LibreOffice does not register itself with Unity

[Matt Giuca]

In Ubuntu 11.10, LibreOffice sometimes does not register itself with Unity. If this happens, it means you can have a LibreOffice window open, but it does not appear in a) the global menu bar, b) the Unity launcher, or c) the new alt-tab switcher. The only way to switch to the LibreOffice window or even know that it is still open is to minimise all the other windows one by one until you see it. Otherwise, it appears as if it isn't there.

It appears to trigger if LibreOffice is opened with a particular filename at launch time (either on the command-line or via the Unity launcher). Launching LibreOffice without arguments appears to work fine. Also, launching by double-clicking a file in Nautilus also appears to work. I have only tried it with LibreOffice Calc. Using LibreOffice 3.4.3 (the version that came with Ubuntu 11.10).

To reproduce:
1. Create a LibreOffice ODS spreadsheet document. Save it and quit.
2. On the command-line, type "libreoffice <filename>". Alternatively, type the file name into the Unity search and open it that way.

When LibreOffice launches, notice that there are two menu bars. Normally, LO isn't integrated into the global menu, so it displays only the title or close, minimise and maximise buttons there, and LO has its own menu beneath the global menu. But if you trigger this bug, you will see that the global menu is actually the Ubuntu Desktop menu bar -- it is completely unrelated to LibreOffice, as if the window manager didn't know that LO was running. You should also find that LO is not displayed in the Unity launcher or the alt-tab switcher.

I have managed to have two LO windows open at a time -- one triggering this bug and the other not. This meant I could see one LO window in the launcher but not the other.

I am attaching two screenshots: one showing the two global menus, and the other showing the LO missing from the launcher despite being open.

[Dmitry Shachnev (mitya57)]

Thank you for your report. It has been already reported and is duplicate of bug 842566, so is being marked as such.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.