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How do we install OFFLINE HELP for LibreOffice v. 5.x

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August 30, 2015 - 9:40pm
#1
dforion
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How do we install OFFLINE HELP for LibreOffice v. 5.x

I tried searching but I see no search facility here.

There are two earlier solutions, one referring to CAB files, but there are no CAB files in LibreOffice_5.0.1_Win_x86_helppack_en-US.msi offline help from LO.

The other solution is a poorly written homemade installer and freezes in Windows 7 x32 so bad the process cannot be killed, either via Windows Task Manager nor SysInternals Process Explorer... Looks like only a reboot will get rid of it.

Can someone please post CLEAR and TESTED instructions on how to install Offline Help for V.5x of LibreOffice?

Thank you in advance.

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August 30, 2015 - 10:21pm
John T. Haller
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Don't Currently Have Any, Possible Admin Rights Workable

The simple answer is that there aren't any right now. I maintain LibreOffice Portable mostly solo at present and don't have the time to work on it. Most users don't use help. And for most of the users that do use help, the online help is all they need. That's why it's not a pressing issue. The current guides on the site were for older layouts of the help installers.

We don't have easy to install add-on packages due to the work involved. If the publisher made an easy to use all in one installer for help we could extract and package, we likely would. That isn't the case. There are 108 separate offline help installers. And a basic extraction using an online installer for them won't work due to the fact that there are 3 files that use the same name in 6 different directories so they can't be easily extracted with 7-zip. So, each installer would have to be packaged individually. 108 languages packaged individually for each release of both LibreOffice Fresh (5.0.x) and LibreOffice Still (4.5.x). Practically speaking, it's quite a lot of work for a relatively small level of use.

Based on a quick look, however, you can may be able to install it into a portable version if you have admin rights. Download the offline help installer of your choice and run it. Install to something like C:\Desktop\Username\Desktop\LOHelp. After installing, copy the files in this directory to your LibreOfficePortable\App\LibreOffice folder overwriting any duplicates. You can then uninstall the help package from your PC via the Control Panel without removing it from your LibreOffice install. I think this should work but can't check until tomorrow as I'm out of the office at the moment. Of course, this won't work without admin rights and I don't see any easy way to accomplish this without admin rights at present.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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August 30, 2015 - 10:59pm
(Reply to #2)
dforion
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Thanks for your prompt and

Thanks for your prompt and detailed reply!
I have full admin rights on my Win7 Pro PC. I followed your instructions; my help files are in
PortableApps\LibreOfficePortable\App\libreoffice\help\en-US, but I still get the official LO webpage not the offline-help. I don't know what else to try. Please advise.

Thank you!

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August 31, 2015 - 3:16am
(Reply to #3)
Gord Caswell
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My usecase

This is not an official guide, it is simply what I use for my own personal use.

Note that the internal makeup of the help msi changes without warning between versions, so sometimes these instructions may need to be altered.

  1. Install LibreOffice Portable installed to the standard directory, "X:\PortableApps\LibreOfficePortable"
  2. Download the corresponding help file. ie, 5.0.0 > 5.0.0, 5.0.1 > 5.0.1
  3. Using 7-Zip, "Open Inside" that file.
  4. For 5.0.0, extract all files therein to "X:\PortableApps\LibreOfficePortable\App\libreoffice\help\en", note the lack of -US on the folder name.
  5. Enjoy offline help!
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August 31, 2015 - 3:31pm
(Reply to #4)
SakiTC
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Searching the help contents

If you want to be able to search the help contents that you have set up using the above method, you are free to use a short batch file that I have prepared. You can find it here:

http://pastebin.com/rRpgpXdv

Copy the contents into a text editor, save the file with a .bat extension in the folder "X:\PortableApps\LibreOfficePortable\App\libreoffice\help\en" and run it after the contents of the help pack have been extracted.

The batch file first creates eight subfolders and then moves 24 files to these subfolders (3 files per folder) and renames them. This will put the index files in the same structure the normal install procedure does, thus making them usable.

No typin th las lette ca sav yo plent o spac

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August 31, 2015 - 9:06pm
(Reply to #5)
pbr
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@Gord Caswell & SakiTC — thank you!

You've both made life so much easier!

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September 1, 2015 - 5:16pm
(Reply to #6)
dforion
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Thank you Gordon and SakiTC!

Thank you Gordon and SakiTC! I can now open the offiline help. I see tabs for Contents/Index/Find/Bookmarks.

The Contents and Index tabs display many topics of LO but when I click on any of them, including the "Display" button, I see nothing in the right-side detail pane.

FIND does not show any hits, for example 'macro' or 'margin' give 'No topics found.' SakiTC's bat file fixed the Find issue, but I still cannot see any details in the right pane.

My path is: C:\PA\LibreOfficePortable\App\libreoffice\help\en and also contains these files: C:\PA\LibreOfficePortable\App\libreoffice\help\...xidxcaption.xsl, xidxcontent.xsl, xmain_transform.xsl. I am using LibreOffice_5.0.0_Win_x86_helppack_en-US.msi with PortableApps 5.0.0.5. Language Of/UI and Locale both = English (USA).

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

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September 1, 2015 - 5:38pm
(Reply to #7)
pbr
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You listed "xidxcaption.xsl,

You listed "xidxcaption.xsl, xidxcontent.xsl, xmain_transform.xsl" as being in your help folder. Unless those are typos on your part, those x's at the beginning of each file are bogus. Try renaming them to idxcaption.xsl, idxcontent.xsl, and main_transform.xsl. I experimented by putting an x in front of each of those files in my install and reproduced just what you're experiencing.

