Recent Documents – LibreOffice

  • StartCenter lists the most recently-opened documents in the Recent Files tab. Recent documents also can be found in the File menu and Standard toolbar of any of the six applications.

LibreOffice makes it very easy to open the last 25 documents that you have worked on.

It doesn’t matter the type of document. If you are working in Writer, and want to open the spreadsheet you created last week, it can easily be found in Writer’s File menu or Standard toolbar.

If you are working on a presentation and need to check a recently opened database for one of the slides, Impress’ File menu and Standard toolbar will have it.

In all the applications, the File menu has a Recent documents sub-menu. It lists the 25 most recently opened documents.

Each application, except for StartCenter, has a Standard toolbar with an Open icon. The arrow to the right of this icon has the list of recently opened documents.

There are several ways that Recent documents can be accessed:

File menu in every application

Recent Documents sub-menu in LibreOffice
The Recent Documents sub-menu in the File menu of any application allows you to easily access any of the documents you recently opened.

One of the easiest ways to access recently-opened documents that is located in the File menu in all seven of the applications.

Here are the steps:

  1. In any of the applications, click the File menu.
  2. Highlight the Recent Documents
  3. Click the desired item in the list to open the document.

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Open icon in the Standard toolbar

Recent Documents list in Open icon in Standard toolbar. These are in every LibreOffice application, except StartCenter.
The arrow next to the Open icon in the Standard toolbar. The Standard toolbar and icon is in every application, except StartCenter. Here they are shown in the Math application.

In the six applications, every one except StartCenter, there is an Open icon with an arrow next to it.

Here are the steps:

  1. In any of the applications, click the the arrow next to the Open icon.
  2. Click the desired item in the list to open the document.

There are several different Standard toolbars.The Standard toolbar and the Standard toolbar (single mode) contain the Open icon with the recent documents menu.

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Recent files in StartCenter

Recent Files in LibreOffice StartCenter
The Recent Files tab in StartCenter lists the same items that are in Recent Documents lists. They are listed in thumbnail form.

In the six applications, every one except StartCenter, there is an Open icon with an arrow next to it.

Here are the steps:

  1. Click the white LibreOffice icon in your operating system.
  2. If the Recent Files tab is not selected by default, click it in the left column of StartCenter.
  3. Click the thumbnail, representing the desired document.

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Notebookbar

Starting with version 5.3, The Document Foundation added several alternative user interfaces. It had three choices. Version 5.4 added two more, and version 6.0 has six choices.

These user interfaces are still experimental features, and they can only be made available by activating the experimental features.They are available in Writer, Calc, and Impress.

Click here to read about activating user interfaces.

Click here to read about the experimental interfaces.

Four of the user interfaces have a Recent Documents menu:

File and Three-bar menus in Tabbed Notebookbar

The Recent Documents sub-menu is in the three-bar menu of the Tabbed user interface.
In the experimental Tabbed user interface, the Recent Documents sub-menu is in the three-bar menu.

The Tabbed choice in the Notebookbar sub-menu in the View menu changes the user interface, so it has ribbons like Microsoft Office applications have. There are seven different ribbons that can be accessed by clicking the corresponding tab.

The Recent Documents list is a sub-menu in the three-bar menu that is in the top, right of the window. Here are the steps to access the items:

Three-bar menu File ribbon
  1. Click the three bars in the top right of the window.
  2. Highlight the Recent Documents sub-menu.
  3. Click the desired item in the list.
  1. Click the File tab to switch to the File ribbon.
  2. Click the Recent Documents sub-menu that is in the third section of the ribbon.
  3. Click the desired item in the list.

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The Recent Documents menu also can be found in the third section of the File ribbon.

Three-bar menu in Tabbed Compact Notebookbar

Recent Documents in the three-bar menu in Tabbed Compact user interface.
Recent Documents is located in the three-bar menu at the top, right of the window. It is located in the same place in the Tabbed user interface.

The Tabbed Compact Notebookbar is a lot like the Tabbed Notebookbar, except each ribbon has smaller icons. The ribbon also doesn’t take up as much vertical space.

Liked the Tabbed user interface, the Recent Documents is in the three-bar menu. However, unlike the Tabbed UI, it is not in the File ribbon.

Here are the steps to access the items:

  1. Click the three bars in the top right of the window.
  2. Highlight the Recent Documents sub-menu.
  3. Click the desired item in the list.

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Open icon and File menu in Groupedbar Full Notebookbar

The Recent Documents list in the Groupedbar Full user interface in LibreOffice applications.
The Groupedbar Full places the Recent Documents list in the File menu in the first section.

The Grouped Full user interface has 10 section with a few icons and a menu in each section.Recent Documents is in the File menu, and it is revealed when you click the arrow next to the Open icon. They are located in the first section.

Here are the steps to access the items:

File menu Open icon
  1. Click the File menu or arrow next to the Open icon.
  2. Highlight the Recent Documents sub-menu.
  3. Click the desired item in the list.
  1. Click the arrow next to the Open icon.
  2. Click the desired item in the list.

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File menu Groupedbar Compact Notebookbar

The Groupedbar Compact user interface has fewer sections than the Groupedbar user interface. Recent Documents, however, is in its File menu.

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