such a directory, however I actually would like the option to
> save to a folder of my choice.
>
> QUESTION: If I create a My Documents folder, should it be located in the
> directory named Users\my_name ?

https://www.dummies.com/article/technology/computers/operating-systems/windows/windows-10/how-to-change-the-location-of-user-folders-in-windows-10-140269

I would always recommend creating a separate user partition on a HDD, since
I consider C: as a strict *system* partition, not to be clogged with typical
user data. With LO, and any other software, you can save files in any folder
you want on that partition.

-p

bilsch01 wrote:

> I recently installed Libre Office 7.1.8.1. I noticed I could not save a file
> (.odt) I created to a folder on C: drive. It seemed like it wanted to save to a
> folder named My Documents, which I don't have.

Assuming you're using win10?

Win10 no longer has folders called "My Documents" or "My Pictures" etc, and you
can't even create a folder called "My Documents" because Microsoft provides a
set of shortcuts called reparse points so that "My Documents" -> "Documents" and
"My Pictures" -> "Pictures" but these reparse points act a bit weird as far as
users are concerned.

The odd thing is why is LibreOffice using the wrong folder names? It ought to
ask windows where the default is, and windows ought to give it the correct folders.

In e.g. Writer, go to Tools/Options/LibreOffice/Paths and see where
"My Documents" points to, in my case it is "C:\Users\Andy\Documents"
and that is where stuff gets saved, sounds like you might need to fix it up.

On 1/28/2022 7:00 PM, bilsch01 wrote:
> I recently installed Libre Office 7.1.8.1. I noticed I could not save a file (.odt) I created to a folder on C: drive. It seemed like it wanted to save to a folder named My Documents, which I don't have. I could try to create such a directory, however I actually would like the option to save to a folder of my choice.
>
> QUESTION: If I create a My Documents folder, should it be located in the directory named Users\my_name ?
>
> Also I noticed the program settings options in LO 7.1.8.1 seemed to be limited or incomplete.
>
> I will appreciate all comments and info you may have about Libre Office.
>
> I plan to replace LO 7.1.8.1 to a newer version.
>
> TIA   Bill S.

I would not jump to any conclusions quite yet.

Windows has a ton of file system features. In order to
explain what you're seeing, I would have to explain each
and every one of them. Arrgh!

Linux/Unix have hardlinks, softlinks, symbolic links.

Now, so does Windows, except the "File Explorer" (as you would expect),
does a piss poor job of identifying them. I have to use a wealth of
third party utilities, to get some handle on it.

Windows also has "Libraries", which are a projected file system item
("it isn't really there"). You could put three folders A,B,C in a
Library, and see the contents of all of them, in one place. This is
a way of conveniently grouping documents. In File Explorer, in
the Search box in the upper right, you enter this to see the
"control file" for each of those:

ext:library-ms

Internally, Music.library-ms is an XML file, with GUIDs for
canonical objects, and absolute paths for other objects (that the
user has added).

Well, this "pile of utter crap", is your Home Directory, pal :-)

So, what's a Bill supposed to do ? First of all, DO NOT create
a file called My Documents, because there is already an "object"
in the location you were thinking of, already. It's a Junction Point.
To list the Junction Points on the system, we can do this. That's
where I got the text I placed below.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/junction

(In an Administrator Powershell maybe...)

.\junction64.exe -s C:\

That will identify all the objects in the C: file system which
are Junction Points. And My Documents happens to be one of them.

Graphically, the icon for that item, looks a bit like a shortcut,
except... it doesn't point to anything. How clever. In a Linux context,
stepping into an object like that (traversing a directory) results
in infinite recursion until the PATH of the traversal exceeds the
max string length allowed for it. Well, Windows stops that on its
side of the pond, by simply not allowing you to traverse it at all.
This is done via permissions placed upon it.

Obviously, SOMETHING (I hope) must be able to walk into My Documents and use it.
(I tested that, and NOPE, Wordpad can't do the right thing either.)

