Comment 15 for bug 730264

10 May 2012.

I reported this problem to Launchpad a few weeks ago. My clients couldn't open and save files created in LibreOffice on a Windows network. It was, however, possible to open a file located on a server on a Windows-like network (one using SMB), in LibreOffice Writer, by browsing to the file, using "Places", right-clicking on it, and selecting LibreOffice from the context box to launch Writer with the file being automatically loaded in the process. It was possible to edit the file, opened in this manner, and then save it back to the server.

I have now "solved" the problem by upgrading from 11.10 to 12.04 but possibly found a minor bug in the installation script of the 12.04 upgrade so I thought I should report it here for the benefit of those faced with this problem and those who so marvellously fix the issues raised (and for whose efforts I am so grateful!).

I am a "mid-range" user (compared to the engineers who work for me.. they are brilliant but not disposed to reporting the things they do.) so pardon me if I write something that is not entirely precise or accurate. Please feel free, anyone, to correct what I say.

In the Gnome human interface there is a virtual file system that provides a compatible means by which Linux can interact with a network that uses Microsoft Windows-like file messaging; called SMB (standing for Server Message Block protocol which Microsoft modifed and called Common Internet File System - CIFS). The Linux application that provides compatibility between Linux systems and CIFS file servers is called SAMBA (First developed by Dr Andrew Tridgell - now supported by a team of good guys.). The compatibility layer provided by Gnome to work with the CIFS/Samba file system is called the Gnome Virtual File System. (You may have seen .gvfs in the paths of files. ) In Ubuntu 11.10, there was not a good working relationship between the GVFS and LibreOffice. Indeed, within LibreOffice (and OpenOffice for that matter) running within Gnome, the means of browsing a Windows network, or a network generally, has always been unsatisfactory. (I hasten to add this is in no way a criticism of the people who have given so much of themselves developing these applications!) For example, when browsing for a file in LibreOffice you can't rename files, copy or move files or delete files as you can so conveniently in MS Windows. There is no button to click on to go to a network and when you click on the drop-down box in LibreOffice file browse, there is no obvious tree allowing you to easily browse your network.

But, and here's the really good news, there is a Gnome compatibility layer package that you can install (if you knew about it) that will solve some of these problems. You go to the Synaptic Package manager and in the search box, type Gnome LibreOffice. For Ubuntu 12.10, you really need "office productivity suite -- GTK+ 3.0 integration" but the earlier version I found seems to work also. That's what you need if you want to browse all files at your disposal when working within LibreOffice. So install the package and things seem to work really, really well.

When you first upgrade to Ubuntu 12.10, you find the browse within LibreOffice is minimal. (Confused me entirely!) Then I discovered that the upgrade, whilst giving me the latest LibreOffice at that time, did not automatically install "office productivity suite -- GTK+ 3.0 integration". Once you have that installed, if you have set a bookmark to a file on a network server, using the facility provided in "Places" to browse and network and bookmark folders, then this bookmark will show in the LibreOffice file browse. Still not the best, but a heck of a long way from what used to be!

The good news is that you can now, on a Windows-like network, save to files on your "samba" server, or browse to files already on the server, open them, edit them and save them. As for being able to do all those other things like, copy, rename, move, delete, etc... well I sure the good guys are working on it.

Hope this is helpful to all people of varying levels of expertise.

Kevin Loughrey.