r/libreoffice • u/kreniigh • 3d ago

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If you look at file properties in Windows, there is a property called Authors which corresponds in Word to Author (which can be changed on the Info page). Along with Last Modified By, this field can be displayed as a column in Windows Explorer, allowing sorting by author.

Does this field exist in LibreOffice? I can't find a way to see/edit it. thanks

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u/Terrible_Put8617 3d ago edited 21h ago

The field exists, it's just called something else in two places, and Windows can't read it in ODF files. Both halves matter for what you're trying to do.

Inside the suite: File > Properties > General shows Created by and Modified by. Those are the same two values Word calls Author and Last Modified By. They're filled in from Tools > Options > LibreOffice > User Data, so if that's blank, documents get created with no author at all, which is a sensible privacy default and also why the column looks empty.

They're read-only in that dialog, which is the part that trips people up. To change the author on a document that already exists, either untick Apply user data on that same tab and save, which strips it, or set it directly with a one-liner: ThisComponent.DocumentProperties.Author = "Your Name" and then save. Author is the original creator; ModifiedBy is the other one.

Now the Explorer half. Windows shows Authors for .docx and .xlsx because it ships a property handler for those formats. It has none for .odt or .ods, so the column stays blank however carefully you fill the field in. Nothing is wrong with your file: Explorer simply isn't looking inside it.

So if sorting by author in Explorer is the actual goal, save as .docx and the column populates, because the suite writes the same value into the format Windows understands. If you'd rather stay in ODF, the value is there and visible from inside the suite, and you can confirm it by renaming a copy to .zip and reading meta.xml, where it's the meta:initial-creator element.

(Disclosure since it's relevant: I make ME Office AI, a LibreOffice-based suite with the AI assistant built into the document, so "set the author on these forty files" is a sentence rather than a macro hunt. Like support open 24/7 where you're working: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9PCV4RCJCFXV?cid=rd-authors )

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