I AM SLOWLY MOVING FROM Microsoft’s Word – I’ve used it since Ver. 1 – to LibreOffice. (I’m also moving from Microsoft Office’s Operating System (OS) to the Linux OS.
I know Word and I was comfortable with it. The only problem was that Microsoft kept mucking about with the User Interface (UI). With each new iteration of Word, I had to learn how to use it again.
That, and the fact that Microsoft’s Office – Access, Excel, Paint, and Word – are, to be kind, “’pricey.” Linux’ OS is free, gratis even. Ditto the LibreOffice comparable-to-MS Office suite.
I can open a Word file in LibreOffice Writer and vice versa. Since my main use for any “Office”is word processing, that is a critical consideration. As a former technical writer I no longer need heavy duty graphics and page composition (book making) software … but it is there for both MS and Linux OSs.
I was, however, having a problem with one “little” issue with LibreOffice (hereafter “LO”) Writer.
I create blog material using a word processor. (This was created using Writer.)
The file is dumped into Google’s Blogger.
Both Word and Writer can SAVE a file in HTML (web) format, but the amount of unnecessary coding “fat” bothers me sufficiently that I hand-code the HTML as I create the file. I know my most commonly used code
<B> - </B> = Bold Face
<BR> - </BR> = Soft return (line feed)
<I> - </I> = Italics
<SUP> - </SUP> = Superscript
<U> - </U> = Underscore
<UL> - </UL> = Indent
I also insert – after the fact – </P><P> in front of each new paragraph. I could do this manually, but it’s time consuming and can interrupt my chain of thought. I leave it until the end of the document and do a global search and replace.
It isn’t strictly necessary to include </P><P> in the document, but Blogger. seems to look better; a tad more space between paragraphs.
With Word, the Search for field was populated with ^p.
The Replace with field was populated with ^p</P><P>
Worked like a champ.
While many of Writer’s commands are identical to Words, e.g., Ctrl-B turns on boldface while Ctrl-I turns on italics, the ^p for paragraph was missing in Writer.
I asked on the normally helpful User Group and got an answer that was wrong.
Then, looking through some other LO documentation I discovered the answer.
Eureka!
Writer’s paragraph indicator is $ – a dollar sign.
I tried a number of combinations in the Search and Replace fields before I finally tried
- Search: $ Replace: \n</P><P>
There IS one extra task.
Click on OPTIONS and check REGULAR EXPRESSIONS. (See screen capture, below)
I’m sure I’ll find more LO “got’chas” as I use the applications more and more, but I’m pretty sure I can, with a little effort, figure out how to make LO behave as MS Office.
No one said they were identical or even had to be identical (but it would have been nice).
There are benefits of using Microsoft’s Office suite, especially if the user has been using the applications for a long time.
But I remember that there was a steep learning curve when I first started with Word and a less-steep but bothersome RElearning curve with each modification of the User Interface.
I’m hoping that LO’s applications will have a stable UI over the years.
For what it’s worth LO runs under Windows and (I think) Mac OS, no "dual boot" required; it’s free to download and compare it to whatever is being used. There also are other OPEN OFFICE options besides LibreOffice, most of which are (a) free and (b) function on multiple platforms (e.g., Linux, Mac OS, and Windows). They may not be identical to the familiar shrink wrapped applications, but with a little patience and a little reading the documentation, who knows what will be taking up hard drive space in a few months.
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
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