Touch Support?

[MWPollard]

As indicated in my signature, I have a tablet with a touchscreen. I actually have several similar tablets. But the latest version of OpenOffice does not seem to recognize it, and any touches in the body of a Write document select text rather than scrolling.

Windows 7 touch-capable all-in-one devices are rather popular. Windows 8 will be heavily touch-centric, but ideally a Windows 8 version should be created as an app, so that OOo will work on either full versions or Windows RT for low-powered tablets and phones.

I believe this is the only program I have that does not scroll with touch swipes. Even Notepad recognizes whether a touch is a tap (move selection point) or swipe (scroll), and this is a major "feel" difference (no pun intended) between OOo and MS Office. Word and Excel scroll with a swipe anywhere in the body, but Write requires that I find the scrollbars.

Is there any plan to update OpenOffice to support touchscreens?

[Hagar Delest]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Never heard of such change. You can ask the developers on their mailing list: https://incubator.apache.org/openoffice ... ling-lists
You can also file an enhancement request: [Tutorial] Reporting bugs or suggestions.

[cipnrkorvo]

I (like so many others) have warned Open Office (and Libre Office) years ago that they absolutely had to start working on a touch interface. It was obvious that everything would become touch-oriented really fast, and that just a few years later people would be using tablets instead of laptops and desktops.

well that time has come now, and since nobody has listened in the open source world, it has fallen WAY way behind, and now has years to catch up.
why did they not notice sooner that no touch interface means a slow death for the open source world??
now ubuntu is finally noticing that touch interface is the most important thing to work on, but how can ubuntu be seen as a serious tool if there's no office tools on it?

Please, open source community, it might not be too late. put all your combined efforts into making programs like OpenOffice 100% touch-friendly. Unless you want to see yourself forced to switch to Windows 8, 9 or 10 in a few years.

[Villeroy]

why did they not notice sooner that no touch interface means a slow death for the open source world??

Thank you for warning. Now we all are going to die. What a pity.

[crashpm]

I hope OpenOffice considers the importance of Touch support soon. I have a surface pro 3 and can't imagine working without a touch screen now. I am desperately looking for an alternative to microsoft office.

[Zizi64]

Become a developer, and realize that feature.

and can't imagine working without a touch screen now.

...and I can't imagine seriously working WITH a touch screen now.

[RoryOF]

Many of the improvements in OpenOffice originate with a developer finding the need for a particular feature, perhaps for his day job, perhaps for his own private needs, and writing the code to implement that feature. So, as Zizi65 says, if you want a touch screen feature, you have the incentive to implement it.

Like Zizi64, I don't want or need a touch screen. In my case, and I suspect in his case, my computer use and editing is done at a desktop setup, driven by a mouse/trackball. I don't want the effort of having to raise my arm to eye level and stretch forward to touch my screens. I also dislike (intensely!) fingerprints on my screens. So from my viewpoint I have no incentive to write code for a touchscreen. If I do write code, it will be for some extra facilities for Writer.

[crashpm]

Unfortunately I don't have the skills to make these changes or the time.

I am sick of the reliability issues with windows and the bloat and inability to remove items from office 365 and motivated enough to google alternatives.

I have used OpenOffice for many years on home PC's and laptops and was stuck with Microsoft office at work but business has moved on to the cloud and Google apps. My home and work life is now on one device a surface and I select my own software which takes Microsoft office finally out otnthe equation but OpenOffice hasn't caught up with users and how we now work, with mobility and ease of access in mind.

WPS realised this and has added limited touch functionality, heck even Microsoft office has touch capabilities.

[Villeroy]

And now what? Progress through nagging? This is not how big things are moved forward. Someone has actually created an Adroid version. There is a web-service which runs OpenOffice or LibreOffice on a server, google can generate ODF documents. If there is no ODF editor for the "Surface Pro" there is nothing which could be done by the OpenOffice developers (apart from support for another team of developers).
Are you really sure that Microsoft would tolerate OpenOffice on their brand new hardware platform? I think they are quite happy with their ODF free platform.

[cyberrose33]

Everything on my computer is touch technology, with the exception of OpenOffice! I find navigating in docs hard when I have to grab the mouse to move somewhere instead of just touching the screen, like I do for everything else.

Touchscreen computers, touchscreen tablets, touchscreen phones.... This is our current technology. I have seen posts about this issue in OpenOffice dating back to 2009, and here it is 2016. OpenOffice is eventually going to be left in the dust!

[RoryOF]

There are horses for courses! I find fingerprinted screens anathema. I don't need or want to lean forward to touch a screen when my trackball will move the cursor where I want it. If you find an office suite that supports the functionality you want, go get it and be happy.

[floris v]

As said before, we aren't the developers but users helping users. If you want more features for AOO, file an enhancement request or plead your cause on the developers mailing list. And as long as selecting text on a tablet is the nightmare it now is, I wouldn't even consider installing any word processor on one, let alone using it.

[skeeezix1]

Until very recently I did not have a laptop with touch screen. Now I do and I'd like to be able to use it with my old friend OpenOffice, but I understand it is not available; I'll wait for the gurus at OO to figure it out. If it's possible they will.

[Villeroy]

Until very recently I did not have a laptop with touch screen. Now I do and I'd like to be able to use it with my old friend OpenOffice, but I understand it is not available; I'll wait for the gurus at OO to figure it out. If it's possible they will.

No, they won't I'm afraid. AOO is a dead project with a lively user forum. https://libreoffice.org/ has drawn all development resouces from AOO and sooner or later it will support touch interfaces.

[skeeezix1]

Negativity only poisons the well. I'll continue to use OO.

[Tmann]

I agree with RoryOF I to find fingerprinted screens annoying but I have a diability and it is a rather useful function for me. My adapted window screen wipers work well though