APOLOGIES ... if anybody gets multiple copies of this email. Something very weird just happened here. Local network has been acting funky all day, since early this morning. (And I don't mean "funky" in good way.)
On Tuesday 24 March 2026 12:41:22 you 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.
Long ago I tried to make peace with Libre Office, and it cannot be done.
Depending on what you mean by "make peace", that may not really be true.
I mean, can I actually *use* Libre Office to write, to get anything done? The answer is, NO. It is not a problem of my own configuration, unless maybe you mean that I have multiple documents open at the same time.
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. The contrast between font color and background cannot be changed, and will only accept settings from KDE Plasma (or maybe, Gnome).
Libre Office, as far as I am concerned, is practically useless. Not only is the interface unreadable,
That's just plain not a valid complaint about libre office, that is a complaint about your config/system. The interface is very readable on my system,
But I thought that you just said, you don't use either Libre Office or Open Office? What do you use then, WordStar or WordPerfect or something other?
and I don't think there is anything magic about my system.
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 use gnumeric for spreadsheets, and it is way, way, way faster.
I don't do spreadsheets. That is for the numbers and money people; i.e., the ones who find ways not to pay me for work that I've done.
I use office programs to write. Last time I had to use a spreadsheet for anything was about 20 years ago, and I hope never to use one again.
In the end, I went back to Open Office, which works better for me in every way, is faster, and also accepts TDE colors and fonts. The menu entries are not so much enlarged, but because OO accepts my TDE color scheme, I can make the GUI more legible.
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.
Personally, I think that Open Office is still just the lesser of two evils; it works a lot better and faster (at least, for myself) than Libre Office. I really wish somebody would come out with a word processing program that actually just plain WORKS, the way they used to be.
I sort of miss Word Perfect, but if I recall, it's proprietary, and not free in any sense of the term.
Other people's results may vary. If others out there have somehow discovered a better word processor, I would give it a try. And if Libre Office works for you, I am glad for you. 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. And I am pretty sure it's not just my settings; unless you mean that I ought to organize my work in a manner completely different from how I written ever since I changed over from a typewriter to a desktop computer.
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.
Bill