[Issue] Toogle between spreadsheets

[agreppi]

Welcome beginner. Please answer all of the questions below which may provide information necessary to answer your question.
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Which version of OpenOffice.org are you using? 2.4
What Operating System (version) are you using? Windows XP
What is your question or comment?
How do I toggle betweeon open spreadsheets and documents, the ones listed in the Window menu? I'm looking for something like Ctrl-F6 key in MS Office.

Thanks!
Alejandro

[Villeroy]

As far as I know, Alt+Tab is the shortcut to toggle windows in Windows.

[agreppi]

That's right, Alt+Tab is for toggling, but it applies to all the windows, not just the Open Office ones. I'm looking for a key that toggles between only Open Office windows.

[Villeroy]

Menu:Windows

[Dave]

Actually, Alt-Tab shows the options, but you can choose to open one or the other. How many windows, and which did you plan to have open? Could you not close all but those you need? I'd open the two I need, then tile them onscreen.

David.

[agreppi]

I'm having open many windows, maybe ten or more at a time, and not all of them are documents or spreadsheets. They could be mainframe emulators, browsers, download managers, etc, and I need all of them. So, if I want to go to another document, I'll have to press several times the tab key, while if I had a key for toggling between only Open Office documents, it would take just a key.

Alejandro

[foxcole]

Well... maybe there's a workaround.

You can choose to group similar buttons in the taskbar. (If you don't have this already, right-click on the taskbar, choose Properties, and select "Group similar taskbar buttons.")
If you open an OOo document first thing, it will create the first button on the taskbar and all subsequent documents (no matter which OOo module it is) will group into this button. Unless your keyboard is very basic or very old, it should have a key for the Start menu (but Ctrl + Esc also opens Start), then just hit Tab to get to this button (if it's not the first taskbar button you'd have to Tab to the first then use your right arrow key to get to the OOo one) then use the the up or down arrow key to choose the window you want.

I know it's not a solution for working just inside OOo, but it is a WinXP keyboard-based method that you can use no matter what window or program you're already in. Once you get the rhythm of finding the right task button, it's quite fast.

Just a thought.

[agreppi]

Thanks for you reply, Fox.
There are several other workarounds, but they all imply striking a bunch of keys to switch the window. For instance, I could use Alt+W for Window menu, then Down Arrow to point to the window I want to go to.

What I'm asking for is a simple key strike to switch to other Open Office document, without listing all other windows for the rest of the applications.

Alejandro

[foxcole]

What I'm asking for is a simple key strike to switch to other Open Office document, without listing all other windows for the rest of the applications.

My method doesn't list all the other windows, if you use it the way I suggested. It rolls everything up so all you're scrolling through (once you get to the taskbar button with two quick taps of the Tab key) are the other OpenOffice documents.

However, this being a user-to-user forum, you're not likely to find an answer here if that functionality doesn't already exist. See the Getting Started Guide (linked in my signature) appendix A for a list of preset shortcuts. All other commands that are available to assign in the application are in Tools> Customize> Keyboard. Because what you're asking for doesn't appear to be listed in either place, we might safely assume it doesn't already exist. Therefore, we fellow users can only try to suggest workarounds that might suffice.

[agreppi]

Fox, that's what I needed, someone who tells me there is a key and it is this, or there is not.

So, next step is to suggest this to the community so someone could program this. Where do I have to go to suggest this new functionality?

[foxcole]

The primary place is the IssueTracker... but search first to make sure no one has already requested it). You'll need to register and log in if you want to vote for or add comments to an existing issue, or to create a new issue.

Anther place you might try is the OOo wiki. I only spend time in certain areas there but it's my understanding there are discussion documents there where people can exchange ideas and ask questions. I should check that out for myself sometime.

[kingfisher]

My guess is that this is something controlled by the window manager and not something that can be programmed into the software.

BTW, on a Linux system, you have several virtual desktops and you can use one for OO windows alone.

[Villeroy]

My guess is that this is something controlled by the window manager and not something that can be programmed into the software.

Not so in Windows. As far as I know, any software can send all kinds of API-calls to the one and only "window manager".

BTW, on a Linux system, you have several virtual desktops and you can use one for OO windows alone.

Most window managers can also group the window icons by application.

[foxcole]

BTW, on a Linux system, you have several virtual desktops and you can use one for OO windows alone.

That reminded me... for Windows, there is a tool that works with OOo as well as any other program: http://www.wintabber.com/.
For those of us who prefer portable applications, there's a portable version here.

And development is well underway on a tabbed windows extension:
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wik ... _Extension

[agreppi]

I have searched in the Issue Tracker, and I found one that's exactly what I'm asking for, number 34918.

Thanks everyone for your help.

Alejandro

[Hagar Delest]

Don't forget to post the url here so that interested users can jump directly to the issue to vote:
Issue 34918 - Add actions "to next/previous/first/last document".

You should add a comment perhaps. I'm not sure if the document change will be made inside the component (Writer/Calc/...) or if it will be made inside the whole suite (hence switching from a Writer doc to a spreadsheet for example).

NB: moved the thread to the Setup forum.