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/my-documents-my-music-junction-points-protected/4382c195-147b-43f4-9cfb-53621019e9a3

Now, while that explanation makes sense, what doesn't make sense
is Windows 7 and Windows 10 have slightly different home directory
contents. Windows 10 has one "My Documents" object in the home directory,
there for backward compatibility (as pseudo-explained in the Answers thread).
Windows 7 has TWO "My Documents", one is a real God-damned folder, the
other is a Junction Point, and THEY HAVE THE SAME NAME. Might it be a
projected item, a Library ? No. Because it does not appear anywhere
in the left hand pane of File Explorer. It seems to be a real folder.
Preferentially, an application seeing the item, and finding read denied
on the Junction, it probably selects the real My Documents in that case.

In other words, in Windows 7, LibreOffice is going to do something useful!

In Windows 10 (where only the Junction can be seen), LibreOffice has an
uncomfortable situation. If it tries to open My Documents (an item present
for backward compatibility), it will be denied. Wordpad does no better
at this, so this is not a LibreOffice bug report.

Using the output of the Sysinternals Junctions program, we see this
information for the "My Documents" you stumbled upon. "My Documents"
points to "Documents". That's how the redirection was intended to work,
but... it doesn't work. Not in the Save dialog at least.

\\?\C:\\Users\Bullwinkle\My Documents: JUNCTION
Print Name : C:\Users\Bullwinkle\Documents
Substitute Name: C:\Users\Bullwinkle\Documents

If LibreOffice had pointed to "Documents", you might never have learned
all about the file system. And Documents is a library. How do we
know Documents is a Library ?

1) Hint is, it is in the left-hand pane of File Explorer. That makes
us suspicious that a projected object has been drawn there for our
amusement. We don't know for sure, until we check.

2) The existence of this file, even if Windows 10 won't allow us to read it.
I find this via File Explorer search for "ext:library-ms".

C:\users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Documents.library-ms

Now, in theory, you could do this, except in the file dialog, even with
"all files" enabled, the item I want to edit cannot be seen. So
THIS WON'T WORK, but will work from Linux :-) Something has been
applied to this, an Attribute perhaps, so it's not visible.

notepad C:\users\Bullwinkle\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Documents.library-ms

The paths in it will be GUIDs, as until you customize Documents, it
contains canonical GUIDs only. If you add folders to Documents, then
they will be recorded in the .library-ms file. You use the system way
of adding items to it. Looking at it with Notepad, would purely be
to understand how it works as a projected portion of the file system.
And that file, is the control file for "Documents" projection.

Summary: Navigate to "Documents". Save.
The next time you run LibreOffice Writer, it should point
to "Documents" for you. Give it a try.

Paul

Paul wrote:

> Obviously, SOMETHING (I hope) must be able to walk into My Documents and use it.
> (I tested that, and NOPE, Wordpad can't do the right thing either.)

Oh, a "DOS" window can walk in there

cmd.exe /k "cd /d "%USERPROFILE%\My Documents"

but then try
DIR > my.txt
and it's not happy

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sat, 29 Jan 2022 10:31:37 +0000, Andy
Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:

>bilsch01 wrote:
>
>> I recently installed Libre Office 7.1.8.1. I noticed I could not save a file
>> (.odt) I created to a folder on C: drive. It seemed like it wanted to save to a
>> folder named My Documents, which I don't have.
>
>Assuming you're using win10?
>
>Win10 no longer has folders called "My Documents" or "My Pictures" etc, and you
>can't even create a folder called "My Documents" because Microsoft provides a
>set of shortcuts called reparse points so that "My Documents" -> "Documents" and
>"My Pictures" -> "Pictures" but these reparse points act a bit weird as far as
>users are concerned.
>
>The odd thing is why is LibreOffice using the wrong folder names? It ought to
>ask windows where the default is, and windows ought to give it the correct folders.

You get an A+ for this answer. They keep changing things.
>In e.g. Writer, go to Tools/Options/LibreOffice/Paths and see where
>"My Documents" points to, in my case it is "C:\Users\Andy\Documents"
>and that is where stuff gets saved, sounds like you might need to fix it up.
>

bilsch01 wrote:
> I recently installed Libre Office 7.1.8.1. I noticed I could not save a
> file (.odt) I created to a folder on C: drive. It seemed like it wanted
> to save to a folder named My Documents, which I don't have. I could try
> to create such a directory, however I actually would like the option to
> save to a folder of my choice.

