Re: [libreoffice-users] «Escape from Wicrosoft Word»

2014-10-27 12:19 GMT+01:00 Tom Davies <tomcecf@gmail.com>:

> Hi :)
> Interesting comments too!
>
> Some go into this or that tool versus another but the main thrust of the
> article seems to be about "escape from desktop-publishing" but the author
> seems to be unaware of anything other than Word = or perhaps he's trying to
> keep it simple enough for the overwhelming majority of people to understand
> instead of getting bogged down in the usual sort of things that articles go
> on about.
>
> Regards from
> Tom :)
>
>
> On 27 October 2014 10:34, Tom Davies <tomcecf@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi :)
> > If
> > Weltanschauung = world view, ideology, philosophy of life
> > then
> > LibreOffice has taken on none of it.
> >
> > However there is a lot of surface stuff and default settings that try to
> > help make LibreOffice more of a "drop in" replacement.  A major difference
> > is that LibreOffice usually makes it possible to change all those settings
> > - and then back-up your User Profile to use on other machines.  Often those
> > "configs" are quite easy to set-up.
> >
> >
> > The main example seems to be about Styles and how that is not the way
> > that writers think.  The claim is that writers only think about formatting
> > as they are going along.  My guess is that writers often re-read or review
> > some of what they have already written.  However i agree that writers are
> > probably mostly interested in doing that to look at the words instead of
> > getting caught up in formatting issues.
> >
> > The article describes some of the way Word manages to make "Styles" into
> > a bit of a nightmare.  Word makes it difficult to apply them and then seems
> > to apply them inconsistently.  Writer seems to avoid all that.
> >
> > My pet bug-bear about styles is not mentioned.  When people give me
> > things done in Word they often seem to keep switching styles almost
> > randomly and then redefine those styles.  Typically i find some of the
> > document uses English (GB/Uk) but keeps flicking into American.  So
> > bullet-points are often inconsistent sizes and shapes and indentation.
> > Numbered lists tend to repeat numbers or skipping some.  Anyway, i think
> > this is a tangential detail to the main thrust of the article.
> >
> > My point is that Word seems to use Styles to make it as difficult as
> > possible to make a document self-consistent, clean and clear.  Sadly,
> > people have gotten very used to that.
> >
> >
> > LibreOffice has a very different system for Styles which results in much
> > higher-quality documents with MUCH less fussing around.
> >
> > Plus, it is easier to ignore them and just use direct formatting.  After
> > a while you might choose to apply a certain style or redefine it and that
> > then tends to ripple through the entire document and into sub-styles such
> > as bullet-points and numbered-lists.  Styles don't redefine themselves at
> > random nor become too turgid to understand in Writer.  They stay consistent
> > throughout.
> >
> >
> > My company used to use Word to create a newsletter and it'd take at least
> > 2 weeks after all the articles had arrived.  Now that i use Writer it takes
> > about a day.  I just "remove direct formatting" or "paste as unformatted"
> > and as if by magic the whole document suddenly looks very smart.  The only
> > faffing is to apply the "heading" styles.
> >
> > However that is not about writing, it's about DTP and i should use a
> > proper DTP rather than Writer.  It's just that Writer is so easy to use and
> > does almost everything i need as far as DTP functionality goes.  Word was
> > hideous for it.
> >
> >
> > I wonder if the writer has tried using Writer (either in AOO or LO) for a
> > few weeks to see if he finds that as easy as Wordperfect for writing using
> > direct formatting - and then easy to apply consistent styles to the whole
> > thing later on.
> >
> > Regards from
> > Tom :)
> >
> >
> > On 27 October 2014 07:30, M Henri Day <mhenriday@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > ​I take the liberty of forwarding the URL of an article, entitled *Escape
> > > from Microsoft Word*, by Edward Mendelson​ in the current issue of the
> > > *New
> > > York Review of Books* :
> > > http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/oct/21/escape-microsoft-word/.
> > > It
> > > would be interesting to hear to what degree developers and users of LO
> > > feel
> > > that the strictures Mr Mendelson applies to MS Word also apply to LO
> > > Writer. Has Writer adopted too much of Word's *Weltanschauung* ?...
> > >
> > > Henri
​Hullo Tom !

And thanks for your well considered replies ! I fully agree that Mr
Mendelson *should*, *dans le meilleur des mondes possibles [?]*​
​, ​
​have been aware of alternatives to commercial word-processing programmes,
but I suggest that one of the things that LO developers might want to take
with them from the *Atlantic* article is that many - perhaps a majority of
- people are not and are only aware, despite having used such programmes
for decades, of the proprietary versions. I further agree that LO Writer is
far more intuitive and user friendly to persons other than professional
secretaries than the «ribbon» versions of MS Word from 2007 and later, but
judging from the frequent requests for help we receive on this forum,
styles still remain a sticking point for many users. In any event, perhaps
someone with a good grasp of the matter might want to post a response to Mr
Mendelson on the comments thread - the more who are aware of LO as an
alternative to MS Office, the better !...

Henri

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