A few years back I no longer needed to use a M$ Office so I switched to LibreOffice. I have quite a few files in LibreOffice but nothing that has ever needed the spit and polish of M$ Office.
And yet, just moments ago, I found myself needing to insert a page number in a Writer file I’m working on and was surprised to see that going to insert>Page Number did not in fact open the footer with a brand new page number but “inserted” a page number wherever the cursor was. After a quick online search I found out why.
Now, far be it from me to criticize how LibreOffice is programmed but it does seem rather idiotic to allow the “insertion” of a page number in a location where it will do no good. Don’t get me wrong. I get it, you’re not Microsoft, you can’t afford the spit and polish of an Office suit that takes 5 minutes to load a blank file, but when I open a new Writer document I can’t Cut, or Copy, or Undo, or Redo anything. The buttons are grayed out because there is nothing selected to Cut or Copy, nothing has been done to Undo or Redo. And yet, when I go to Insert and try to insert a Page number, not only am I given the wrong impression that, like in other office suits I’ll be able to just insert a page number with just one click, but I’m allowed to perform what at the end of the day is a competently pointless task. The insertion of a number at a point in the page were it doesn’t belongs and were it will have no further effect on the rest of the document.
Make no mistake. I’m not asking how to insert a page number. Insert>Header and Footer>Footer/Header> Default Style and then Insert>Page Number. I’m asking WHY I, as a user of LibreOffice, am allowed to “insert” a page number wherever my cursor is. I’m not really inserting anything there since LO won’t just remember the relative position of my cursor on one page and then create at relative positions on the all other pages of the document new page number continuing to count. All it does is insert a pointless number where it doesn’t belong.
LibreOffice was born from OppenOffice.Org, itself born from Star Office. How is this small thing still an issue after 33 years of more or less continuous development?