LibreOffice JS

A Tauri + React word processor modelled on LibreOffice Writer. The frontend is organised like LibreOffice's core repository — the same module names (sw, sfx2, framework, vcl, svx, editeng, …) and, where it makes sense, the same file names — so upstream code can be used as the map for porting features.

core/ is a checkout of LibreOffice/core kept for reference; it is not built. desktop/ is the app.

Quick start

# one-time: Node >= 24 (see .nvmrc), Rust
just run        # Tauri window with hot reload
just web        # frontend only, in a browser at http://localhost:1420
just test       # typecheck + unit tests + cargo check
just bundle     # packaged app under desktop/src-tauri/target/release/bundle/

No just? The recipes are one-liners in the Justfile.

What works (skeleton)

• Editing: typing, Enter / Shift+Enter, Backspace/Delete (grapheme-aware), word/line deletes, IME composition, spell-check replacements, Tab.
• Undo/redo with typing grouped into one step.
• Character formatting: bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, super/subscript, font name/size, font colour, highlighting, clear direct formatting. With a collapsed cursor inside a word, formatting applies to the word (as in Writer); otherwise to the next typed text.
• Paragraphs: alignment, indent, spacing, line spacing, page breaks (Ctrl+Enter), bulleted/numbered lists with levels.
• Paragraph styles: Default, Body Text, Title, Subtitle, Heading 1–3, Quotations, Preformatted Text; "next style" on Enter.
• Pages: A4 pages with pagination (whole paragraphs move between pages), zoom, ruler, formatting marks, printing.
• Files: open/save .odt and .fodt (readable by LibreOffice), open/save .txt, export .html; "Save changes?" on close.
• UI: menu bar, Standard and Formatting toolbars, context menu, sidebar (Properties, Styles, Navigator), status bar with word count and zoom, Find & Replace, Word Count, keyboard shortcuts from Writer.

Commands that exist in Writer but aren't implemented yet (tables, images, comments, Character/Paragraph dialogs, …) appear disabled in the menus.

Repository layout

.
├── core/                  # upstream LibreOffice checkout (reference, not built)
├── desktop/               # the app
│   ├── src-tauri/         #   Rust: file I/O commands, dialogs, window lifecycle
│   ├── src/               #   React frontend, laid out like core/:
│   │   ├── desktop/       #     app start-up          (core/desktop)
│   │   ├── sw/            #     Writer                (core/sw)
│   │   │   ├── inc/       #       model types: SwDoc, SwTextNode, SwPaM
│   │   │   ├── source/core/      document model, styles, undo, layout, text frames
│   │   │   ├── source/filter/    ODF (xml), HTML, plain text filters
│   │   │   ├── source/uibase/    SwView, SwEditWin, SwWrtShell, shells, doc shell
│   │   │   ├── source/ui/        dialogs
│   │   │   ├── uiconfig/  #       menubar/toolbar/popup XML (upstream format)
│   │   │   └── qa/        #       unit tests
│   │   ├── sfx2/          #     dispatcher, sidebar, doc medium, app slots
│   │   ├── framework/     #     menu bar / toolbar managers
│   │   ├── vcl/           #     widgets: menus, toolbox, combobox, dialogs
│   │   ├── svx/           #     toolbar controllers, sidebar panels, find dialog
│   │   ├── svtools/       #     ruler
│   │   ├── editeng/       #     character / paragraph attribute items
│   │   ├── officecfg/     #     command labels and accelerators
│   │   ├── filter/        #     filter registry
│   │   ├── unotools/      #     font substitution
│   │   └── cui/           #     About dialog
│   └── scripts/build.sh   #   npm ci + tests + tauri build
└── Justfile

Architecture in one paragraph

SwDoc is an immutable value (paragraphs made of attribute runs), so undo is a snapshot. SwWrtShell is the editing API. SwEditWin renders pages into a contentEditable host whose DOM is owned by React: every native edit is cancelled in beforeinput and replayed on the model, while the browser still handles caret movement, selection, IME and spell checking. UI commands are .uno: strings routed by SfxDispatcher through a shell stack (text shell → view → document → application), exactly like upstream; menus and toolbars are built from the same XML format as core/sw/uiconfig.