Finder and NeoOffice can't open a new Window

[John Varela]

iMac running Mojave 10.14.2.

In both Finder and NeoOffice, command File => New Window opens a new tab instead of a new window. In NeoOffice, opening a new text file while in a spreadsheet opens the text in a tab and vice versa. File => New Tab works as expected in both apps.

File => New Window and File => New Tab both work as expected in browsers.

This problem does not appear in my wife's Macbook Pro which is also running 10.14.2.

I suspect I have set something wrong somewhere in Preferences but if so I can't find it.

 

[DeltaMac]

Did you check in Finder Preferences? There is a setting "Open folders in tabs instead of new windows".

 

[John Varela]

As I said, I've looked for a setting like that but can't find it. Where is it?

 

[John Varela]

As I said, I've looked for a setting like that but can't find it. Where is it?

Oops. I looked again and found it in Finder preferences. I had been looking in System Preferences because of the similar symptom in NeoOffice. Resetting the item in Finder Preferences fixed the Finder, but NeoOffice is still opening tabs instead of windows. I just went through all the Preferences in NeoOffice and can't find anything about windows or tabs.

 

[DeltaMac]

It's been 8 or ten years since I last used NeoOffice, so I can't help you with how to use more recent versions.
Have you tried NeoOffice support forums for your user question?

 

[John Varela]

NeoOffice has no support staff and, as far as I can find, no way to submit a bug report, which is kind of outrageous for a product that now charges rent. Neither are there any support forums that I can find. NeoOffice "Support" just suggests going to the Open Office or LibreOffice support forums. I checked with Open Office and someone had gotten there ahead of me with the same problem with NeoOffice. The response he got was that Open Office does not now nor has it ever had tabs so they don't experience a problem with things wrongly opening in tabs.

 

[DeltaMac]

I am struggling with visualizing what you say about opening a new text document in a tab (?)
Are you saying that another tab appears in a NeoOffice window? I don't use NeoOffice, but I do use LibreOffice.
Is there an option in NeoOffice, when opening a new document, to open as a tab? That option doesn't exist in LibreOffice, and I just want to know how opening "as a tab" appears in a NeoOffice window.
Can you post a screenshot of a NeoOffice window that shows how that appears?

I do see in NeoOffice wiki, that NeoOffice switched from OpenOffice code to LibreOffice code, at the time that NeoOffice 2017 Professional Edition was released. https://neowiki.neooffice.org/index.php/Main_Page

 

[John Varela]

I am struggling with visualizing what you say about opening a new text document in a tab (?)
Are you saying that another tab appears in a NeoOffice window? I don't use NeoOffice, but I do use LibreOffice.
Is there an option in NeoOffice, when opening a new document, to open as a tab? That option doesn't exist in LibreOffice, and I just want to know how opening "as a tab" appears in a NeoOffice window.
Can you post a screenshot of a NeoOffice window that shows how that appears?

I do see in NeoOffice wiki, that NeoOffice switched from OpenOffice code to LibreOffice code, at the time that NeoOffice 2017 Professional Edition was released. https://neowiki.neooffice.org/index.php/Main_Page

Here is a screen shot of a Neo Office window. You can see the File pulldown offers New > Text Document and New > Spreadsheet. I opened a new spreadsheet followed by opening a new text document. The Neo Office window has two tabs, labeled at the top. In view is a blank text document, "Untitled 1", in Tab 2; unseen behind it in Tab 1 is a Blank Spreadsheet. New documents used to open in separate windows. If I have a spreadsheet open and then open a second, existing spreadsheet, both spreadsheets will be in tabs in a single window. They used to open in separate windows.

I seldom use NeoOffice for anything but spreadsheets, but I do use spreadsheets almost daily. I have a 27" iMac with a 19" second monitor. With all that display real estate I have no reason to economize and fit two spreadsheets into one window. When I have two spreadsheets open it's because I am working between them and want to see both at once. Maybe I should switch to Libre Office. What is your take on Libre Office? I find NeoOffice charts to be very buggy. How does Libre Office compare?

 

[DeltaMac]

I can't compare the two. As I said, I haven't used NeoOffice for years. I use LibreOffice, but only occasionally. I expect I will be moving over the LibreOffice for any MS Office use, as I don't want to purchase MS Office again after macOS drops support for 32-bit apps (I use MS Office 2011)

So, I have been experinmenting with LibreOffice recently. There's no evidence of tab use, as far as I can discover, but then NeoOffice doesn't appear to offer tabs versus windows, either (?) I am guessing that you have some setting for that. Maybe that is something that you might discover if you open NeoOffice after logging in to a different user account on your Mac. It might be a good troubleshooting step, anyway. If you don't have another user, this might be a good reason to try adding one (in your Users & Groups pref pane), then log out/log in to that new user. Launch NeoOffice, New spreadsheet, then New Text Document. Watch what happens

 

[John Varela]

One of the obvious first things to test with a problem like this is to try it in a different account, and it is also one of the things that I usually forget to do. I opened my Admin account and sure enough, in that account NeoOffice opens a new window instead of a tab. It is of course running the same copy of the app under the same level of OS, so the problem has to reside in the installation in my user account. I have gone over the Preferences again and again and if a Tab option is in there they have it well hidden. There is an "Advanced" setting to "Enable experimental features" and that is not and never has been checked. I will go through the Preferences yet another time...

