Looking for a fast intro that will enable me to start using Libre immediately, but have already run into three insurmountable problems:

[lorenbliss]

(1)–There seems to be no way to insert text in an extant sentence without retyping the entire sentence. This is because Libre seems permanently locked into “insert” mode, with no way I can find – THE VERY ANTITHETICAL OF EASY-TO-USE OPEN OFFICE – to unlock it.

(2)–Huge struggle just to get this brief message up; Open Office NEVER required a password or registration, but so far I’ve been at this for more than an hour…

And your question matrix is by far the most user-UNfriendly such feature I’ve yet encountered.

Please help!

[gtomorrow]

insurmountable |ˌinsərˈmoun(t)əb(ə)l|

adjective: too great to be overcome.

That’s kind of an exaggeration, don’t you think? I mean you yourself have already resolved two of the three problems, and with @lazarus477 ‘s answer the first problem has most likely been resolved as well. Just sayin’…

In any case, forum.openoffice.org does require a registration and a password to post/reply. Sorry it took you so long to register here; that’s not normal.

Lastly, this is a Q&A-format site (like StackExchange or Ask Ubuntu ) not a forum. It’s been argued to death the user-friendliness of such format but it is what it is. If you give it a chance and weed through the signal-to-noise ratio, you’ll find it’s quite an informative site.

[appreciatethehelp]

Hang in there loren; there is a bit of a learning curve to LO, however if you stick with it and ask on this forum any time you run in trouble you’ll find the Users here knowledgable, patient (I have asked the most questions on here- literally hundreds, and the more knowledgable Users are always willing to put up with me, even with obscure/advanced questions that I’m clearly out of my depth on) and generally pretty quick to reply! Don’t let a bit of initial frustration ruin your Libreoffice experience.

Could you please advise what was difficult about registering? As I recall when I registered a few years back it was a pretty straightforward process that took about a minute. Perhaps something has changed?

[lazarus477]

Did you by chance hit the Insert, key, on the keyboard? This would put you into a text editing mode known as Overwrite. The text “Overwrite” will be visible in the status bar at the bottom of the document window, in Writer.

As for LibreOffice requiring registration and a password, this does not sound correct. Did you actually aquire LibreOffice from libreoffice.org, or some other site which might have been malicious?

[lazarus477]

Handbooks be available here: English documentation | LibreOffice Documentation - Your documentation for LibreOffice
Some good video tutorials here: TFCG Video Tutorial Page

[appreciatethehelp]

I second the likelihood that this is the mistake that was made; in my early days using LO I made the same mistake and couldn’t work out just what the heck was wrong! I still occasionally accidentally activate Overwrite in Gmail too and have to remember how to turn it off again.