I have just started using Mint17.1 KDE.

I can access my NAS through the Samba Shares section of Network in Dolphin. However Libre Office files do not load when I double click them or choose Open with>Libre Office. The Libre Office splash screen appears, but then disappears before the file is displayed within the program. Also the Open window in Libre Office does not display any Network link so I cannot open files on my NAS directly from Libre Office itself.

Image files will load into GwenView and GIMP, mp3s will load into Amorak, but not VLC player.

Am I not accessing my NAS files in the correct way? Is there another way to mount my NAS? Help needed....

See
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sa ... tc.2Ffstab

This will (allow to) mount your NAS share like an "ordinary" HDD.

Background:
The trick on using the smb:// protocol is how the file is opened.
KDE applications (gwenview/amarok) speak (read/write) smb:// so there should never be any problem (except for bugs
Most other applications rather won't.

If you run "kmenuedit" and check the libreoffice entry, you'll likely find a command like "lowriter %U" what means the program suggests to open URLs (but libreoffice won't speak smb:// and be unable to handle the URL)
You could change that to "lowriter %F" - the remote file would then be downloaded into a temporary and the temporary file be opened with lowriter, BUT (<- BIG, FAT BUT!) lowriter will very most likely (it cannot open the file!) not be able to write back changes to the NAS. It might instead save the temporary file - which would however likely be lost with the next reboot at least.
Also vlc would stop being the video LAN client and start being the video LOCALFILE client, ie. you'd download a movie from your NAS before playing it...

Otoh, KDE applications will not know that /mount/NAS is a "slow" path and generate previews etc. so you should prefer to use the smb:// protocol and fall back to /mount/NAS for applications that cannot handle it.

Thanks very much for the info - this does not happen when using Cinnamon, the NAS appears both in the file manager (Nemo) and Libre Office (as well as other programs). I don't know if the NAS is being accessed via Samba (that's all a bit above my head!), but its a shame KDE involves so much more manual setting up.... However its all good learning experience.

"Cinnamon", ie. gnome won't operate on kio smb:// but uses gvfs which is rather like the mouting approach - bit like pmount.

As mentioned, both have their advantages and disadvantages (where the biggest disadvantage of KIO is actually the lack of KIO support in most non KDE applications)

I don't know whether LibreOffice can deal with *any* remote URL (http? ftp?) but if it can't (read and reasonably auto/write), suggesting %U instead if %F is simply a bug in LibreOffice - unrelated to the desktop environment.

You can try running "lowriter ftp://some.ftp.server/some_file.odt" and see whether LO can save it there - or just inform LO devs about this.

Aside from having a better integration of your NAS there might be also advanced options in Libreoffice. CMIS is not really easy accessible right now [1] but first investigations for an improvement have been done [2].

[1] http://ask.libreoffice.org/en/question/ ... gle-drive/
[2] http://user-prompt.com/libreoffice-desi ... provement/