For what it's worth, I write essay-length pieces and have had few problems converting from Word to LibreOffice Writer.
Yes, there is a learning curve, since the nomenclature and keystrokes sometimes differ. I've had to experiment and sometimes watch YouTube videos to figure things out. If you're experienced with Word, LOW is not a hard program to learn But there are some nonmonetary costs. Most of the world still uses Word, so people and organizations want documents sent to them in a docx format (or saved as PDFs). So the biggest problem I've dealt with is how often to work in LOW and then convert to docx if necessary and how often to just work in docx format for an entire project. The latter creates some formatting and other issues that can be frustrating. For example, if you're working in LOW using a docx format and you close the document. When you open it, the program places you on p. 1, not where you stopped working. So users must pay attention to which format they're using and why. But overall, I much prefer not paying for Microsoft 365 (with its political side issues) and intend to stay with the LibreOffice suite. Leonard Beeghley On Tue, Dec 9, 2025 at 10:32 AM V Stuart Foote <[email protected]> wrote: > On 2025-12-09 09:14, Jon Hughes wrote: > > I’ve been working on an anthology of short fiction, and using > > LibreOffice Writer for the project has been an exhausting ordeal. The > > constant formatting issues, crashes, and broken features have eroded > > any hope of completing this work with your software. I ultimately > > abandoned the project, deleted the manuscript, and removed LibreOffice > > from my machine. > > > > I understand that this is free software, but distributing something so > > unreliable for serious writing projects is irresponsible to the users > > who trust it. I’ve lost significant time and effort because of this. > > > > I’m not writing this to be pleasant — I’m writing because I want > > LibreOffice to do better. Please take this frustration seriously. Tools > > meant for creative work should help the process, not derail it. > > > > -jrh > > > > Sorry to hear you've found LibreOffice difficult for your needs. > > But, have you reviewed the comprehensive documentation? > Writer User Guide and Getting Started [1] > Berlasso's "To Tame a Writer" [2] > Byfield/Weber's "Designing with LibreOffice" [3] > > Taking time to first prepare well thought out and styled templates and > master document assemblages greatly simplify preparing consistent text > documents of any complexity. Very worth the time to learn to fully use > the ODF authoring tools LibreOffice provides. > > Please consider another go with a bit better preparation. > > =-refs-= > [1] https://documentation.libreoffice.org/en/english-documentation/ > [2] > > https://frommindtotype.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/ttw24-en.pdf > [3] https://designingwithlibreoffice.com/?page_id=27 > > -- > Stuart > > -- > To unsubscribe e-mail to: [email protected] > Problems? > https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ > Posting guidelines + more: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette > List archive: https://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/ > Privacy Policy: https://www.documentfoundation.org/privacy > -- Leonard Beeghley -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: [email protected] Problems? https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: https://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/ Privacy Policy: https://www.documentfoundation.org/privacy
