04-19-2012, 08:25 PM

LibreOffice, for those of you unfamiliar with it, is a free, open sourced office suite recently split from the OpenOffice.org suite. Once installed, it lumps its word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, database, and formula applications into one app, and thus, one dock icon. Does anyone out there know how to "split" those up, for easier access. If you are able to do this with OpenOffice.org, please let me know, as it may work for LibreOffice as well.

Thank you,
~ Chris

04-19-2012, 09:38 PM

It appears that the Mac version of LibreOffice is set up this way and can't be changed. You can however make your own individual launchers.

Open up Automator and create an application. Add the "Run Shell Script" action. For the value, add the following for the word processor:

/Applications/LibreOffice.app/Contents/MacOS/swriter

Save that as an application and you've got yourself a launcher for the word processor.

Repeat those steps, replacing the script value with the following for each of the other parts:

Calc:

/Applications/LibreOffice.app/Contents/MacOS/scalc

Draw:

/Applications/LibreOffice.app/Contents/MacOS/sdraw

Base:

/Applications/LibreOffice.app/Contents/MacOS/sbase

Impress:

/Applications/LibreOffice.app/Contents/MacOS/simpress

Math:

/Applications/LibreOffice.app/Contents/MacOS/smath

It's admittedly not the most elegant solution but it should get the job done.

04-19-2012, 10:28 PM

Elegant or not, it works, and I am able to put each individual launcher in the dock. On top of all that, I learned something new for Mac OS, the essential equivalent of a DOS Batch file, which I used to find quite handy in Windows.

Thanks,
~ Chris

04-20-2012, 10:54 AM

Since you mentioned batch files, you might want to look up "bash scripts", AppleScript and Automator. Each of those can help automate tasks and do other neat OS level things (bash scripting is the closest to batch files).

04-20-2012, 04:55 PM

Sounds good, bash is one of the things I like about Mac OS, I can go from Xubuntu on my notebook computer to Mac OS on my iMac and not change a thing, thanks for mentioning that. By the way, you wouldn't happen to know of a way to get the icons out of LibreOffice for the individual modules? I tried copying a JPEG, but when I keep it in the Dock, it reverts to the Automater logo.

~ Chris

04-20-2012, 05:16 PM

You need to have ICNS files. Unfortunately, unlike just about any other OS I've used, OS X is very picky when it comes to icons. Take a look at this document to see how to change the icon. To create ICNS files out of pictures, take a look at img2icns - it's simple and the base version is free.

05-06-2012, 04:12 PM

I just downloaded libreOffice on OSX 10.7 and am trying to put separate icons for writer and calc on the dock. I've tried the suggested solution with automator several times, but get error msg about running inside or outside automator, etc. It's the first time I've seen Automator, and I must be doing something wrong. When I added the "Get specified file" action (as the error msg suggested) before "Run shell script," I got an application that opened the automator. Another time I created a new file in libreoffice writer, but it was just a file.
Your instructions say to add code "for the value," after adding "Run shell script," but I'm not seeing an obvious place to add the code.
The word cat comes up in a box, and I've put the copied code there with and without including the word cat. Maybe a screen shot?
Sorry to be dense about this.

Joann

05-06-2012, 05:47 PM

I'll save you the trouble of fighting with Automator. Here's a zip file containing "launchers" for each of the apps. These should work assuming you've put LibreOffice in /Applications.

05-06-2012, 07:41 PM

Thank you very much; I'm using them, but I'd still like to know how to have done it. Will work on that.
Joann

05-06-2012, 08:24 PM

When you add the "run shell script" action, you needed to replace the script action. By default, it executes "cat" - that's what you need to change.

07-02-2012, 11:27 PM

Thanks for the tip!

09-05-2012, 03:37 AM

Originally Posted by vansmith

You need to have ICNS files. Unfortunately, unlike just about any other OS I've used, OS X is very picky when it comes to icons.

The LibreOffice application bundle already contains .icns files that work just fine for the Automator apps created using the instructions above, without any extra software, using the regular Mac OS way of changing file/app icons.

Locate LibreOffice.app in the Finder, then right-click and choose Show Package Contents from the context menu.

Inside the package, inside a folder called "Resources" you'll see a whole bunch of .icns files, for all the apps and document types. As of Mac OS 10.7 (not sure about earlier), you can open these in Preview.app, highlight the largest icon size in the sidebar (preview pane), then copy the icon to the clipboard with ⌘C.

Next, locate the Automator app you created before (I put mine in ~/Applications). Right click on the Automator app in Finder and choose Get Info (or ⌘I), then click on the icon in the upper-left of the inspector window to highlight it. Press ⌘V to paste the icon from the clipboard. Close the file inspector 'n you're done. No muss, no fuss.