On Tuesday 24 March 2026 13:44:53 Jim via tde-users wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 24, 2026 at 13:08 (-0700), William Morder via tde-users wrote:
> > On Tuesday 24 March 2026 12:41:22 Jim wrote:
> >> Have you tried starting soffice from the command line like this:
> >>
> >> 󿺠 󿺠 󿺠 󿺠 GDK_DPI_SCALE=2 soffice
> >>
> >> On my system that makes the fonts ludicrously big. 󿺠But you might be
> >> able to fine-tune the number (you can use decimal fractions like 1.2 or
> >> 1.7) and get something that works for you.
> >
> > This (above) is an interesting idea, and I may give it a try, but for
> > now, my OO works just fine.
>
> That was actually directed at someone much further up-thread, whose
> comments have now been edited out.

Yes, I gathered that your suggestion was intended for the original querent,
that is, I believe, Uwe Brauer. I just presumed to respond.

It's a good suggestion, if it works. I haven't tested it yet, but I might try
it with OO. However, if I start OO from command-line, then I get a plain
white vanilla Gnomish interface, not my TDE colors.

In any case, this is a hack; and if it works, yes, it's a really good hack. I
will try it sometime. But ordinary users ought not to be expected to have to
hack their programs just to make things work.

My TDE color scheme can be found on the screenshots page. And for my programs
(both TDE and non-TDE), as well as for my settings on machines, devices,
etc., I use a lighter font (usually yellow/gold/orange or green) on a dark
background, as it is most visible for myself. Again, screenshots can be found
on the TDE page.

As for the actual interface that I use for writing, I don't touch the menus;
or, I ought to say, I haven't touched the menus since I started using
OpenOffice back in the early 2000s sometime. Ever since, I have just copied
over my settings, and it has worked, and still works in OO. When I changed to
LO, everything got messed up. I did try, for a long time, to modify LO
settings to work for me, but it was always just more of the same crap.

Once I got the new fork of OpenOffice to work (which also took some
finagling), all my old settings also worked, by which I mean, the same
settings that I have used since the early 2000s. And they still work now,
with OpenOffice, but not with LibreOffice.

And, as I said, LibreOffice is S-L-O-W. Indeed, it is so slow that mere words
cannot convey its sloth. And I am not talking about startup, etc., but about
ordinary use, after it has already been started. But let me give an example:

I am working on a different screen; let's say that it is graphics in gimp, or
that I am working with a plain text file, and now want to copy that content
in my office program. When I try switching screens back to LibreOffice, I
have to wait literally 5-10 minutes just for the interface to become visible.
I am looking at a blank screen. I can switch back and forth between the
screens, but the LO screen is just blank,

and I must wait for it to catch up.
By the time it actually appears, I have often completely forgotten whatever
it was that I was going to insert / revise / whatever. Even then, after it
appears, I often still could not actually use it, but just had to look at a
frozen screen.

This is what I mean by LibreOffice being "useless"; and since OpenOffice
accepts my settings -- the same settings that I have used since the early
2000s, and I don't have to wait for any lag, because I don't have some
background processes that are hogging resources -- I use OpenOffice, and
recommend it to anybody else who has similar problems.

Again, if you want to say that it is all due to my settings, then you will
have to do more to convince me; because my settings work just fine for me,
and OpenOffice, while not perfect, allows me to get some actual work done.

> No, I mean that (as I understand it) many people (I even know a few myself)
> successfully use LO to create, edit and read documents.
>
> So I don't quite understand how you can say it isn't a "you" problem when
> other people are able to use it, but you say you can't get anything done
> with it.
It may be in the same way that other people prefer convenience over
simplicity. Myself, I keep things as simple as I can, not only on my
machines, but also in my own life in general. However, this simplicity often
takes a lot of effort.

I get into the same kind of discussions with other people about using apps on
my phone. Everybody keeps telling me how convenient it will be for me to use
their app; except that I use my phone pretty much just as a phone.
Inconvenient in the short term, perhaps; but overall, I keep my life much
less complicated by avoiding all those convenient solutions.

This may be a bad analogy, but I suspect that we might be having a similar
kind of disagreement.

