[Solved] Show Filename & File Type in the Title Bar

[Fevrin]

Edit: Tagged solved since issue has been fixed in 3.0. Hagar, Moderator.

I'm relatively new to using OpenOffice (I'm using version 2.3.1), and I'm wondering how I can show the file type (or extension) of the currently-opened file in OpenOffice's title bar. This issue, which seems to be intentional, occurs in both the Linux and Windows versions (and I assume the Mac OS X version as well). I find it very inconvenient not being able to tell which file type the document, spreadsheet, etc. is without going to File > Properties. If I have several files open with the same name (like if I'm working on a project that has multiple files with the same name, but different extension, like .doc and .odt), it shouldn't be necessary to have to go to File > Properties just to find out which file is which. I find this very counter-intuitive. Is there a way to change this behavior?

Through some of my research, I came across Issue #1134, which seems to describe my issue, but it never really comes to a resolution. Someone mentions overlooking the "function bar" as if that shows the file type, but I'm not sure what that bar is. Does anyone know anything more about this issue? Thanks.

I've attached two images to illustrate.

An example of what I'm talking about.

How I want it to look like.

[acknak]

The issue you found is no longer relevant: it is ancient and closed. It was a request to show the filename (instead of nothing) in the title bar.

Here are the relevant ones (as far as I can see):
Issue 43588: Document window title should display filename as well as document's title property
Issue 84728: file extension not longer shown in window title bar

You can register and vote or add a comment for either one of those.

It seems unusual to me that you would often need to have two documents of the same name but different file format. Could you describe what you are doing?

[Fevrin]

There are many instances in which showing the file type would be useful, and there would be little to no disadvantage to showing the file type.

One case is when I'm comparing several documents, each of a different file type. If the title bar would show which file is which, that would certainly help me keep track of the file's contents. It's very confusing otherwise.

As I said in my first post, I'm relatively new to OpenOffice.org; I am also new to having my files using the open file types (*.ods, *.odt, etc.), so the vast majority of my existing documents are in proprietary formats (*.docx, *.xls, etc.). As a result, I may have a copy of a file open in both its proprietary format and its open format at the same time during my transition, and even afterwards; people I send files to, after all, will most likely still be using proprietary file types.

It's not unusual at all for the people who've been spoiled with this feature, which is present in Microsoft Office. At the very least, there should be an option to show the file type, or as suggested in issue #43588, the title bar could show both the file's title and it's actual name (though the title bar could get cluttered if the names are long).

Good program design includes being intuitive, and not merely meeting the bare minimum of usability. I think this is one thing that could be improved, and even after reading how this "feature" of omitting the file type is intentional, no given reason has really justified it.

May I also add that AbiWord and Gnumeric both show the file type in their title bars?

[acknak]

Not to be argumentative, but two platforms (Windows and Mac) do their very level best to make sure that a user never sees any file extension. Linux has no system-wide policy, but instead sort of punts and says "I don't care what you call it. You named it: you figure it out." I actually prefer the latter approach, and OOo (for the most part) does not depend the file extension.

The specification document mentioned in issue 84728 does not give any rationale either, but I suspect that all of the above goes into it: the file extension is a technical detail that more often confuses rather than helps.

That said, your situation would not require that the extension be shown all the time, but only when you have documents with the same name. Moreover, it wouldn't help if OOo was showing the document title and not the file name. Maybe OOo could be smart and notice when >1 window has the same title (whether the file name or the document title), and include some extra distinguishing information.

When I have a document I need to know details for (name, file type, location, etc.) I do File > Save As. That's still a nuisance, but less so than the document properties.

You can also go to Tools > Customize > Toolbars > Toolbar = "Standard" and activate the "Load URL" toolbar item (top of the list). That will add a text entry to the toolbar that will display the full path and filename for the document.

I prefer not to have even more clutter on the toolbar for the rare occasion that I need that information, so I just use the clunky Save As trick.

