Cannot pin OpenOffice.org to Windows 7 Taskbar

[Nurio]

This is an issue I have with the newest OpenOffice 3.2.0. I didn't have it with the version I had before this one (I think it was 3.1.x). First I'll describe the usual situation and after that the issue with 3.2.0.
I am using Windows 7 and I have OpenOffice Writer pinned to the Taskbar. Usually when I open an ODT by double-clicking on it, the Writer icon would expand, like this:

opendocument.png (10.07 KiB) Viewed 12900 times

But now, with OpenOffice 3.2.0, when I double click an ODT, it will launch a new Writer instance on the Taskbar. Like this:

So, I figured that with a new install that Windows 7 won't recognize the old Writer icon the same as the new Writer instance. No biggie, just unpin the old Writer and pin the new Writer. However, that is not possible. If I try to right-click on the new Writer instance to pin it to the taskbar, it won't give me an option to do so. Why is this? Well, I took a look at the Task Manager to see what the new Writer program is called. Apparently, now a process called "soffice.bin" opens the ODTs. And Windows 7 won't pin anything but EXE on the taskbar.
I'd say it's possible to make things normal by making the process "swriter.exe" to open the ODT again or something. I've noticed that if I first open Writer and then open an ODT with it, it will work just fine, because then the process "swriter.exe" is running and is the active instance. If you use double-click to open an ODT, "swriter.exe" isn't running at all and instead "soffice.bin" becomes the active instance.

Does anyone know how I might be able to achieve my goal?

P.S.: I assume it's the same issue with other OpenOffice programs, but I only have Writer installed, so I can't test that.
And I could've sworn that I placed this in the Windows forum, but somehow it ended up here? Must be an oversight on my part.

[Bill]

The OpenOffice.org Writer icon on the Start Menu in the Windows 7 Release Candidate had a "pin to taskbar" option. Did you try that?

[Nurio]

Do you mean the Writer icon that appears in my Start Menu when I install OpenOffice? If so, then yes. If I do that, it will just pin "swriter.exe" to the taskbar and I still have the same issue. That is, if I double-click to open an ODT, it will use "soffice.bin" instead and I still have two instances of Writer on my taskbar, one inactive (the pinned Writer "swriter.exe") and one active (the "soffice.bin" Writer). And if I run Writer first and use that to open an ODT (so no double-clicking) then it will work fine.

[Bill]

As far as I know, there's nothing the user can do about the two icons on the taskbar.

[Solved] Different OpenOffice programs under same icon

[Nurio]

Well, nothing except rollback the installation. Where can I get OpenOffice 3.1.x?

[Bill]

OOo 3.1.1 and OOo 3.2 both work the same for me. With the Quickstarter off and the Writer icon pinned to the taskbar and no Writer documents open, double-clicking an existing ODT file puts a second icon on the taskbar. However, if the taskbar icon is double-clicked to open a new file before double-clicking the existing ODT file, a second icon does not appear.

You can download older versions of OOo at FileHippo.

[Nurio]

What really? Then... Am I delusional? I was so sure that it worked fine before... Oh well, thanks for the help.
I'm wondering, though, why hasn't this been "fixed" yet? It seems easy to do. OpenOffice just has to make sure that when you double-click an ODT, it gets opened just as if you opened it with Writer. Can I make such a request somewhere?

[Bill]

You can report bugs/enhancements at http://qa.openoffice.org/ooQAReloaded/o ... tBugs.html

[Nurio]

The Report Bug site is -- for the lack of a better word -- imposing, uninviting.
- There seems to be a huge guide which I should read before even sending a bug. There's a lot to read and it's not the easiest content to read, either.
- I apparently have to categorize my "bug", reading the guide about regressions and such. But I honestly can't figure out what the right category is. Is it a regression or not? I honestly wouldn't know. I understand that it is very convenient to categorize bugs, but the definitions are just too complex to understand.
- (This is understandable, but) I need to register an account before I'm even able to do a bug report. I don't really have anything against this, but it still makes it just that more tedious.
- Then I have to search if the bug has been reported before, but there are so many search options, you just get way too confused and won't even know what's what anymore.

After seeing this, I just closed the page. Not trying to be mean or something, but I just want to report this easily. But it might actually take me more than an hour before I am even qualified to report it. And possibly even more. Seems too much of a hassle to me.

[ccegnhdj]

I've been searching to a solution to this very problem and finally came across this thread. It's sad that they haven't fixed this yet, it should be a pretty obvious problem if any of the people who work on OO have Windows 7.

I also agree that the bug report site is very confusing. If they really want feedback and help it would be nice to be more accommodating to those of us who don't want to spend a long time trying to figure out an overly confusing website. I truly hope they will come across this on the forums or someone who is more familiar with their bug report site who has mercy on us.

[TheGurkha]

We have no 'ownership' nor control over the issues Tracker web site.

Did you see this tutorial? It shouldn't take too long to figure out how to raise an issue: [Tutorial] Reporting bugs or suggestions.

[Nurio]

Thank you, TheGurkha. I suppose it's now a bit easier to understand how to report a bug, however the guide still suggests to take 50 minutes to report a single bug. In my humble opinion, that is just too much time for something as simple as this. Now I'm left wondering, why do you have an issue tracker website that you have no control over? Isn't that just incredibly inconvenient?

Also, I have noticed that people are calling this issue an error on Windows 7. I'd rather call it an incompatibility between the OS and software (if not an error on OOo's part). There is honestly not much Windows 7 can do if a different process (soffice.bin as opposed to swriter.exe) opens the documents and that this process is used by all of OOo's programs. It's no wonder that Windows creates a new Writer instance on the taskbar and groups any other OOo programs with it, as it cannot differentiate between them. I, however, do admit that it is plain silly that it is not possible to pin anything other than EXE files on the taskbar, which is Windows's fault entirely. I really do miss folder shortcuts on the taskbar.

Could you maybe tell my why there's a only single process for all programs? I understand that it's a more efficient use of resources (memory) if multiple OOo programs are running, but as evidenced, it brings certain issues as well.

[thomasjk]

We don't control any of the development web sites. We are all just users. The Developers control the bug reporting site and it does not take 50 minutes to submit a bug.

[Nurio]

Okay, I see now what you mean. The tutorial, though, does suggest to take at least 50 minutes to report a bug. (20 minutes for searching for existing issues and 30 minutes for writing your report)

[thomasjk]

Who reads tutorials

[Nurio]

Normally, I am not one to read tutorials, however the bug report website confused me to no end, so I needed some help in that department.

[Bill]

A quick issue query for "taskbar" with Windows 7 OS selected found this bug:

pinning to task bar is wrong

[Nurio]

Ah yes, thank you Bill. It's not the same issue I am experiencing, however it seems to be very much related, as both issues seem to be caused by the fact that soffice.bin opens documents instead of the associated program (switer.exe etc)