>
> >>> Maybe somebody out there knows how to get inside LO to change the
> >>> interface, but I spent a couple years searching for such a solution.
> >>
> >> I am not a fan of either libre office or open office, so I don't use
> >> either except under extreme duress. 󿺠But just out of curiosity, what is
> >> it about the interface you don't like? 󿺠The icons? 󿺠The fonts? 󿺠The
> >> way the menus are arranged? 󿺠Something else?
> >
> > The fonts are so tiny that I literally cannot read them, not even if I
> > get nose-close to the screen.
>
> Configuration problem.  A way to solve it is above.
>
> > The contrast between font color and background cannot be changed, and
> > will only accept settings from KDE Plasma (or maybe, Gnome).
>
> Are you talking about the document?  I have black text on white background.
> I guess some people don't like that much contrast.
No, lighter text on dark background. I have no problem at all getting that
part right. It looks the same in both LibreOffice and OpenOffice. I mean the
interface, menus, etc., are not visible.

> >>> but also it is very slow, 󿺠like pouring molasses on a cold day. It
> >>> sometimes would take me 5-10 minutes just for it to appear on screen
> >>> when I changed from one screen to another.
> >>
> >> One of the reasons I don't like Libre office is because it is slow, I
> >> agree with you there.
>
> I should have said it is nowhere near as slow for me as for you.  Maybe
> your system has (way) too much going on for the amount of RAM you have
> and/or the CPU you have.

I always have shells open that are running top and htop, and I keep a pretty
close eye on resources, CPU usage, etc. It is rare that my system misbehaves.
>
> For me, it takes about 3 seconds to start up.  I think that is slow, but it
> isn't minutes.

When I say LibreOffice is slow, I don't mean startup. I mean, actual usage, in
the moment.

> >> Unfortunately there are a lot of thing in OO that need updating. 󿺠I
> >> understand that it has considerably less capability with included images
> >> than LO. 󿺠But if its image inclusion ability is all you need, I guess
> >> that wouldn't be an issue for you.

Yes, I have heard that about OO, and it is a concern of mine. I hear that
maybe it's not as secure, etc., etc. But it doesn't concern me much, as I
don't do anything with my office program that requires an internet
connection.

And I don't need it so much for images, just for text. When I do need to
insert an image, I usually wait until later, create a marker for where I want
to insert it, and then I anchor it to a specific part of the page, to make
sure it doesn't move around after changes or restarts.

As I said, OO is the lesser of two evils. I can either use LO, which everybody
says is better, but which brings my machine to a halt; or I can use OO, which
is supposed to be insecure, but at least it works, and doesn't freeze my
machine, and after using it for over 20 years, I have yet to experience any
bad effects.

While I have various kinds of texts that I might be working on, and so
different problems, there is one long-term project that has taken up most of
my adult life; since about 1983 or so. The texts for that project were
started in manuscript and typewriter, and have gone through (let me
count ...), I believe, 6 or 7 different word processing programs since then.

> > But for me, in my experience, Libre Office is far and away the worst, the
> > slowest, the most frustrating word processor that I have ever used.
>
> I have never used a word processor that I didn't find annoying and
> frustrating, which is why I don't use them.
>
> No, I mean that you can change the font size and you can change the colour
> of the background and various other things to suit yourself, which will
> make things less frustrating for you.  If you refuse to do so, that is not
> a valid criticism of LO (or any other program).
I can change all those things; it's the interface itself (surrounding the text
part, the borders, menus, etc., and therein, the size and color of fonts).
>
> I have no idea how you organize your work, and so I have no idea if that is
> part of the problem you are having.
>
> > By the way, for what it's worth, I still remember when handwritten
> > manuscripts were the norm, and typewriters were only starting to become
> > necessary.  This is from back in the Bible days, when I was younger.
>
> And the woolly mammoths roamed the earth.
I used to live by hunting woolly mammoths. I still have my old spears and
atlatl (spear-thrower). I also like stone tools.

>
> Yeah, I used typewriters too.
>
>                                 Jim

Anyway ... I think we have gone far enough off-topic on this matter, and
nothing will get resolved by going round and round.

You like to have things your own way, and I am comfortable enough with where I
am at this moment, using OpenOffice. It may be better or worse for others; I
will let them decide for themselves.

As to the original question ... my answer was to Uwe or anybody else out there
who is frustrated with LibreOffice.

Give OpenOffice a try. It works for me.

Bill

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