LibreOffice tricks and a bonus Linux tip based on my experience

How to use the word count function in LibreOffice Calc

If you used Microsoft Excel spreadsheets in the past, then you are probably familiar with the word count feature of this application, which comes handy, when you want to calculate how many words are in an Excel document.

Unfortunately, the corresponding application of LibreOffice, i.e. LibreOffice Calc, seems to lack a similar feature, or, at least, I could not find one myself.

So, what do you do, when you want to count the words of such a document, and it seems to be impossible?

Is there a way to work around it?

I found a simple solution.

Instead of counting words in the LibreOffice Calc document itself, I highlighted all of the words in it, and copied and pasted them into a blank LibreOffice Writer document.

Contrary to to LibreOffice Calc, LibreOffice Writer has a word count feature, which is similar to that of Microsoft Word.

So, by using this loop, you can count the number of words that are contained in a LibreOffice Calc documents.

How to resize a single cell in a LibreOffice Writer table

Again, it seems that Microsoft Word is easier to work with, when it comes to resizing a single cell in a table that you have inserted into a document.

You just select the cell that you want to resize, and drag its border in the desired direction.

When it comes to LibreOffice Writer, however, and speaking from my own experience, no matter how many times I tried to do the same thing, it didn’t work.

I had many moments of anger and frustration, and I think that most LibreOffice users would feel the same way, since I found it hard to believe that I couldn’t do such a seemingly easy and simple task, as resizing a single table cell should be.

So, how did I work around this problem?

The only thing that worked for me was to attach a new table just below the existing one, so that both tables would look a single one.

After that, I could resize any single cell in the new table, without resizing any cell or entire column in the already existing table, at the same time.

I know that some of you may disagree with this trick, because it actually means working on different tables, rather than a single one, but that’s the only solution I could find.

Bonus tip: Change/update your software sources

When it comes to receiving and installing Linux updates on your device, there is a long of institutions and companies in literally every country in the world, which play the role of software sources for your system.

There is always a software source near your location, and you can choose a uma source and a focal source from software sources that are based in your country.

When I first installed Linux Mint on my laptop, I had no idea what these software sources actually meant, and what their purpose was, so I after choosing a uma source and a focal source based in the country where I currently live, I forgot about it.

When I encountered some problems during system updates, I noticed that the providers of these software sources had failed to deliver the upgrades.

After some search and thought, I decided to change the providers, and, voila, upgrades started coming in and being installed smoothly.

So, it is a good idea to change/update your Linux software sources every now and then, because this can automatically resolve any issues or bugs that you may face, and for which you can’t find any other solution.

Sources and further reading:

Counting words

How to count words in LibreOffice Calc cell

Adjusting cell width in a table without affecting other cells

Where is the software sources window?

7 LibreOffice Tips To Get More Out of It

My favorite LibreOffice productivity tips