Joe - and others:

A quick look at the LibreOffice installed by the service shop on one of our computers poses critical questions about features that I've considered essential, that are included in Microsoft Word but that I didn't find in my initial look at LibreOffice.

EXAMPLES?

LO includes an "Insert|Bookmark" function but I found no place where I can easily "Insert|Link" so that I can go to a bookmark by clicking the link. The capability may be included, but if it's there it's buried in some place that wasn't obvious to me. Links in documents, to go quickly to a place in the document, or to open a related document, are features that I use frequently in Microsoft Word, and that I consider essential.

I also failed to find any reference in LO to an ability to insert "active functions." In Microsoft Word these are called "fields" and I use a few kinds very often for a variety of purposes, and a few more exotic ones occasionally. The trivial example for "field functions" is for numerical calculations, where in MWord Ctl-F9 inserts a field, typing "=" followed by an equation enters the field value, "F9" calculates the result, and Ctl-Shift-F9 "unlinks" so that the text result is all that's left.

I also have a number of MWord documents that display and record date and time information for logging transactions, like when/whether I take all my meds or am about to die because I missed something (according to my doctors).

In MWord, at top of my "medications log" document, I have a link to the insertion point boookmark where I track when (if) I take my meds. Just below the bookmark where I arrive when I click the link, the field {DATE \@ "d MMMM yyyy" \* MERGEFORMAT} shows the current date in the form "29 December 2011" and ({DATE \@ dddd}) tells me it's (Thursday). A list of the meds shows each line with {TIME \@ "HH:mm" \* MERGEFORMAT} at the beginning, that displays the current time (24 hour clock) next to a particular med. I can copy the "live" lines and paste them above the bookmark and into the log, and when I actually take each pill, F9 updates the date/time to the instantaneously current "11:15", and Ctl-Shift-F9 "unlinks" it so that only the (plain text) time when I took the pill remains as a permanent record.

Since I have several medications to take, some of which require different dosages depending on the day of the week, and some to be taken at specific different times in the day, a log of this kind is the only easy and reliable way way I've found to keep track of them.

Also at the top of the same document, I have a list of separate other documents, with a link to each, so that I can open any of the other documents related to my "medical records" with a single click. In one of these other documents I track Appointments scheduled and completed, another keeps track of medications ordered and/or received. A third linked document is where I keep my notes on "stupid things doctors have told me to do" so that I have them handy for the next appointment.

Additionally, when taking "web notes," a pdf is much simpler to download than copy & paste to a document when there's one available, but the pdf does not generally record the source site address. I have my browser set so that if I print a web page it shows the URL in the footnote, but that's often truncated and incomplete. I frequently make a separate MWord document to record the missing information, with a link to the pdf, when that happens. If there are several "associated downloads," I can have them all listed and linked in a single .doc with nearly instant access to all the ones that "belong together."

These functions were included when Microsoft Word was a DOS program (ca 1990?), and are essential to me; and although Microsoft has attempted to conceal them and prevent new users from knowing they exist (since Word 2007 at least) they still work in MWord, and if I don't find them in LibreOffice (or OpenOffice) those programs won't meet my needs.

A deeper look into LO and/or OO may find capabilities I missed with my brief look so far, but I can't be too optimistic about it.

If all you need to do is type some letters and print, LO looks much like a slightly clunky imitation of the first Word for Windows from the early 90s era, and is probably good enough. But it doesn't appear to include significant parts of the real power that was in MWord when it was a DOS program.

I can't blame the people who are working at producing the open programs, since only those who had to work at learning what Word could and can do are likely to even know of the existence of many useful functions that are there, much less what they're good for. But I use, and NEED, a lot of them that, for now, don't appear to be in the other programs - yet.

John