Moving to non-Word formats [long] (was: Re: Having trouble finding a word in multiple files

[Mike Marchywka]

On Mon, Jun 15, 2020 at 07:21:10PM +0200, Liam Proven wrote:
> On Mon, 15 Jun 2020 at 18:36, Chris Green <cl at isbd.net> wrote:
> >
> > Use Dokuwiki.
> 
> I am a contractor. I maintain multiple CVs for different types of
> roles in different countries. They must be in  MS Word format.
> 
> I also need to keep paperwork for the tax authorities etc. This means PDF.

This has always puzzled me as some pdf "forms" are so awful I can't
get the local UPS store that specializes in things like this to
even print them without a huge hassle. They need data- a
csv file would do. Why is there still "paperwork" on a computer ?
Humans can read a csv file too...

I think most people who use real data have shunned this stuff.


> 
> I also use LibreOffice in some roles, and on my laptops.
> 
> For new large commissions, I use MS Word in outliner mode, because no
> other modern or recent word processor has outline mode. So I use .DOC
> format, not .DOCX, because I hate the ribbon interface and older
> versions are faster and work better with WINE.
>

What exactly is "outline mode?" I was working on a latex system
to expand and contract various text blocks because often I want an
ad hoc "outline" to bring say section headings onto the same
page with a bunch of icons representing logical blocks like
paragraphs. Although "pages" don't really have a meaning
on computers either really. I got an almost proof of concept
in evince ( although the mouse offset from the text location
wasnot quite right for the dvi display IIRC). I played with
it a little, thought it had potential and then dropped it.

Most of these things- latex too- don't seem to think of
interactive documents but stick with static page images.
The PDF "forms" concept may be a bit more interactive but
I guess good old ascii html does all of this stuff.   

If you are not carving out wood blocks, really the paradigms all
change lol. 
 
> I also use spreadsheets for time-tracking.
> 
> For editing work, I often use Google Documents.
> 
> In my current role I write in DocBook XML, which is the _only_
> plain-text searchable format from this lot.
> 
> Etc. etc. but all these are real examples from my own workflow, not
> contrived made-up ones. Changing tools is not really an option as  I
> do not choose all these formats; I work with what the external 3rd
> parties demand.
> 
> All of this works fine on Linux and also transparently syncs to Windows and Mac.
> 
> But grep will not help you here.
> 
> -- 
> Liam Proven – Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
> Email: lproven at cix.co.uk – gMail/gTalk/gHangouts: lproven at gmail.com
> Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/Flickr: lproven – Skype: liamproven
> UK: +44 7939-087884 – ČR (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053
> 
> -- 
> ubuntu-users mailing list
> ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users

-- 

mike marchywka
306 charles cox
canton GA 30115
USA, Earth 
marchywka at hotmail.com
404-788-1216
ORCID: 0000-0001-9237-455X