A recent update (I assume) in Libre Office (I'm currently using version 6.1) broke my Alt-Key menu function. I would press on the Alt key, and the lines would appear under the letters of the menu items indicating what letter to push to activate that menu list, only when I hit the key, nothing happened. I tried other Alt functions on the system, which worked fine, like Alt-Tab cycling through the open windows. But no Alt-menu key functionality at all.
So I did some initial research and I pretty much came up with links of old Ubuntu related issues back in the 2011-16 years that didn't seem to apply to me since I use Linux Mint Debian Edition. But one comment at least set me on the right path, as it mentioned something about opening your keyboard layout function and changing something there. I use the Cinnamon desktop, being it is my favorite and the only one that comes with the Debian edition out of the box.
So I opened my system settings and went to my keyboard. After poking around in the Shortcut section to make sure nothing had changed there that may have overwritten the Alt function for menu keys, I went to layout. That appeared in order, but then I noticed an option button on the bottom right corner of the window. I clicked it, and low and behold, I noticed a selection there labeled "Alt/Win key behavior"!
While not getting my hopes up too high, I clicked on it and discovered a whole list of options. "Default" was selected, which seemed normal enough. But if the default action had changed on a recent update...
One of the options was labeled "Add the standard behavior to Menu key." I decided to give it a try. When I went back to LibreOffice Writer, the Alt-Menu key function worked! Strange that they wouldn't make that the default behavior when it has been in use for so long. Anyway, I was glad I found the setting to switch it back, as I use the Alt-F-U function all the time. Hopefully this will be helpful to others having the same problem.
UPDATE: (11/3/2020)
Well, my problem returned. I checked the setting I had above and it hadn't changed. So I started searching for other solutions.
One of the things I noticed is that when I opened up LO writer, that there was no blinking cursor active in the new document that it brought up. If I clicked in the document with the mouse and the cursor was there, then the Alt-key functions would work. So the first thing I checked was the LO settings, in "Tools" and "Options" on the menu. After going through those settings, I could find nothing that would tell LO where to "start" upon opening a new document.
Then I suspected it could have something to do with the Default template that was installed. So I opened that template:
- By going to "File," in the menu.
- Then "Templates"
- Then "Manage Templates."
- Select the Default template and open it in the window that pops open.
- Then I set it up with the settings in the Styles settings how I like it to open.
- Once that was done and I made sure the cursor was at the beginning of the document, I used the mouse to once again click on "Files"
- "Templates"
- And "Save as Template..."
- In the window that pops up, give it a name (doesn't matter what it is, but it sounds logical to me to name it "MyDefault")
- Then make sure you click the box in the bottom left corner of the window labeled "Save as default template."
- Select an appropriate category to save the template under and click "Save."
Now when you open Writer, it will open your default template you just created, with the cursor at the beginning of the document, and all the Alt-key functions will be at your command!
Apparently, this is something that will need to be done on all fresh installs of LibreOffice Writer if the Alt keys cannot be accessed right out of the box. Which I would need to do anyway due to how I like it to open with different fonts and layout settings.
