The File menu in LibreOffice Writer is where you can save, open, create, print, and export documents. It contains 8 sections. The menu in the Mac OS version has a few different items than the versions for Windows and Linux distros. It also has a few items that are different than the File menus in Calc and Impress.
Section 1
This contains the following items:
New
This sub-menu contains items to create the 11 types of documents that the LibreOffice suite can create. It also has an item to launch the Template dialog, for creating documents based on predefined templates.
See Creating documents.
Open
Clicking this launches the standard Open dialog in the operating system that you are using. Most systems have a dialog that connects to all folders in your hard drive and connected drives.
See Open documents
Open Remote
Clicking this launches the Remote Files dialog, where you can connect to remote servers to find and open documents.
See Remote documents
Recent Documents
This sub-menu lists up to 25 of the most recently opened documents. These documents can be text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, or other types of documents.
The menu is also in several different toolbars, such as the Standard toolbar that is at the top of each document window.
See Recent documents
Close
This closes the document you are working in without closing LibreOffice Writer or other other documents.
Section 2
This section has tools to help you create various types of documents.
Wizards
This sub-menu contains a list of items that will launch dialogs that will guide you through creating letters, faxes, or agendas.
It also has an item that launches a dialog for converting documents in Microsoft Office formats to OpenDocument Formats. It can convert multiple documents in a folder or drive at once.
See Wizards
Templates
The Templates sub-menu has items to Edit, Save, or Manage templates.
See Templates
Section 3
The sub-menu allows you to see the history of edits made to the document you are working on, through Version History. It also has an item that Reloads the document.
Version History
Versions launches a dialog that allows you to create versions of the document and access past versions that you created. You can replace the document, in its current state, with one of the past versions. There are other options that can be done with past versions.
See Versions
Reload
Reloading the document removes all the items after the last time the document was saved. It is useful, if you added several items that you were unsure about and decided not to keep them. When you click Reload, a dialog will appear asking if you want to cancel all changes. It has Yes and No buttons.
Click the desired button. The document will be reloaded, and the cursor will be at the top of the document.
See Reload
Section 4
Section 4 is the save section. All of the items in it are about saving the document, creating a new document by saving, and saving all open documents.
Save
This is one of the most basic feature of any application that creates documents. The first time it is clicked a dialog that is standard to your operating system launches. This dialog allows you to give it a name, choose what file format it will be in, and choosing where it will be stored.
Subsequent times you click save the document’s changes will be made permanent.
See Save
Save As
This allows you to create a new document based on the document that you are currently working on. Clicking it launches a dialog that is almost identical to the Save dialog. It allows you to give the new document a new name, a different format, and you can store it in a different folder.
Once the Save button in the dialog is pressed, the newly created document will replace the one it was based on in the document window.
Save Remote
Clicking this item launches the Remote Files dialog that is covered in the Open Remote section of this Web page. You can Save a document to a remote server.
See Remote documents
Save a Copy
This feature is almost identical to Save As. However, the newly created document doesn’t replace the one it was based on your screen. Instead, it simply stores the document in the folder you have chosen, and you can return working on the document you have been working on.
Save All
Clicking this saves all open LibreOffice documents. It is only active when multiple unsaved documents are open.
Section 5 for CMIS
Items in this section are active only when a document that is stored on a Content Management Interoperability Services server. It allows you to check out a document, so others can’t make changes on it while you are working on it.
Section 6
This section is different in Writer than it is in the other LibreOffice applications. The Writer section has an Export As sub-menu that offers items that are not in the other sections. It also has unique items in the Send sub-menu.
Export
This is very similar to Save As. It launches a dialog that allows you to create a new document, give it a new name, and choose where it is stored. The key difference is in the formats. The formats are not text editor formats, such as DOCX.
The format choices are as follows:
- Writer Layout XML
- XHTML
- PDF – Portable Document Format
- EPUB Document
- JPEG – Joint Photographic Experts Group
- PNG – Portable Network Graphic
See Export
Export As
This sub-menu has two choices for PDFs and two for EPUBs. The two directly choices will create a document without letting make changes to the export settings in a dialog. They simply launch the Export dialog discussed in the Export section in this Web page.
See Export
Send
The sub-menu has three sections compared to one that is in Calc and Impress documents. The email and send via bluetooth are common to all the applications. The sub-menu in Writer also has items for creating a master document, outlining, and creating and sending AutoAbstracts.
Preview in Web browser
Clicking this will show the document in your default Web browser. The document will be shown in basic HTML.
Section 7
This section has printing items. You can see how the document will look it if it were printed, change printer settings, and launch the printer dialog.
Section 8
This section has an item that will launch a Properties dialog. There is also a Digital Signatures sub-menu that allows you to sign the document digitally, through a certificate issued by a Certificate Authority, or sign a PDF.
This is the last section in the Mac OS version. Windows and Linux distros have an Exit LibreOffice item in the last section that will close all open LibreOffice applications. Mac OS users can find a Quit LibreOffice item in the LibreOffice menu that does the same thing.