[Solved] Opening documents won't re-use existing window?

[mharratsc]

The issue in question is that every new window that I open in OO 4.1.4 on Windows 10 Home opens a brand new window frame at maximized size. It doesn't re-use existing OO window frames, nor does it open the new windows at the same size of the existing open windows- it is always opened maximized in a new frame.

For instance: Open a document in OO Writer. It opens maximized. Shrink the open window to half-height on the monitor so that I can see another open application window on the bottom of the screen.

Once I have the frame sized to my needs, I will click on File>Recent Documents>xxxxxxx.odt to open another document I would like to view. This new document, even though it was called from an existing OO Writer window frame, will open in a new window frame at full screen (maximized) dimensions.

My issue with this is that I very frequently use OpenOffice at half-screen height, so that I can exchange data with other applications. This data in Open Office is typically contained in multiple documents in document or spreadsheet format. It would be very very helpful if either A) OpenOffice could open multiple .odt files in the same window frame, or else B) open a new window frame as it has been doing, but open the new window to the same dimensions as the currently open window frame.

Is OpenOffice 4.1.4 not writing window dimensions to a user preferences file on purpose? Was this intentional? Do I have some kind of bug from upgrading the version?

Any help would be most appreciated!

[mharratsc]

Well, I've discovered something...not sure if it's odd, or designed this way, or what...but I got the files to start remembering their window frame settings and open themselves accordingly. Here's how:

I normally launch OO from the shortcut button on my Taskbar for "C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenOffice 4\program\soffice.exe". Now here's the thing: normally, this would open full-screen. Of course I didn't care about it as I was simply using it to launch the 'Open' command to pull up my most recent files. I always did this first, never re-sizing that launcher window.

Oddly, it occurred to me to try this. o.O

So-once I re-sized this window,every single file now remembered the size of the last frame it was in and opened a new frame to those dimensions. Additionally, if I selected to create a new file, it opened the new file according to the dimensions of that 'soffice.exe' window frame I re-sized.

Odd? But at least this can be marked as 'Solved' now? Perhaps someone could try this on a fresh install and see if they have the same issue, until that soffice.exe window dimensions are modified?

If this is replicable, I might suggest posting this in the Survival section for future reference, as I found nothing at all pointing to this *fix* either in the Search on this database nor on Google.

Peace, all.

[gcglad]

Brilliant solution, mharratsc. I run OO 4.1.7 in Windows 10 Home, and I never noticed that the launch window was maximized, but every time I opened my existing text files, they would open maximized. What a nuisance to resize them every time. I resized the launch window once, and now my text files open in a Writer window the same size as the launch window. Completely unexpected, but simple enough. Existing Spreadsheet files still open maximized, as I saved them. Ahhh!