2:00am

Four days ago (plus change), I wrote a post about how I was re-considering my relationship with Microsoft Office. Matter of fact, it was the immediately previous post.

When I wrote that post, I already had LibreOffice installed… and had since I originally set up this MacBook. In addition to its many other features, LibreOffice also happens to natively support the ancient (and dead) Microsoft Works file format. Not even Microsoft Word has done that for over a decade.

All of my oldest (and worst) writing is in the Works file format. I don’t do it so much anymore, but for a while, I would periodically open something that dates all the way back to when I first started writing. The 1997 – 2001 era.

Yes… granted… artists are always the harshest critics of their own work. But trust me, folks; the writing in those Works files is bad. Possibly even very much horrible bad.

Years ago, when I’d open one of those files, I would be thinking that whatever I was writing at the time was utter shit and not worth printing to light on fire. I’ve progressed in my self-confidence a bit since then, and now… every great once in a while… I want to take a trip down memory lane. I don’t get nostalgic often, but it does happen occasionally.

But it seems I have digressed…

Where was… oh, yes. LibreOffice.

Since writing that post on the 16th, I have removed Office from all of my devices. Other than having to deal with my Writing Log being at a zoom of 74%, LibreOffice isn’t that bad. I need to figure out how to switch back to the non-tabbed layout, I think, but it’s not bad.

The default font is LibreSans (I think), and I’m not a fan. I’ve fixed that, though.

In the spreadsheet, the formulas all work the same as I’m used to them working in Excel.

Yes… I realize Apple offers its own productivity suite. Pages. Numbers. Keynote? I have two writer friends who swear by them, but I think the UI/UX of those programs is utterly horrid. I only open Numbers when my writer friend asks me to make a spreadsheet.

I think LibreOffice and I will get along just fine.

Plus, it’s FOSS. Free, Open-Source Software. I can choose to donate to the project, but I don’t have to. I didn’t pay a penny to download and install it… or use it… or keep using it.

I’ve already checked LibreOffice Writer’s compatibility with Word’s Track Changes feature, and it seems to handle that just fine. In case the context clues were insufficient, Writer is the LibreOffice equivalent to Word.

Speaking of Writer, there’s a LibreOffice feature that I’ve never had the opportunity to try but sounds absolutely awesome. Master Pages & Subdocuments.

No… that isn’t a geek’s version of a BDSM joke.

In LibreOffice Writer, you can create a file that is a master document, and from there, either link to or create subdocuments. You cannot edit the subdocuments from the master document, but you can edit the subdocuments just like you would any other document.

The beauty of the master document and subdocument feature is that, when you’re finished editing all the subdocuments, you can open the master document and export it as a Word file or whatever. LibreOffice will go through all the linked subdocuments and compile them into one, continuous file.

This would’ve been such a game-changer for me, before I started writing in Scrivener. Heck… if I had known about this feature, I might never have tried Scrivener.

Before Scrivener, I wrote in Microsoft Word, and I created each chapter as a separate file. That made it very easy to print a chapter when I finished it and take it to Mom… who enjoyed reading my chapters as I wrote them. But when it came time to send a file off to the editor, it was moderately horrid to go through and copy/paste each chapter into a continuous Word document.

That alone was the major draw of Scrivener for me. I have since started using other features of that particular software, but… yeah… master pages and subdocuments.

If you’d like to read more about that feature of LibreOffice, you can do so at this link. It goes straight to the LibreOffice documentation for that specific feature.

All right. I think I’ve rambled on for long enough at the moment. If you’re reading this, thanks for sticking with me.

I hope the days treat you and yours well. Stay safe out there.