[Solved] Clearing Recent Document History

[Hagar Delest]

Welcome beginner. What is your question or comment?
Please try to briefly and clearly tell us: What you want, What you tried, and What happened.
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Hello--

This is in reference to the posting by Nor_Cal_Dale on 04/23/2009. I am having a similar problem.

The history add-on manager worked great in OpenOffice 3.0. However, it does not work at all in OpenOffice 3.1. I even tried reinstalling it.

I did delete the recent documents list from showing up on the toolbar via Tools/Customize, but this does not clear the files from the history.

I did delete C:\Documents and Settings\Your User Name\Application Data\OpenOffice.org\3\user\registry\data\org\openoffice\Office\Common.XCU and the files are still in the history!

There must be some way to get rid of them! Any help would be appreciated!

[franx]

[...] The history add-on manager worked great in OpenOffice 3.0.
However, it does not work at all in OpenOffice 3.1. [...]

It seems that you are right.
I can't clear the Recent Documents anymore.

[...] I did delete C:\Documents and Settings\Your User Name\Application Data\OpenOffice.org\3\user\registry\data\org\openoffice\Office\Common.XCU and the files are still in the history! [...]

They are stored now (OOo 3.1.0) in the file <Histories.xcu>.
Path: ...\user\registry\data\org\openoffice\Office\Histories.xcu.

Please don't delete <Common.xcu>. It contains a lot of important user settings.

[...] There must be some way to get rid of them! Any help would be appreciated!

Open Tools > Extension Manager and disable (or remove) <HistoryManager2.1.oxt>.
Then close OOo (if enabled, also Quickstarter).

Open <Common.xcu> with a text editor and change the value for the "PickListSize"
in the node "History" as follows:

<node oor:name="History">
<prop oor:name="PickListSize" oor:type="xs:int">
<value>0</value>
</prop>
</node>

Save <Common.xcu> and restart OOo.

[Leroyleroy_2000]

Thanks for responding. To make life easier, I use something called CCleaner. It has a function to delete custom files and folders, so I added Histories.xcu to the list to get rid of the file. If I want to keep the document history, I can just uncheck the custom option. Adobe reader has the same problem where I have to delete AVGeneral\cRecentFiles to get rid of the history.

[franx]

Hi,

Thanks for responding. To make life easier, I use something called CCleaner. It has a function to delete custom files and folders, so I added Histories.xcu to the list to get rid of the file. [...]

That's interesting, I should try it out ...

Edit: That works well. My Picklist (Recent Documents), set to value=30, could be rebuilt again up to this value after I had removed Histories.xcu with CCleaner and restarted OOo.

Thanks.

By the way: <Histories.xcu> contains Picklist, URL-History and Help-Bookmarks data.
[see → <...\OpenOffice.org 3\Basis\share\registry\schema\org\openoffice\Office\Histories.xcs>]

[franx]

Hi,
there's now an excellent improvement in managing the lists of recent documents (PickList and URL-History):
the new extension → History Master (by bmarcelly).

After the installation, see details under:
- Help F1, Index: History Master
- Tools > Add-Ons > History Master: List handling ...
- File > Recent of same type ...

Merci beaucoup !


Sample (protection of privacy: all documents have been blurred out)

[rene]

This does not work for me with openoffice321. There is no impact on the load url bar content; see viewtopic.php?f=6&t=34089&start=0

[jrstrider]

It's incredible how much time is being spent on clearing recent documents. The issue goes back at least three releases. Each release has a different "solution." Someone finds a fix such as deleting an .xcu file and then the file changes.

My question is why do you guys use openoffice? I mean I hate Microsoft but Micro office is far superior to openoffice and you don't have to spend staff hours on nonsense such as this "recent documents" issue. And there are other such issues, examples of which I can't give at the moment because I so seldom use the open version. Someone is going to say it's free. But one could still be using Microsoft office 97. Amortized over those years, the cost is miniscule compared to cost of addressing issues such as rec. docs. Every time I get a new computer, I buy a copy of office at a discounted price. I now have office 2007 but I save docs in office 97 format because I know just about everyone can read a doc in that format. What I'm saying is that the Microsoft office versions have staying power and you can stick with an old version to save money (unless you are using Word, say, in a heavy duty way - most people don't).

I though of another thing. The help for openoffice is really primitive. Whenever an issue comes up, one has to search for a forum like this one.

So, again, why do you use this openoffice dinosaur?

[Hagar Delest]

As soon as it turns into a troll, I lock the thread.

No need to reply at all IMHO.

[mdavidfrost]

I'm using HistoryMaster in OpenOffice.org 3.3.0 & LibreOffice 4.2.0.4, setting the number of items in ALL lists to zero. I haven't found a solution in NeoOffice. My operating system is MacOSX. This stops the program from creating a history.

[Nailbrush]

Apache OpenOffice 4.1.4 => main.xcd => <prop oor:name="PickListSize" oor:type="xs:int"><value>0</value>

Tested - works - another damned irritating oversight dealt with.