Bug 52387

Not a valid bug report, there ALWAYS is a way to do ANYTHING you want, the question is how much it will cost.

@narayanaras@hotmail.com 
What do you need what is not included in a backup or copying the user Profile?

Well, that would apply only if I wanted to write an addon for LibreOffice.

But this is not a task meant only for advanced users/programers. Even ordinary users would need to copy user settings (for back up and cloning on other PCs).

Keeping that in mind, an easy-to-reach control should be provided. 
Also, the docs should guide the users by providing a step-by-step method. 

Both these mechanisms are missing.

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Here are the specifics:

The LibreOffice program has no menu options to deal with user profiles.

I searched for all relevant keywords in the help docs/guides. 
(User profile, user setting, export, import)

The help does not cover "User profile". I tried the Content, Find and Index tabs. (I have installed the latest help pack).

I also searched in the GS3400-GettingStartedLibO.odt
Chapters 2 and 14 do not mention how to copy the settings to another PC.
Or back up (save) the settings for later use.

Just to make sure, I also searched the following guides:

WG3400-WriterGuideLO.odt
IG3500-ImpressGuideLO.odt

They too do not mention the subject at all.

*****
On the whole, it appears that this aspect is not at all addressed in the whole system.

Have I missed something?

Some interesting aspects, indeed.

I think as a first step we should include some basic information from <https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/UserProfile> into help.

A simple backup might be useful, I have to restore my profile from time to time, but I can't tell whether that also is useful for "normal" users".

All further steps need much care, too many profile switches and similar might cause serious problems.

@David:
Can you check whether some basic info can be taken from Wiki into LOCALHELP?

Thanks!

Just a suggestion: Do not use technical words like "User profile".

We need two separate paragraphs, with the following headings:

"copying custom settings to another PC"
"Taking a back up of custom settings"

*****
As a user, I need to preserve the following:

1. My settings in Tools>Options
2. My customized toolbars and shortcuts (including placement of toolbars)
3. My macros
4. My dictionary (the words I added)
5. My templates
6. My addons (?)

If these are replicated on different PCs, I would have a sense of continuity.

Please add if there are other important things that I may have missed...

BTW the knowledge base should mention how to install a beta in a separate folder with its own settings. (Is that possible at all?)

The spell check dialogue should provide a button for export / import standard dictionary to a location on the file system for backup / restore purposes.

I'm marking this as NEW simply because it seems like some valid points are made BUT be careful about making this bug too broad 

I'll leave it to developers to decide what should/shouldn't be exported but it does seem like there is room for improvement here, I like :

1. My settings in Tools>Options
2. My customized toolbars and shortcuts (including placement of toolbars)
3. My macros
4. My dictionary (the words I added)
5. My templates
6. My addons (?)

If we could export these as a zip or tar ball and then have an easy import tool, that would be quite useful for a lot of people.

Leaving prioritization alone, seems appropriate

*** Bug 64439 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

I see how both this bug and bug 64439 can be solved with the same implementation--essentially having some sort of "profile management" included with LibreOffice. I think other programs have implementations e.g. Firefox that may be worth mimicking.

I would think that the magnitude of requests to reset the user profile warrants some debugging/detection of corrupt profiles, e.g. prompting a profile reset after one or some other number of crashes, and preparing the existing profile for examination by developers if they appear problematic.

It may also be helpful to at least implement command-line parameter to clear, export, and import profiles, if not in addition to GUI "profile management".

I'm not a developer (yet), but I think that one should consider the profiles created by their application to be just as important as the application itself.