Comment 8 for bug 1792017

Description:
Original posted and confirmed here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libreoffice/+bug/1792017
libreoffice 1:6.0.3-0ubuntu1
Ubuntu 18.04. LTS

The default working dir is hard coded to ~/Documents
(Optionen -> Pfade -> Arbeitsverzeichnis -> Standard)

If this folder does not exists, it falls back to ~

This creates odd situations since only the "xdg-user-dir DOCUMENTS" folder, in my case ~/Dokumente is on the Nautilus short cuts list,

I had to redo my saved work, because I have assumed it was lost in ~/Dokumente

I was able to fixed this for my family by changing the working directory in preferences manually.

I had a bief look into the source
https://github.com/LibreOffice/core/blob/b5867945d67dba505d0629e5e41fdc52bc78bfee/shell/source/backends/desktopbe/desktopbackend.cxx#L245

And it looks like using "xdg-user-dir DOCUMENTS" is intended. It is done by accessing directly the "~/.config/user-dirs.dirs" file. Maybe it fails somewhere? The xdg-user-dir DOCUMENTS" call works fine on the command line.

This is my ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs

# This file is written by xdg-user-dirs-update
# If you want to change or add directories, just edit the line you're
# interested in. All local changes will be retained on the next run
# Format is XDG_xxx_DIR="$HOME/yyy", where yyy is a shell-escaped
# homedir-relative path, or XDG_xxx_DIR="/yyy", where /yyy is an
# absolute path. No other format is supported.
#
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Vorlagen"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/Öffentlich"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/Dokumente"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/Musik"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Bilder"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/Videos"

I suggest to change the default working dir to the output of the "xdg-user-dir DOCUMENTS" call.
That is hopeful future proof format changes

Steps to Reproduce:
1. cereate ~/Documents on a German Ubuntu
2. save a file
3. Whatch the folder opened by the file save dialogue

Actual Results:
file is saved at ~/Documents

Expected Results:
file should be saved at ~Dokumente
"call xdg-user-dir DOCUMENTS" to set the default working dir

Reproducible: Always

User Profile Reset: No

Additional Info:
Version: 6.0.3.2
Build-ID: 1:6.0.3-0ubuntu1
CPU-Threads: 4; BS: Linux 4.15; UI-Render: Standard; VCL: gtk3;
Gebietsschema: de-DE (de_DE.UTF-8); Calc: group