My name is Eric Eastman.
I’m running LibreOffice 6.2 on a Macbook Air under macOS Catalina ver.10.15.4
I’m a power Mac user, and have over 10 years experience with Microsoft Office.
I’m new to LibreOffice, and I’m loving it so far.
I’ve noticed that some support documents I’ve read are deployed in the development environment rather than as a PDF. Is that a good idea? Doesn’t that mean that the readers can change the document and possibly foul the whole thing up? What is the best way to deploy a handbook?
Thanks
Hi Eric, i think your question is out of place here.
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Which documents do you mean, can you perhaps put a link(s)?
If you are talking about the Getting Started Guide and suite application guides such as Calc, Draw. They are available as both PDF and editable writer .odt files. Distributing also as editable .odts serves as an example for large documents / books can be structured structured and styled. How to use frames, text boxes, images, styles, bullets, etc.
Yes, it is very easty to accidentally edit the guide. You could set this file as read-only on the filesystem or create copies of it. You could always download it again should you inadvertently edit it while reading it.
You could always open it as read-only. Goto File->Properties → Security tab → check the “open as read only” box.
It’s nice to have a large document which has been created in LibreOffice writer to show what is possible and also in some cases testing editing the document or editing styles and see how this affects/does not affect other elements of the document. So in a way it can be used as a kind of prefilled sandbox.
Most people probably just use the PDF but I use both. I use PDF for quick searching with my favourite PDF app and open up the .odt in LibreOffice writer if I want to investigate how to use certain tools such as bullets.
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to the left and, karma permitting, upvote it. That will help other people with the same question. In case you need clarification, edit your question (not an answer) or comment the relevant answer.
Also see an excellent answer on how to write a book with consistent formatting.