Go to Tools > Options... > Paths and set the "My Documents" to wherever
you want. The default in Windows should be C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents
but you can set it to wherever you have write privileges.

--
Take care,

Jonathan
-------------------
LITTLE WORKS STUDIO
http://www.LittleWorksStudio.com

On Sat, 29 Jan 2022 11:19:23 +0100, Piet wrote:

>> QUESTION: If I create a My Documents folder, should it be located in the
>> directory named Users\my_name ?
>
> https://www.dummies.com/article/technology/computers/operating-systems/windows/windows-10/how-to-change-the-location-of-user-folders-in-windows-10-140269
>
> I would always recommend creating a separate user partition on a HDD, since
> I consider C: as a strict *system* partition, not to be clogged with typical
> user data. With LO, and any other software, you can save files in any folder
> you want on that partition.

User data in C:\Users\<name_of_user>\, system stuff in C:\(more or
less everything else)\ , what's the problem?

On 1/28/2022 5:00 PM, bilsch01 wrote:
> I recently installed Libre Office 7.1.8.1. I noticed I could not save a
> file (.odt) I created to a folder on C: drive. It seemed like it wanted
> to save to a folder named My Documents, which I don't have. I could try
> to create such a directory, however I actually would like the option to
> save to a folder of my choice.
>
> QUESTION: If I create a My Documents folder, should it be located in the
> directory named Users\my_name ?
>
> Also I noticed the program settings options in LO 7.1.8.1 seemed to be
> limited or incomplete.
>
> I will appreciate all comments and info you may have about Libre Office.
>
> I plan to replace LO 7.1.8.1 to a newer version.
>
> TIA   Bill S.
I'm currently using OpenOffice on a Win 7 machine. I've been considering
when to modernize (this is a M$ product, so "modernize" is a suspicious
word choice) to Win 10 or 11. One of the questions I have meant to chase
down is: What is involved in using Libre Office when I have many files
in various OpenOffice formats. I noticed, in this message, that both use
.odt files. Are they compatible, are the other formats compatible. etc?
I also have seen several remarks that Libre is the better maintained
product. Is that statement true enough to consider seriously?
Finally, OpenOffice (at least the version I'm running) needs Java
support for many of its features; and that is the only reason that I
have a Java implementation on my machine. Is Java still required when
using Libre?
Thanks in advance for any information.
--
Jeff Barnett

Jeff Barnett wrote:

> Finally, OpenOffice (at least the version I'm running) needs Java support for
> many of its features; and that is the only reason that I have a Java
> implementation on my machine. Is Java still required when using Libre?

I think only the LibreOffice database (and let's be honest, who uses that?)
needs Java.

On 2022-01-29 19:43, mechanic wrote:
> On Sat, 29 Jan 2022 11:19:23 +0100, Piet wrote:
>
>>> QUESTION: If I create a My Documents folder, should it be located in the
>>> directory named Users\my_name ?
>>
>> https://www.dummies.com/article/technology/computers/operating-systems/windows/windows-10/how-to-change-the-location-of-user-folders-in-windows-10-140269
>>
>> I would always recommend creating a separate user partition on a HDD, since
>> I consider C: as a strict *system* partition, not to be clogged with typical
>> user data. With LO, and any other software, you can save files in any folder
>> you want on that partition.
>
> User data in C:\Users\<name_of_user>\, system stuff in C:\(more or
> less everything else)\ , what's the problem?

The advantage is that with user data in D:, you can simply format C:
when the times come. Nothing important gets lost.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

On 2022-01-29 21:10, Jeff Barnett wrote:
> On 1/28/2022 5:00 PM, bilsch01 wrote:

> Finally, OpenOffice (at least the version I'm running) needs Java
> support for many of its features; and that is the only reason that I
> have a Java implementation on my machine. Is Java still required when
> using Libre?

AFAIK yes, but what for exactly I do not know.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

On 1/29/2022 1:21 PM, Andy Burns wrote:
> Jeff Barnett wrote:
>
>
>> Finally, OpenOffice (at least the version I'm running) needs Java
>> support for many of its features; and that is the only reason that I
>> have a Java implementation on my machine. Is Java still required when
>> using Libre?
>
> I think only the LibreOffice database (and let's be honest, who uses
> that?) needs Java.

