Bug 103694 - Rename file without having to save again as a new file
Summary: Rename file without having to save again as a new file
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: UI (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
Inherited From OOo
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: needsDevAdvice
: 127121 157066 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks: macOS-UI-polish Desktop-Integration File-Name
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Reported: 2016-11-04 01:18 UTC by Galo Aguirre
Modified: 2023-09-03 00:20 UTC (History)
9 users (show)

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Crash report or crash signature:


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Description Galo Aguirre 2016-11-04 01:18:09 UTC
Description:
The title pretty much says it. If you want to rename a file from within the application you'd have to save it under a different name and delete the original in the OS.

Or close the file and rename the file in the OS itself. Anyways, I kind of find either way annoying. It'd be great if you could rename the file directly from the application.

Not hugely urgent, but it'd be a convenient plus.

Thanks for your time!

Actual Results:  
You save the file in either of the forms described above.

Expected Results:
It'd be easier if there was some direct workaround without the intermediate steps cited above.


Reproducible: Always

User Profile Reset: No

Additional Info:


User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/54.0.2840.71 Safari/537.36
Comment 1 Jean-Baptiste Faure 2016-11-04 05:39:14 UTC
I think it is not a very good idea to add OS & File Manager functions in an Office software.
How many times you have to do that ?

Best regards. JBF
Comment 2 Heiko Tietze 2016-11-04 12:01:49 UTC
Disagree as well to add OS functionality to the program. While online tools such as Google Documents do not have a file manager it's a different situation on the desktop. Besides this would be a safety relevant function as the old file has to be deleted on rename.

Vote for WONTFIX.
Comment 3 Galo Aguirre 2016-11-06 22:31:02 UTC
(In reply to Jean-Baptiste Faure from comment #1)
> I think it is not a very good idea to add OS & File Manager functions in an
> Office software.
> How many times you have to do that ?
> 
> Best regards. JBF

Isn't opening a file, saving a file... aren't those technically OS functions as well. The program doesn't do those itself I assume, just passes the command to the OS layer, no?

It would just pass a further command of deleting the old file. I dunno.

Kinda do it all the time, save the file as untitled, then go back and change the name, heheh.

Warm wishes,

Galo
Comment 4 Galo Aguirre 2016-11-06 22:32:17 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #2)
> Disagree as well to add OS functionality to the program. While online tools
> such as Google Documents do not have a file manager it's a different
> situation on the desktop. Besides this would be a safety relevant function
> as the old file has to be deleted on rename.
> 
> Vote for WONTFIX.

'safety relevant function'

Don't understand.
Comment 5 Heiko Tietze 2016-11-07 07:36:23 UTC
(In reply to Galo Aguirre from comment #4)
> 'safety relevant function'

You deal with the file itself moving it to trash (aka delete) finally. If something goes wrong everything will be lost. That's safety relevant in contrast to changing the title for instance. 
Keep also in mind that files may be on connected network drives or accessed via CMIS.
Comment 6 Alex Thurgood 2016-11-07 13:16:59 UTC
Confirming.

On Mac OSX, it is an option that appears to be systematically available to the user in all of Apple's apps (Keynote, Pages, Numbers, PDFViewer, etc). However, not in open source apps.

FWIW, Apple seems to manage pretty well with renaming files mid-edit by changing the file name in the title bar...
Comment 7 Heiko Tietze 2016-11-17 11:19:35 UTC
The idea received positive resonance in the UX meeting. The proposed solution is to make File > Properties > General > Filename editable. 

We should be aware of alien files such as PDF or Doc opened in Writer or XLS in Calc, SVG in Draw. It's questionable to rename those files as well. The filename input could be disabled when save is disabled.

