Right-click menu LibreOffice for Mac

The Mac version of LibreOffice does not offer users the same icons for each application like the Windows and Linux distros do.

Mac users have a way to open and create documents from LibreOffice when they are not working directly in LibreOffice. When the application is in the dock, users can right-click (or hold down the Ctrl key and click the left button) on it to launch a menu.

The menu has three to five sections, depending on whether LibreOffice is open and whether there are any documents open.

The sections are as follows:

  • List of recent documents
  • List of open documents
  • File sub-menu
  • Options
  • Other choices

Recent documents

The list is present regardless of whether LibreOffice is opened or closed. Here it is pictured with it closed.

This lists up to 10 of the most recently opened documents. This list is in the menu, regardless of whether LibreOffice is open or not.

The list is different than the list of recent documents that are in the StartCenter, File menu, and Standard toolbar. The list in these areas have up to 25 of the most recently opened documents.

This list contains many of the same items.

It is mainly designed so users can quickly access a document when LibreOffice is not open. Because it is in the dock, users can easily open one of these documents when they are viewing something else.

Open documents

This section lists all the open documents in LibreOffice. It only appears when documents are open.

It is the same list that is in in Windows menu of any of the LibreOffice applications.

File sub-menu

The File sub-menu contains a list of document types, another sub-menu of recent documents, From Template, and Open Document.

Document types

This is the same list that is in the New sub-menu in any of the applications’ File menu.

Click the desired one to create a new document. It will be created in the application that can read and edit the document type.

  • Text Document: This is created in Writer.
  • Spreadsheet: This is created in Calc
  • Presentation: This is created in Impress
  • Drawing: This is created in Draw.
  • Database: This is created in Base.
  • Formula: This is created in Math

Recent Documents

This lists up to 25 of the most recently opened and edited documents.

In addition to the right-click menu, the list appears:

  • when Recent Files is selected in the StartCenter
  • in the Recent Documents sub-menu of the New menu
  • and the drop-down menu of the Open icon in the Standard toolbar

Highlight the desired item and click it to open it.

From Template

This launches a dialog that that allows you to apply a template to a document.

Open Document

This launches a dialog that allows you to find a desired document in your hard drive and attached drives.

Options

The next section has the Options sub-menu. It is in the menu regardless of whether LibreOffice is open or not. The items in it are as follows:

  • Keep in Dock: Selecting this so it has a check mark next to it means that the LibreOffice icon will remain in the dock, even though the application is closed.
  • Open at Login: Selecting this means LibreOffice will launch as your Mac finishes booting.
  • Show in Finder: Click this when you have several applications and windows open. It will bring LibreOffice to the front and make one of them the active document.

These items are not exclusive to the LibreOffice icon. Every icon in the OSX dock has them in their right-click menus.

Other options

The items in this section are also common to every icon in the dock. They are as follows:

  • Show All Windows: This will show all the documents that are listed in the top of this menu and new documents as thumbnails. This is a special view on the screen. Open documents also will appear as larger thumbnails.
  • Hide: This places the open documents and applications in LibreOffice in the background.
  • Quit: This closes LibreOffice.
LibreOffice for Mac: Show All Documents
Clicking the Show All Documents item w show thumbnails of all the items in this list and thumbnails of open documents.