Be wary of LibreOffice 3.6!
If you're considering upgrading to LibreOffice 3.6, my advice -- at least for the present -- is DON'T. Or if you do, proceed with caution. (Instructions below.)
In the past, upgrades have been flawless, but I do still regularly backup my Profile folder. The wisdom of doing so was proved at the weekend when I upgraded from LO version 3.5 to 3.6. It all went swimmingly as usual, but when I can to use the new version I discovered some anomalies. Gone: 40+ macros I've built up over years of using OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice. Gone: some basic settings such as Page Format (A4 went back to Letter) and Measurement Units (Millimetres went back to Inches).
A quick net search found I wasn't alone. Other problems have also been noted and this bug details the problem. It's severity will of course depend on what you've built up, but for me it was an "Oh my god, nooo!" hair-tearer. At least until I reverted back to 3.5 and restored my Profile folder. Your mileage may vary.
3.6 has some cool new features, but I shan't be using 'em till this bug's fixed!
Backing up your Profile folder
You all do this of course, right? Yeah, right! But it is important. This is where all your personal changes to the LibreOffice defaults are stored -- everything from preferred page format to macros to auto-corrections and dictionary options.
In Linux you'll typically find it in a hidden directory under in your /home folder. (Hidden directories -- those used by the system -- are prefixed by a dot (".") so they don't usually appear (and distract non-technical users) when they're listing files.
In my case the details are in:
/home/geoff/.libreoffice
I say "typically" because in some Linuxes you'll find the libreoffice folder tucked inside a folder called .config.
On my Lubuntu systems it's in:
/home/geoff/.config/libreoffice
All file browsers give you the option of displaying hidden files (typically under the View menu), so it's just a matter of activating that, locating the .libreoffice folder, right-clicking it and choosing Compress. (And storing the resultant backup somewhere safe, of course.)
In Windows you'll find your Profile folder here:
- Before Vista: \Documents and Setting\<user name>\Application Data\libreoffice
- From Vista: \Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\libreoffice
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Comments
@Ross
I don't know what you mean by "permissive crap". However, may I present to you a brief history and differences between LO and OO.
First there was only OO. Then Oracle (after buying Sun) decided to put the project on hold. As a result LO was started as a FOSS community project to take OOs place (on top of it's old sources). Later Oracle donated OO to Apache which continued to develop it. The main difference between them now days Apaches OO has less permissive licencing (AGPL) than LO (LGPL). From this all, we can concluded that both have roots in the same sources. OO was on hold for a while. LO can use all updates/patches to OO, but not vice versa. Thus LO is likely to have the edge for what it comes to hot new features. OO is for HC FOSS enthusiast who think LGPL is for sissies and sworn Apache fans.
Posted by: LO vs OO | November 1, 2012 8:20 PM
LibreOffice 3.6.1 destroyed a spreadsheet of mine (was xls 2003 format). I thought it was possibly an error of mine, but today when recreating it, the same thing happened. Many rows of data just disappeared & merged heading cells changed.
Luckily I was able to recover the basic data using the free MS Office 2010 Starter (it offered to repair the file) which I got a few days ago as a 'backup' office program.
Posted by: Ross | September 21, 2012 9:18 PM
Openoffice is permissive crap. Stick to LibreOffice.
Posted by: Anonymous | September 14, 2012 6:26 PM
@Ed Vim: While I could say almost the same as you, this version is 'special': "Build ID: 3.6.1.2 ArchLinux build-4". This may also be verified by having a peek at the LibreOffice pages in Bugzilla. Not exactly reassuring, and I'd like to know where/when the users were forewarned...
Personally, I've been very disappointed with LibreOffice. After an upgrade in November 2011 it has been so slow in accepting inputs as to be practically unusable. The latest version doesn't even start, but hangs forever trying to open a file all previous OOo and LO versions have had no problems with.
I have no doubt the problems will be fixed. At some point in the future. Right now, however, LibreOffice doesn't help Linux one bit.
Posted by: eKate | September 13, 2012 5:35 PM
Hey there Geoff
I note that Apache are still offering Open Office. I've never taken the trouble to compare that with LO but it seems to provide good functionality and has a more straight forward install routine.
Cheers
Bryan
Posted by: Bryan Flanagan | September 13, 2012 1:48 PM
It should be noted if you're going from 3.5 to 3.6 that's a situation involving an old release with an old update. Version 3.6.1 is current, and ideally it's better to keep applying updates unless there's a specific reason not to. The developers keep the 'Release Notes' up to date and will mention anything wonky to worry about.
BTW, over the years I've updates dozens of StarOffice, OpenOffice.org, and LibreOffice installations on various Windows and Linux PCs, along with NeoOffice and LibreOffice installs on various versions of OS X boxes without any loss of config settings.
Posted by: Ed Vim | September 13, 2012 12:38 PM