Thanks for the info. That's good news.
--
Jeff Barnett

On 1/28/2022 4:00 PM, bilsch01 wrote:
> I recently installed Libre Office 7.1.8.1. I noticed I could not save a
> file (.odt) I created to a folder on C: drive. It seemed like it wanted
> to save to a folder named My Documents, which I don't have. I could try
> to create such a directory, however I actually would like the option to
> save to a folder of my choice.
>
> QUESTION: If I create a My Documents folder, should it be located in the
> directory named Users\my_name ?
>
> Also I noticed the program settings options in LO 7.1.8.1 seemed to be
> limited or incomplete.
>
> I will appreciate all comments and info you may have about Libre Office.
>
> I plan to replace LO 7.1.8.1 to a newer version.
>
> TIA   Bill S.

Thanks everyone for the info. I saved some for future reference. I'm
really rusty on Windows but will be using it more in the future.

I reinstalled LO and am not having the problem any more.

On 2022-01-29 21:44, Jeff Barnett wrote:
> On 1/29/2022 1:21 PM, Andy Burns wrote:
>> Jeff Barnett wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Finally, OpenOffice (at least the version I'm running) needs Java
>>> support for many of its features; and that is the only reason that I
>>> have a Java implementation on my machine. Is Java still required when
>>> using Libre?
>>
>> I think only the LibreOffice database (and let's be honest, who uses
>> that?) needs Java.
>
> Thanks for the info. That's good news.

The wizards do.
Macros, perhaps.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

"Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote

| > User data in C:\Users\<name_of_user>\, system stuff in C:\(more or
| > less everything else)\ , what's the problem?
| | The advantage is that with user data in D:, you can simply format C:
| when the times come. Nothing important gets lost.
|

And if D is formatted FAT32 then it's impossible to
have file restrictions. I've never used the Documents
folder, going back to Win98. It's too hard to get to.
I usually save things to the desktop, then if I want
to save them I save them to redundant data partitions
on different disks. Nothing is only on disk 0.

"Jeff Barnett" <jbb@notatt.com> wrote

| I also have seen several remarks that Libre is the better maintained
| product. Is that statement true enough to consider seriously?
|

Yes. With formats, I always save to DOC. That's
the most compatible with different systems and software.

In message <st46vf$7g0$1@dont-email.me>, Jeff Barnett <jbb@notatt.com>
writes
>I'm currently using OpenOffice on a Win 7 machine. I've been
>considering when to modernize (this is a M$ product, so "modernize" is
>a suspicious word choice) to Win 10 or 11. One of the questions I have
>meant to chase down is: What is involved in using Libre Office when I
>have many files in various OpenOffice formats. I noticed, in this
>message, that both use .odt files. Are they compatible, are the other
>formats compatible. etc?

I switched from OpenOffice to LibreOffice a year or two ago (on Windows
10), and haven't encountered any problems. My understanding is that LO
is more or less the successor to OO, so it would be surprising if there
were any incompatibilities; I certainly haven't encountered any.
>
>I also have seen several remarks that Libre is the better maintained
>product. Is that statement true enough to consider seriously?

I thought that OO was no longer being maintained, in which case it's
certainly true.
--
John Hall
"Home is heaven and orgies are vile,
But you *need* an orgy, once in a while."
Ogden Nash (1902-1971)

"Piet" <www.godfatherof.nl/@opt-in.invalid> wrote in message
news:st34b9$iqs$1@gioia.aioe.org...
> bilsch01 wrote:
>> I recently installed Libre Office 7.1.8.1. I noticed I could not save a
>> file (.odt) I created to a folder on C: drive. It seemed like it wanted
>> to save to a folder named My Documents, which I don't have. I could try
>> to create such a directory, however I actually would like the option to
>> save to a folder of my choice.
>>
>> QUESTION: If I create a My Documents folder, should it be located in the
>> directory named Users\my_name ?
>
> https://www.dummies.com/article/technology/computers/operating-systems/windows/windows-10/how-to-change-the-location-of-user-folders-in-windows-10-140269
>
> I would always recommend creating a separate user partition on a HDD,
> since
> I consider C: as a strict *system* partition, not to be clogged with
> typical
> user data. With LO, and any other software, you can save files in any
> folder
> you want on that partition.
>

Agreed, but better to have a separate SSD for the operating system & a HDD
for everything else then point the Documents folder to the HDD so that the
SSD doesn't fill rapidly.