 

[DeltaMac]

Look somewhere else for the configuration files:
Open your user/Library, then open the Applications Support folder. Look for a NeoOffice folder. If you have one there, that may be where the configuration is stored. (Again, I use LibreOffice, and that's where the user configuration is stored. If NeoOffice is using the LibreOffice code, then the settings files may be in a similar location...)
Make sure NeoOffice is NOT running, then copy that folder to another location, and delete the original. NOW, launch NeoOffice, and see if you can go forward from that point (I think it should be completely reset to defaults). If things get worse for you, then remove whatever was created then, and move the original back into place. (I hope the reset fixes your issue. It's possible that you MAY need to reinstall NeoOffice to restore those files, but it should still remain at defaults, I am pretty sure about that.)

 

[John Varela]

Look somewhere else for the configuration files:
Open your user/Library, then open the Applications Support folder. Look for a NeoOffice folder. If you have one there, that may be where the configuration is stored. (Again, I use LibreOffice, and that's where the user configuration is stored. If NeoOffice is using the LibreOffice code, then the settings files may be in a similar location...)
Make sure NeoOffice is NOT running, then copy that folder to another location, and delete the original. NOW, launch NeoOffice, and see if you can go forward from that point (I think it should be completely reset to defaults). If things get worse for you, then remove whatever was created then, and move the original back into place. (I hope the reset fixes your issue. It's possible that you MAY need to reinstall NeoOffice to restore those files, but it should still remain at defaults, I am pretty sure about that.)[/QUOTE

I had already looked in Library, Library/Application Support, and Library/Preferences and found nothing for NeoOffice.

NeoOffice is based on OpenOffice and LibreOffice, and neither of them has tabs, but NeoOffice does have tabs. So where did tabs come from? Could it be that someone started to develop tabs for OpenOffice or LebreOffice, the project was abandoned, but the code is still present, just not executed? Perhaps whatever parameter turns that code off somehow got turned on in my account. With that thought in mind, I went to NeoOffice > Preferences > NeoOffice > Advanced and verified that the "Enable experimental features" box is not checked. So much for that thought.

I give up. I think I'll download Libre Office and see how that works for me. Thanks for your help.

 

[DeltaMac]

You should also look in the other Library, the one in your user folder. As you may know, your user Library is normally hidden, so, in the Finder, drop the Go menu, and hold your Option key. You should see your Library appear in that Go menu everytime you hold Option.
Another way to that folder is to Go to Folder (Shift-Command-G), and enter ~/Library/
That will take you immediately to your Library. You may find a NeoOffice folder in that folder somewhere. That's also the same library folder where you find the user Preferences folder, so maybe you have already looked through that. (That Preferences folder should have hundreds of files and folders, where the Library folder at the root of your drive will have much less, usually just a few dozen.

 

[John Varela]

There's nothing about NeoOffice there, either. Well, there are preferences listed for NeoOffice-2, -3, and -4, but this version is 2017.15 Professional Edition. I did look through the NeoOffice-4 prefs anyway and found nothing about launch, open, New, or tabs.

 

[DeltaMac]

The preference files are usually not very helpful, as the data/settings are saved as complex data, probably not decipherable unless you really know the code in the software, and how it all works when storing that preference data (I sure don't... )
But, that's where the OTHER user account can be helpful. Log in to THAT user. You can make changes to the settings in NeoOffice, then quit NeoOffice, and examine the various files in Preferences (and other locations, too). You should see either files that have been newly created, or with new changes. Go back to your normal user account, and simply delete those user files. Launch NeoOffice, and move ahead from there. There might be small changes that you have to make - but you should be familiar with what you need to do with those settings. As there is really nothing obvious about settings for opening docs in tabs, that little annoyance should (in theory) go away.
Could take you some time to sort this all out, but that's the nature of that kind of troubleshooting when you don't really see obvious ways to fix those issues. You just have to dig a bit deeper [notice that I am not saying this will be quick and easy --- it's not! unless you get lucky)

 

[John Varela]

My NeoOffice problem was solved when I discovered that when one of the tabs is dragged onto the desktop it remains there as a separate window. The New Finder Window command now opens a new window instead of a tab. That must have been a bug fix in either Mojave 10.14.2 or 10.14.3.

 

[AHB]

iMac running Mojave 10.14.2.

In both Finder and NeoOffice, command File => New Window opens a new tab instead of a new window. In NeoOffice, opening a new text file while in a spreadsheet opens the text in a tab and vice versa. File => New Tab works as expected in both apps.

File => New Window and File => New Tab both work as expected in browsers.

This problem does not appear in my wife's Macbook Pro which is also running 10.14.2.

I suspect I have set something wrong somewhere in Preferences but if so I can't find it.

The answer to this very annoying issue can be found in the Dock preferences of all places.

 

[John Varela]

The answer to this very annoying issue can be found in the Dock preferences of all places.

Sure enough! It never occurred to me to look there. Thanks.