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September 1, 2015 - 6:07pm
(Reply to #8)
dforion
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--

Yahoo!
Thank you pbr! That fixed it - I finally see the details.

Every time I scroll up or down in the right side pane, I get a quick rectangle flashing before the refresh. Does anyone else see this?

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September 1, 2015 - 6:36pm
(Reply to #9)
pbr
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No-o-o...

No-o-o...

My question to you is, where did those x's come from? There might be some other weirdness in your install.

You might want to consider a reinstallation.

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September 1, 2015 - 6:56pm
(Reply to #10)
dforion
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Good question. I may have

Good question. I may have inadvertently copied them over from an older installation of x-LibreOffice4 in an attempt to preserve my older options. How the 'x' got prefixed is a mystery. I could do a re-install now that I know how to get the offline help working.

Any thoughts on the flashing refreshes?

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September 1, 2015 - 7:43pm
(Reply to #11)
pbr
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Only that you may have copied

Only that you may have copied something else from your old version that isn't compatible with the PA version. Hence my suggestion to try a fresh installation. That's a fresh installation. Don't install over your current copy, because you'll just end up retaining whatever's causing the flashing. You could always make a copy of your current installation onto some cheap media, just in case.

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September 1, 2015 - 8:08pm
(Reply to #12)
dforion
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I can do that as all I really

I can do that as all I really changed was Options/LibreOffice/Appearance - extensive colour changes. I have them saved as a "scheme" that is saved in the user/registrymodifications.xcu. Can I re-use this as my issues seem to be file based?

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September 1, 2015 - 8:17pm
(Reply to #13)
pbr
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Don't honestly know.

Don't honestly know.

That's why I also suggested making a copy of your current set-up. Smile Good luck!

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September 1, 2015 - 9:54pm
(Reply to #14)
dforion
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---

A clean re-install got rid of the refresh flashing in Offline help; no new issues and Offline help is working.

Instead of replacing the registrymodifications.xcu, I kept a copy and I can cut\paste if needed. I also took screenshots of all my Appearance/Custom Colors so I can always recreate them.

I will raise this issue of easing install of offline help directly with The Document Foundation people. Most of them don't use portability but still the languages needs to be streamlined into fewer folders and the 5MB of Offline-help should always be installed by default. I would like to see all the languages under a single 'Locale' folder, but how they implement it is their decision. Every time I updated the full version I spent 1/2 an hour finding/removing the unused language folders.

Thanks to everyone that helped!

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September 1, 2015 - 10:44pm
(Reply to #15)
dforion
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---

Oops, I spoke to soon as the flashing is back in offline-help while scrolling up or down; perhaps a video issue but no other app is doing it.

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September 5, 2016 - 5:58am
(Reply to #16)
Kripik
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LibreOffice Offline Help 5.2 has a .cab archive in .msi

@Gord Caswell,

I just installed LibreOffice Portable 5.2.0.4, then I downloaded the LibreOffice Offline Help file for 5.2.

LibreOffice_5.2.0_Win_x86_helppack_en-US.msi

When I extracted the offline help .msi archive to ./help/en/ many of the files needed were not there. However, I did see another .cab archive that was contained within the .msi archive, it is a file called:

libreoffice1.cab

After looking inside the .cab file I could see the missing files. So I extracted the .cab file to ./help/en/ as well. Now offline help works OK (but no Find searching in Help unless you run the .bat file mentioned by SakiTC elsewhere in this thread).

I did run the .bat file from SakiTC and it worked. Now I can use Find in Help to search too.

Thanks & Regards, David

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November 5, 2015 - 10:17pm
Daniel F. Meier
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Install offline help

I finally got it to work by copying the "en-US" folder from a working non-portable install of LibreOffice (Program Files (x86)\LibreOffice 5\help\en-US) to the PortableApps\PortableApps\LibreOfficePortable\App\libreoffice\help folder. Before the copy, that "help" folder containes three .xsl files, after the copy it contained those 3 files plus the en-US folder. That en-US folder contains 77 files and 8 folders and has a size of 24,785,092 bytes. Now, when I open LibreOffice help (F1), I get the offline help. Hope this also works for you!

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March 27, 2016 - 7:59pm
(Reply to #18)
17837
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Outstanding solution !

It worked a treat for me .. Thanks !

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December 8, 2017 - 5:38am
wlamee
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How do we install offline help in LibreOfficePortable 5.4.3.2?

Unfortunately there seems to be sufficient difference in the way LibreOffice accesses its local documentation even with minor version updates of LibreOffice to make the currently known tricks (up to 5.2) stop working.
I tried 'all of the above' in this thread, but on a Win7 x64 machine I can not get the documentation (LibreOffice_5.4.3_Win_x64_helppack_en-US.msi) to work. Adding it to a full LibreOffice 5.4.3.2 install works, copying the help files over to the LibreOfficePortable install does not - it still shows the 'LibreOffice built-in help is not installed on your computer'. How do we get this done for LibreOfficePortable 5.4.3.2 (LibreOfficePortable_5.4.3_MultilingualStandard.paf.exe)?

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March 17, 2018 - 6:26pm
(Reply to #20)
Lupp
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Get Offline Help for Portable LibreOffice

A probably too word, but hopefully clear guide you find here:
http://psilosoph.de/LibOPortableGuide/LibOPortableOfflineHelp.pdf

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