--
Regards
wasbit

On 2022-01-30 01:50, Mayayana wrote:
> "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote
>
> | > User data in C:\Users\<name_of_user>\, system stuff in C:\(more or
> | > less everything else)\ , what's the problem?
> |
> | The advantage is that with user data in D:, you can simply format C:
> | when the times come. Nothing important gets lost.
> |
>
> And if D is formatted FAT32 then it's impossible to
> have file restrictions. I've never used the Documents
> folder, going back to Win98. It's too hard to get to.
> I usually save things to the desktop, then if I want
> to save them I save them to redundant data partitions
> on different disks. Nothing is only on disk 0.

These days it should be better to format as exfat. It allows bigger
files, which you can hit easily in movies.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

"Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote

| > And if D is formatted FAT32 then it's impossible to
| > have file restrictions. I've never used the Documents
| > folder, going back to Win98. It's too hard to get to.
| > I usually save things to the desktop, then if I want
| > to save them I save them to redundant data partitions
| > on different disks. Nothing is only on disk 0.
| | These days it should be better to format as exfat. It allows bigger
| files, which you can hit easily in movies.
|

Yes, I create one NTFS data partition on each disk.
But I rarely have such big files. In fact, I don't think I
have any right now. There are some Charlie Chaplin movies
I downloaded. But the max size is about 600 MB. It's
not easy to get over 4 GB except with something like
a 1-file Win7+ disk image. (And I don't do those in one
file because I like to keep a DVD backup.)

On Sun, 30 Jan 2022 09:25:33 -0000, "wasbit"
<wasbitRemove@hotmailt.com> wrote:

>"Piet" <www.godfatherof.nl/@opt-in.invalid> wrote in message
>news:st34b9$iqs$1@gioia.aioe.org...

>> I would always recommend creating a separate user partition on a HDD,
>> since
>> I consider C: as a strict *system* partition, not to be clogged with
>> typical
>> user data. With LO, and any other software, you can save files in any
>> folder
>> you want on that partition.
>>
>
>Agreed,

I disagree. It isn't best for everyone. It largely depends on your
backup strategy. If you frequently back up everything there's no real
advantage to doing that. If you back up your data frequently but C:
less often, yes, there's a an advantage. It's easier to back up a
whole drive than just part of one.

Also bear in mind that there's a significant disadvantage to having
two partitions on the same drive. Many people use partitions as an
organizational structure. They have a strong sense of order and want
to separate apples from oranges on their drives.

Yes, separating different kinds of files on partitions is an
organizational technique, but so is separating different kinds of
files in folders. The difference is that partitions are static and
fixed in size, while folders are dynamic, changing size automatically
as necessary to meet your changing needs. That generally makes folders
a much better way to organize, in my view.

True, partitions can be resized when necessary, but except for newer
versions of Windows, doing so requires third-party software (and the
ability to do it in Windows is primitive, compared to the third-party
solutions). Such third-party software normally costs money, and, no
matter how good and how stable it is, affects the entire drive,
entailing a risk of losing everything. Plan your partitions well in
the first place, and no repartitioning should be necessary. The need
to repartition usually comes about as a result of overpartitioning in
the first place.

What frequently happens when people organize with partitions instead
of folders is that they miscalculate how much room they need on each
such partition, and then when they run out of room on the partition
where a file logically belongs, while still having lots of space left
on the other, they simply store the file in the "wrong" partition.
Paradoxically, therefore, that kind of partition structure results in
less organization rather than more.

>but better to have a separate SSD for the operating system & a HDD
>for everything else then point the Documents folder to the HDD so that the
>SSD doesn't fill rapidly.

Yes, I agree with that, if both are big enough. Or even better, two
SSDs.