[Fevrin]

Thanks for the "Load URL" tip, but it of course cannot be extended to display long paths, even if it has the room--another area for improvement. And I still would want at least the option to have the title bar display the file type, although I'd still want the file type to show whether multiple open files have the same filename or not. I guess I'll just have to pursue that when I have time.

Oh, and just so you know, one of the first things I do when I install Windows is uncheck "hide extensions for known file types"

[acknak]

One thing I forgot to say, since you mentioned having lots of old MS Office documents: I strongly recommend that you do not open those and start working on them with OOo. Once you open, edit and save (e.g.) a .doc file, then what you have is OOo's interpretation of your .doc file. The original (correct!) version, as saved by MS Office, is gone.

If I were migrating to OOo, I would keep my current working documents only as .odt files. If I needed to use one of my old files, I would import it into the .odt, tweak the formatting as necessary, and then save it and use it as .odt. The old .doc version would then be an archival backup, (probably) never to be needed again. If I had to send out a .doc, I would save a temporary .doc, or use File > Send > Email As MS Word. This way, you never have multiple open files with the same name and different types.

It is very risky (in my opinion) to treat OOo as a "replacement" for MS Office, even though it can be done and many people want it to work that way.

[Fevrin]

Well, thanks for the heads up, but it's a little too late Even after I read this post, I continued converting my existing .doc's and .docx's to .odt's because visually comparing them, I found little to no differences so I'm fairly confident that all I've ended up with is open versions of my previously-proprietary files. As long as the OpenDocument specification is sound and OpenOffice's implementation of the specification is exact, then everything should be fine. The existing Word documents so far haven't been very complex--pretty much the most "exotic" thing has been full-page color backgrounds (which I had to research a solution for to actually get the background to cover the full page instead of just the parts with text).

Still, would you care to elaborate on how OpenOffice interprets .doc files differently than Word? Is it merely slightly different formatting?

[acknak]

All you have to do is watch this forum and you'll find that probably the number one issue is people finding problems with interconverting documents with MS Office formats. OOo does "fairly well" (probably better than any other converter), but it does not always get it right. Sometimes, it goes very wrong. MS Office goes a long way to accept all kinds of abuse from people who don't know "the right way" to do something. It's amazing how it does the right thing even when the user had no clue. OOo may convert the document properly but fail to "do the right thing," leading to some really fouled up documents. E.g. margins may be off, which throws off page breaks, figures end up in strange places, etc.

If that happens, and you saved that over your original version, you'd still have all your original content, but it's now unusable if you had to print it out and give it to someone. You'd be forced to re-format it in OOo--a very very steep climb for the average MS Office user.

You're absolutely right, it depends on which features you've used and how you formatted things. Hopefully, your documents won't trip over anything so terrible.

[Riverside]

This issue is particularly problematic for me also.

I am receiving multiple large files in .xls spreadsheet format, which I need to first convert to text .csv files for batch, scripted processing, the scripted processing then takes place, I then need to open the resultant processed output .csv files, then convert them back to .xls format for forwarding on to their eventual destination.

OpenOffice Calc (version 2.0.2) has proven useless for this, as I need to be able to quickly see, at a glance, which file exactly and precisely I am viewing at any given moment otherwise the task becomes hopelessly and impossibly complex.

Fortunately, I have discovered today that Gnumeric (!) does exactly what I need for this piece of work as it displays the exact and precise file name (including the file's extension type suffix) in the title bar of each open window.

I wouldn't have thought it would be difficult for OpenOffice developers to make the same functionality available in OpenOffice, perhaps not as the default but as a user selectable option.

[jhostage]

I totally agree with Fevrin on this one and find the "we know better" attitude in the responses kind of offensive. All that is necessary is to follow the settings in Windows to not hide file types.

[acknak]

Please accept my apology. I didn't meant to play the "know-it-all" but I can see how it could come across that way.

People simply have different ways of working. This particular area is rather a mess because there are widely different philosophies in play, but, in the end, the only opinion that really matters is the developers'. We users have to make do with what they decide to implement.

If you are concerned about the issue, register and vote for the issues I linked to. Discussing it here will have no effect.