(moving component from framework to UI)
Comment 8 m_a_riosv 2016-11-19 15:59:30 UTC
Maybe Mac OSX manage it at OS level, but if I'm not wrong on windows change the name of an open file, wich it's the case, it's no possible.
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Rename-a-file-baea7aab-760b-4ee0-af58-06e940d505a4
Comment 9 Heiko Tietze 2016-11-20 03:18:51 UTC
(In reply to m.a.riosv from comment #8)
> Maybe Mac OSX manage it at OS level, but if I'm not wrong on windows change
> the name of an open file, wich it's the case, it's no possible.
> https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Rename-a-file-baea7aab-760b-4ee0-
> af58-06e940d505a4

Simple solution: close -> rename -> reopen. And remember the current position.
Comment 10 m_a_riosv 2016-11-20 14:52:48 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #9)

> Simple solution: close -> rename -> reopen. And remember the current
> position.
I know, more than thirty years doing so, and that's the way to keep the file properties on the system, but I think it can't be implement inside LibreOffice without close the file at some point.
Comment 11 Brock McNuggets 2017-03-19 03:33:15 UTC
This is a feature common to macOS. For that platform I absolutely agree it should be implemented -- to not makes it a non-standard program and can lead to confusion.

For Linux and Windows this is not a standard feature. Yes, it would be a benefit if those environments gained this but to add it to LibreOffice alone would not do much, few would use it.
Comment 12 m_a_riosv 2019-08-24 12:08:23 UTC
*** Bug 127121 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 13 espinosa_cz 2019-08-26 23:07:07 UTC
> Simple solution: close -> rename -> reopen. And remember the current position.

That was my implementation assumption too.
If you deem it too complicated, I would have perhaps a simpler idea: "deferred renaming".
The actual, physical renaming would be done after user closes the document. 
At least on platforms not supporting opened file renaming, like Windows.

LO just need to display modified "Save changes to document" dialog informing that rename is going to happen and user can still have option to cancel and not go through.

Also on the UI level the name should be displayed in a different font color indicating that the physical rename hasn't happened yet. 

I know, it's not ideal, but for most user, like me, it would still make my work much easier. I have lost of documents and I like consistent naming which is difficult to achieve, because you have to first, open the file and to see the content, to decide on the name, but you cannot, because it is open.
Comment 14 Thomas Lendo 2019-08-28 00:56:46 UTC
Hm, I doubt this is a good solution on non-MacOS platforms
Comment 15 Cor Nouws 2019-08-28 18:07:57 UTC
I don't think implementing this file manager feature is a wise thing. What more to come..
Comment 16 espinosa_cz 2019-08-28 23:45:57 UTC
@Cor Nouws: no one forces you to use it. It is completely optional. I am completely happy to inactive by default, like many other tools from the toolbars. I wold be happy to have it as a separate extension. 

File name is effectively a property of a document. And as such it is perfectly in sphere of Office suite functionality.

Making someone's life easier should take precedence over subjectively perceived software "purity". 

I don't consider this functionality to be big hydrance on LO development resources either, otherwise I would bother them with it. I fully acknowledge that this functionality is a niche one and therefore low priority.

By the way, how is it done in the Online version of LO?
Comment 17 Heiko Tietze 2019-08-29 07:54:23 UTC
We discussed this topic in the design meeting. While file management operation shouldn't be in the program it's a different situation if mac users are used to it. 

What do you think, Tor? Does it make sense, is it feasible to implement (mac only, perhaps)=
Comment 18 m_a_riosv 2023-09-03 00:01:33 UTC
*** Bug 157066 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 19 non.space.0 2023-09-03 00:20:29 UTC
(In reply to m.a.riosv from comment #18)
> *** Bug 157066 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

The problem does not seem to have been "solved" from the time of this older bug report??

I just checked "The proposed solution is to make File > Properties > General > Filename editable. "

And in Properties >General there is no option to make "Filename editable"???

It's a cumbersome state of affairs as it is in LO writer to this day.  "Rename file" does not seem to "rename" the old file but "saves as" to a file that is then not opened or receives edits???  Even with "save as" at least the new doc is opened and edits are made in it, etc.