How to stop LibreOffice windows from shrinking to a very small line on Linux

17.10.2024

When I move a LibreOffice windows (especially Calc) from full-width on one screen to another the window resizes to a vertical dark line. The dark line is almost invisible on my dark background. This is very annoying. Why do LibreOffice windows collapse to such a small size anyway? Currently, I’m using Version: 6.4.7.2 of LibreOffice and I’ve been struggling with this for years.

I’m not the only one with this problem, apparently:

Well, I’m solving the problem with two small scripts that get started on when I begin to work:

// file: fix-windows.sh
#/bin/bash

MIN_WIDTH=150

readarray -t LibreOfficeWindows <<< $(xdotool search --onlyvisible --name LibreOffice)

for i in "${LibreOfficeWindows[@]}"
do
    readarray -t WindowGeom < <(xdotool getwindowgeometry $i)
    WindowSize=${WindowGeom[2]}
    WindowSize=$(echo $WindowSize | cut -d ' ' -f2 )
    Width=$(echo $WindowSize | cut -d 'x' -f1 )
    Height=$(echo $WindowSize | cut -d 'x' -f2 )
    IsUpdateRequired=false
    if (( $Width < $MIN_WIDTH )) ; then
        Width=$MIN_WIDTH
        IsUpdateRequired=true
    fi
    if (( $Height < $MIN_WIDTH )) ; then
        Height=$MIN_WIDTH 
        IsUpdateRequired=true
    fi

    if [ "$IsUpdateRequired" = true ] ; then
        #echo "Fixing window $i"
        xdotool windowsize $i $Width $Height
    fi 
done

This goes through all LibreOffice windows and resizes them to at least 150 pixel.

Now, the other script I mentioned turns the previous script into a poor man’s service task:

// file: fix-windows-job.sh
#/bin/bash
echo "Running fix windows job"
cd "$(dirname "$0")"

while true
do
    (fix-windows.sh)
    sleep 2
done

It checks for undersized windows every 2 seconds. That is not too often but quick enough to be useful.

You can add the fix-windows.sh to the crontab but this will only run once a minute. Som this might not be the best choice for you. However, you can add it using the @reboot directive:

// crontab -e
@reboot ~/fix-windows-job.sh > /dev/null 2>&1

This should start the script on every boot automatically.

Personally, I simply added fix-windows-job.sh to a startup script that I run manually whenever I begin to work.

Happy coding, Manuel