Open LibreOffice documents

There are multiple ways to open a LibreOffice document. Any document can be opened from any application. You can open a recent documents or any compatible document in a computer’s system.

Two of the main user interfaces that users will see when LibreOffice first launches is the menus and the Standard toolbar. There are other user interfaces that LibreOffice can be switched to through the User Interface sub-menu in the View menu. The Standard toolbar is the default choice.

Here are the sections in this page:

Open item and Open dialog

Users can search their computer’s hard drives and drives connected to their computers for documents they want to open. This is done through the Open dialog which is opened in four ways:

  • Keystrokes
    • Windows and Linux distros: Ctrl + O
    • Mac: Cmd + O
  • In the File menu. The Open item is in it. Click it to launch the dialog.
  • The Open icon in the Standard toolbar
  • Click Open File in StartCenter. It is in the left column.
  • The File menu in all six applications contains the Open item. Click it to launch the Open dialog.
  • The Open icon is in the Standard toolbar of all six applications. Clicking it launches the Open dialog.
  • In the StartCenter, click the Open File icon, at the top of the left column, to launch the dialog.

NOTE: LibreOffice also has several other user interfaces, in addition to Standard toolbar. Click here to see images showing how to launch the dialog.


Open dialog

The dialog allows users to search through their computer’s hard drive and connected drives for a document they want to open.

This is an image of the Open dialog. Click the folders in the left column and the main part of the window until you come to the desired document. Double-click the document to open it, or click the document, then click the open button.
  1. Launch the dialog.
  2. Click folders in the left column (if offered in your operating system) and click ones in the main part of the dialog to find the desired document.
  3. Double-click the desired document to open it, or single click the desired document, then click the Open button.

By default the drop-down in the dialog will be set to All Files. The menu, however, has a list of about 100 different file formats.

  • Click the desired one, and only documents with matching file extensions will appear in the main part of the window. Documents with different file extensions that are present in that particular directory will be invisible.

The dialog also has a Read-only check box that if it has a check in it, it will open the selected document as a read-only document. When the document is opened, there is a note and a button at the top of the document.

The above note appears at the top of the document when it is opened in read-only mode. To edit the document click the Edit Document button.

Open icons in different user interfaces

Besides the Standard toolbar, LibreOffice has about six or seven other user interfaces to choose from, depending on the version and operating system it was installed on. The Open dialog is available in five of them.

  • In the Groupedbar Compact user interface, the Open icon is the first icon in the toolbar. It has the same drop-down menu as the Open icon in the Standard toolbar. It does not have labels, like the Groupedbar user interface.
  • The Tabbed user interface is a lot like the user interface for Microsoft Office. The Open icon and Recent Documents are in the File tab.
  • The Tabbed Compact user interface is like the Tabbed view, but it doesn’t have as many icons. The Open icon is in the File tab, and it has the same drop-down menu that is in the Standard toolbar.
  • The Single Standard user interface is a compact version of the Standard user interface. It combines icons from the Standard toolbar and Formatting toolbar in the Standard toolbar.
  • In the Groupedbar user interface, the Open icon is the first icon in the toolbar. It has the same drop-down menu as the Open icon in the Standard toolbar.

Recent Documents

In addition to the open dialog, LibreOffice also gives users quick access to recently created and opened documents. This is a list of up to 25 documents that are in three locations in LibreOffice:

  • Recent Documents in the File menu of the six applications and StartCenter.
  • The drop-down menu associated with the Open icon in the Standard toolbar.
  • Recent Files tab in StartCenter.
  • Recent Files is in the the left column of StartCenter. When it is selected the list of recent documents will appear as thumbnails in the main part of the window. This image was taken in Fedora 30.
  • Clicking the arrow associated with the Open icon in the Standard toolbar reveals a drop-down menu with the list of recent documents. Unlike the recent documents list in the File menu and Recent Files in StartCenter, this contains Open Template and Open Remote File. There are links to pages about these at the bottom of this Web page. The image was shot in Fedora 30.
  • The Recent Documents sub-menu in the File menu is all six of the applications and StartCenter. Click File, then highlight the Recent Documents sub-menu, then click the desired document to open it.

Clear List

The Clear List item is in the Recent Documents sub-menu and the Open icon drop-down menu. Clicking it removes all the items in the list in its three locations.

The Clear List feature also is available when the arrow associated with the Recent Files tab in the StartCenter is clicked. It is called Clear Recent Documents.

  1. Click the arrow associated with Recent Files.
  2. Click Clear Recent Documents.

The list of recently created and opened documents and clear list are all the options all three lists. However, as mentioned above, the Open icon drop-down menu has two additional items.

Open Template


Clicking the item in this list launches a dialog that allows users to search their hard drives and connected drives for templates. It is similar to the Open dialog discussed above.

Templates are documents with styles that users want to apply to their documents.
They write over them and perform a Save as.

  1. Click the drop-down menu associated with the Open icon.
  2. Click the Open Template item.
  3. Click folders in the left column (if offered in your operating system) and click ones in the main part of the dialog to find the desired document.
  4. Double-click the desired document to open it, or single click the desired document, then click the Open button.

Templates are typically stored in a special templates folder. Click here to learn more about creating and organizing templates.

The opening templates item also is in the Templates sub-menu of the File menu.

Open Remote File

Clicking the Remote Files item launches a Remote Files dialog where users can open files on various servers and cloud services. This dialog can be launched in several other ways:

  • By clicking Open Remote in the File menu.
  • By clicking Remote Files in the StartCenter.

Click here to learn more about Remote Files.

Other ways of opening documents

However, users also can search their operating system directly for desired documents. Once the right document is found, there are two ways to open it:

  • by double clicking it
  • right-click on it then click open with in the menu that appears.

If a LibreOffice application is the default application for the selected document, double-clicking it will open it. Otherwise, the right-click method needs to be used.

Typically LibreOffice applications are not the default application for Microsoft formatted documents when they are used in Microsoft Windows or Mac OS.