I am on my Librem 5 and I am trying to locally open a .doc file from a personal backup from 2007.
My tech habits were different in 2007 so I’m not here to talk about the (bad) decision to store this file in .doc format back then.
What I wanted to do was to open this file on my Librem 5 and copy some plaintext contents out for use in other apps.
I installed LibreOffice writer and then tapped the .doc file sitting in ~/Documents and it opened so if I zoom out a little and switch to landscape instead of portrait I can pretty easily read this doc on my L5. But if I drag and select all, hotkeys like CTRL+C do not appear to be working, and menus like “Edit > Copy” or the toolbar icon for cut/copy do not appear to be working.
Is there an easier way for me to actually copy out the plaintext contents of this file?
Later, when I am not on my Librem 5, I’m fairly certain a laptop running the same software would not have this problem. So this a mobile/libhandy specific issue.
I just checked if selecting, copying and pasting works. All seems to be working as expected.
All actions where done on the L5.
I’m using Libre Office 7.
If for some reason the above don’t resolve the issue, you may be able to use the command line interface (libreoffice) to convert the .doc file to a .txt file, which may open up other options for copying text out.
e.g. libreoffice --convert-to txt foo.odt
will create foo.txt with a best effort of extracting the text. (Can also be used for doing conversion to PDF for export.)
Notes:
Not tested on the Librem 5.
Not testing with .doc because I don’t have a file in such an ancient format handy.
The above command will take a wildcard too, if you have lots of such .doc files.
Thanks guys! Per your suggestions, it works as expected after I restarted Writer.
The problem I was having was a bug, possibly due to the “Tip of the Day” function or whatever. After a popup tip was shown, even when I closed it Writer was not responsive other than selecting text.
After exiting Writer and starting it again, copy functions worked as expected.
For information, there are also 2 command line utilities in linux : antiword (convert .doc files to txt) and docx2txt (you guess it)
Installable on L5 via sudo apt install antiword docx2txt
Any employer that requires use of spreadsheets and word processing from a mobile device is doing something wrong. Allowing it as an option, sure, but “needing” to do this from mobile raises many red flags for me.
As I understand it, there is unlikely to be much progress made in the near future with regard to getting LibreOffice to be friendly for mobile use.
If this is in fact a “need” for your job I advise not looking for an android/iOS device that can meet this need but rather, finding a better employer.
I stand by what I said, any employer that REQUIRES you to use a mobile device, even docked, for word processing and manupulating spreadsheets isn’t an employer worth working for.
Being an employer that cuts costs by such a small fraction by not providing their employees with the proper tools to do their job efficiently and effectively?
Being an employee of an employer that would cut costs in such a way?
Or are you talking about CHOOSING to use your phone to perform tasks that the phone form factor is not well equipped for?
I’m independent contractor, I’m Tour Leader so I need to use my smartphone as my office everywhere during tours, eg: into buses, museums, restaurants, on the roads,…
Hope it makes sense for you
Well, I need it because Tour Operators/Travel Agencies offices send me files during tours and I’ve to open, read and modify it! So it’s something mandatory for me.
I suppose I can use some office app for Android throw Waydroid in the meanwhile a proper mobile office or, better, adaptive Libre Office for L5 will be developed! And, of course, I want pay for it!! Software Developers must be paid for their job, as everyone else!!
When I’m using my L5 connected to a monitor by an USB-C hub, I can edit documents, use buttons in tools bars and keyboard shortcuts, the issue is the menu: I cannot open the application menu so I cannot use all its menu items that are not in tools bars or covered by keyboard shortcuts. So it is enough for simple tasks using default configuration of LibreOffice, for advanced tasks or for easily configuring LibreOffice I need a computer.
I tested Writer and Calc; when I tried Draw, it crashed.
I ordered one of these from Purism 7 months ago but it never shipped. So I ordered Nexdock 360 from NEX website and it shipped in 12 hrs. Mine is Nexdock 360 Wireless but it requires miracast technology which probably only works on PureOS crimson but mine is byzantium still for now. So it only works on a wire. I like wires or at least HKS but I wouldnt want to mess with the wire while in a bus.
handy.
