Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

So I have no clue what I did to cause my OOo to go into full screen mode, every time I search for full screen it gives me real full screen, but I don't know what else to call it, If I could get some help here, I want my documents to open into windows and not full screen documents and the "full screen function" goes into true full screen mode not what I actually want. As you can see in the screenshots below, the program itself is running full screen eliminating the top and bottom panels of the OS, this makes switching between multiple open documents a problem for me.


This is what I want my text documents to look like. This is what they actually look like.

/View /Full Screen or Ctrl Shift J. These commands are toggles. If the setting is on/off they turn it off/on.

From the pictures it looks like your issue is the Ubuntu "Fullscreen window" feature. IIRC you hold down the "super key" (Windows key on most PCs, Command key on Mac) and press F to toggle this.

If that's not it, and the tip from RoryOF didn't do the trick, I suggest you ask on Linux/Ubuntu forums.

On my Xubuntu, which in many respects is identical to Ubuntu, the commands I gave switched between the illustrated screen styles.

Super key and F opened File Manager (on my system).

What you're seeing isn't full screen mode. Full screen mode has no toolbars and has a floating button that you click to exit full screen mode. It looks like you may have a window which is covering the panels. Can you resize the window?

On a Linux system you can grab a Window at any point holding the Alt key. Having an oversized window (bigger than screen) you can drag it up a little bit (title out of screen), drag the bottom right corner to the middle, then drag the window back down. This will be the new unmaximized position and size.

Nothing I have tried here has worked, this is not a window issue, the program itself is running full screen.

OOo 3.2
Ubuntu 10.04

OOo 3.2 is a very, very old version. Maybe there was a bug at the fullscreen feature...

View - Fullscreen

works for me on Win7 64 bit with AOO4.1.1 (32 bit) and LO 5.0.0.5 (64 bit) softwares

The fullscreen feature works, the menus disappear and there is a floating fullscreen button.

Sorry, I misunderstood your problem.

But the OOo3.2 too old anyway...

My computer is 11 years old and I can not update the os without sinking money into it, I also can not figure out how to update OOo.

Try a later version of Xubuntu. Make a live DVD/USB and see if this will run. I have a 32 bit version running on an 11 year old Dell Dimension 4500.

Lubuntu and Puppy Linux make even less demands on the hardware than Xubuntu.

If you have pulled a window from its non-full screen mode to be full screen (or nearly so) then you will see little or no difference between "Full screen" and "Window" mode. On my Xubuntu system, if I use Ctrl Shift J, I can toggle between the two screen shown above. When it is in the mode with all the toolbars, I get four little icons in top right of the screen. Leftmost is "Roll up into application toolbar" (Xubuntu or linux specific?), Minimise to Operating system toolbar, Window/Full screen mode and Close. Of these, we are concerned only with the "Window/Full screen mode" (that icon beside the X icon). If that icon is showing two stacked squares then OO is displayed full screen. If it shows only one square, OO thinks it is in a window. In that mode (and I think, only in that mode), one can (with care and patience) grab the frame of the window and reduce it from its current settings. A good place to grab is one of the bottom corners.

So my suggestion is this, to summarise:
Use Ctrl Shift J until you enter mode with all toolbars
Then click on icon beside the X at top right until only a single box is shown.
Then grab the frame of the OO window and pull to reduce it. Initially, reduce it quite a lot (to say 1/4 of the monitor), then it will be easy to play with the settings.


It should now remember that setting.

upgrading Ubuntu is completely free.

But there is something I don't understand: your first screenshot is a spreadsheet (Calc). So it can't be a text document.
Do you mean that by launching Writer you get the Calc application???