I hope this is relevant! Having used this site a fair bit and been grateful for simple answers which make sense, I often find I am lost because the kind person who gives information then tells me to do something beyond my knowledge without explaining how to do it. Or, I ask a question and get jumped on for not being relevant when to me the fact I am using libreoffice in the first place IS relevant. If I was using another word processor it would not be. If I say I uploaded using libreoffice to somewhere, then I want to know if the problem is to do with me using libreoffice or where I am uploading.
The question is at the end of this long-winded explanation of how I got to it. It is not the question. In fact, it includes thoughts and suggestions. I am not sure where to put those but include them to show how I got to the question. I apologise for the ramble. Miss it out and go to the end if you want!
THE BIT THAT IS NOT THE QUESTION BUT HOW I GOT TO THE QUESTION (note: by “programmer,” I refer to a mindset and do not mean everyone who answers a question is a programmer.)
If I edit to explain, I am often left with more than one question. For example, I had a problem with strange symbols appearing when uploading a document. Someone jumped on me for being irrelevant. Yet, the problem was and is relevant to Libreoffice in my thinking.
Could the person not have asked, "Does this only happen on this one occasion or is it general? This would have prompted me to experiment and find, as I found, that the problem occurs even when copying and pasting to new documents from a previous one. That way I know the problem is not with the site I am uploading to, but with my downloaded version of LibreOffice.
I got a very detailed answer from someone. It helped and I am grateful, however, not everyone knows what an ISO is. I do vaguely, and suspect that the answer gives me a clue that my problem like in the download for LibreOffice on Chromebooks. I assume the code I used to install means that the Beta version of linux uses the terminal with my command, sudo apt-get install LibreOffice to find a repository and download it from there. On a Chromebook you do not get a choice to do much else. It is impossible to get LibreOffice 6 even if you download and try to install debian files or attempt to do something I never managed to do with backports.)
(Perhaps this is relevant to a board for Chromebook users, but I do not ONLY use a Chromebook. I am, however a Chromebook user who is using LibreOffice. A section for Mac users, for PC users, for Chromebook users might be helpful? Certain LibreOffice related problems may only be useful to each of us and the answer if already here, easier to find.)
However, I was lost with the answer, because I am just not that technical. I need the information not just to do something, but how to do something. For example, (from another reply to someone else,) telling me to go to Tools-Options and change my user profile is great except that once I get there, I still need the nuts and bolts of how to do it. I need "go to tools-options and find your user profile and then find x and do y, step by step. I have no problem getting there. I need to know then find this and do that.
The accusation of being irrelevant occurred as I edited my question to include information asked for in a previous comment. I did that in confusion because to me it is more logical to answer the comment with a comment than to edit the original post. Trying to do what asked just led to the accusation of being irrelevant! The information I needed was to be asked, “does this only happen in this one place or everywhere?” I am not getting at the person who complained just trying to explain how my mind would work. I can see how another might think the question irrelevant due to the editing to include the information.
Maybe the fairer way to ask if something is relevant is to say something like “please explain why this is relevant?” What is relevant to one may not be so to another.
Another example:
If I ask about a good font, I do not mean a good font generally, I mean a good font available in a LibreOffice download. I do not mean a generally available open source font, but a font that comes with my Libreoffice download. I wanted to know how that font looks like when printed out from a file made with by my libroffice download on my particular hardware. If I want to know about fonts, I can go to other places to find out about the properties of that font generally. “Can you explain more?” is easier to handle. I could then have realised I needed to explain my question was about the fonts installed with libreoffice and the way they printed out and that I would be interested to know if anyone had used them in a self-published book and with what result. I can see someone would think “is this relevant?” but to me it is because I want to know if LibreOffice is the most useful tool I can use and if the font installed I use results in a useable end product if I use that font using LibreOffice. Might the result be different in Microsoft Word or Calibre? Questions tend to breed questions which is why threads in message boards can be useful for people like me. You can have a tangent. I did not see the question as irrelevant as in my mind, I was asking about LibreOffice on a LibreOffice forum and assumed it was obvious.
Downvoting people is just unfriendly and puts people who really need an answer off using the site at all. It can also be misused. (I speak from considerable experience of moderating message boards.) My reaction this morning was to think of setting up a forum for people like me to ask about LibreOffice! I assume the downvote was for asking the question. I still need the answer to my question about the strange symbols because I still have them everywhere I copy and paste. I just have more questions now, and no idea whether to ask several other questions on the board or edit the original question. After all, I edited to explain more and then people thought the question irrelevant. (This then would make it more than a single question about the same thing. Then someone would say ask only one question, but to me, the question is part of one whole question and I need it all kept together so I can follow it in the way my mind works. Skipping to other questions means it is harder to follow the answer.)
Programmers tend to have a technical mind. Other mortals tend to be woolly in our thinking and need the steps the programmer understands broken down into pieces. What is obvious to programmers is not obvious to lesser mortals. (I was married to one and we drove each other nuts.)
A lot of people using LIbreOffice seem to have a programmer’s mindset. They can do stuff that is way beyond my understanding and say to each other “do this or do that.” The answers are interesting to me, and I am glad of them, but often leave me lost as to how to proceed because I can get that what is written will work and just have no clue how to work it. I need to be able to ask the new question beneath the answer. However, the question can end up with other questions far removed from the asked question. Programmers have that information already so they never have to ask the newer questions.
Ubuntu has a good way of addressing this and has a section in their forum for new or less technical people.
THE QUESTION I AM ASKING (The rest is trying to explain how and why I got to it.)
So, back to my question as all the above is to try and explain why I am asking it. Is Libreoffice really only for people wth a programmer’s mind (who can understand the answers to their questions when it goes wrong?)
