Oblivion for OpenOffice

• Automatically filters the list of previously opened files using the specified search string.
• Searches all metadata of all files (but does not search the file content):
  • file name,
  • full path,
  • tags and labels,
  • author's name,
  • title, subject, comments and keywords,
  • custom properties,
  • creation date,
  • modification date,
  • last modifier's name.
• Offers the possibility to pin files so as to always keep chosen files at the top of the grid.
• Tags files with user-defined labels.
• Operates (opens, tags, removes from the history, etc.) on several files.
• Keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+O / Cmd+Shift+O) for opening the Oblivion window without using a mouse.
• Oblivion also allows you to open a second version of an already opened file, which you can't normally do.

• Click the Download link above to download the file Oblivion.oxt and save the file on your system.
• In Apache OpenOffice, select the menu item Tools > Extension manager.
• Click the button Add… then select the file Oblivion.oxt from the location where you saved it.

Please note that the download link is available only to registered users (more about this). You may register here.

Oblivion can be accessed from the menu bar, in an Oblivion menu that OpenOffice creates somewhere between Tools and Window. Alternatively, the keyboard shortcut bound to Oblivion can be used: Ctrl+Shift+O on PCs and Cmd+Shift+O on Mac computers.

No configuration or setup is necessary after the extension has been installed.

The features below have already been planned. If you happen to have a feature you'd like to request, feel free to use the Support button above and to create an issue in our issue tracker.

• Support of regular expressions.
• Support of AND and OR operators in the search filter.
• Configuration of the extension through the Tools > Options dialog box.
• Support for searching over a time span.
• Display of the properties of the selected file/entry, right in the window.
• Highlighting of the properties that match the search filter.
• Storing of the grid layout when the dimensions of columns have been modified by the user.

What's the maximum number of previously opened files stored?

There is no limit to the number of previously opened files that Oblivion stores in its list. That's part of the reason why we say that the list that Oblivion handles is a “list of previously opened files” and not a “list of recently opened files”.

Can the extension be disabled?

The extension cannot be disabled. In order to temporarily make it stop to work, users have to uninstall it, which can be done through Tools > Extension Manager. A subsequent reinstallation will make Oblivion resume working where it left. This means that the list of previously opened files as well as the saved search filters will be reinstated, providing that the appropriate files have not been removed or deleted.

Does Oblivion search the contents of files?

No, because the design goal was to allow us to quickly find documents. Although content search is obviously possible, it would have been too time-consuming to develop. Moreover, if the feature were to be implemented, all users would pay the price of a feature that seemed marginally useful in our eyes. Last, there's no shortage of programs that do content search in a much better and more efficient way than Oblivion could in the timeframe we had set.

Is Oblivion compatible with LibreOffice?

No, because Oblivion was developed with the Apache OpenOffice SDK, for AOO. A summary test with LibreOffice 4.2 showed an incompatibility problem when opening up the main dialog window. With time, and if this extension proves to be useful to many, resources will be allocated to handle the LibreOffice compatibility problem, and possibly build a specific extension. The common ancestry between AOO and LO possibly makes the current incompatibility problem trivial but it is probable that both office suites will someday be divergent enough that extensions written for one suite will start to fail irrecoverably on the other suite. When this happens, and if we are still around, please use the Support button and file a request for support.

Grayed out entry in the Oblivion menu

You may realize that an Oblivion menu is present in the menu bar but the submenu entry is grayed out. This reveals that OpenOffice did not find an installation of Java on your system.

Make sure that you have installed Java on your computer. Note that on Windows systems, a 32-bit version of Java is needed, even on 64-bit architecture systems. To download and install Java, please refer to the official Java website. Once Java is installed, you can check that OpenOffice sees it and is correctly set to use it. Start your OpenOffice instance, then click Tools and Options in the menu bar. In the dialog window that opens, the property page OpenOffice > Java displays the Java versions that OpenOffice has detected, which may take a few seconds. Like in the screen capture below, one radiobutton must be selected.

Oblivion is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. This means that Oblivion is free for non-commercial purposes in non-business and non-commercial environments.

Others purposes or environments, for instance companies, administration, service centers, public computers, etc. require the purchase of a license. Contact us to discuss the terms.