Help and support

Who can you turn to, when you can’t tell if you’re coming or going?

Judging by the nature of work that these programs perform, you’d think they’re fairly easy to use. While this is true for the most part, especially for the straightforward offerings of Google Docs, the other applications may require some guidance. Such as when you’re trying to figure out how to install plugins on WPS Writer, or if there are even any on offer!

While all the applications are cross-platform, WPS Writer’s Linux edition doesn’t get the same attention as its Microsoft counterpart. This is why you may find solutions to certain problems in the official documentation that don’t apply to the Linux edition. For instance, the official Help will tell you how to use the Mail Merge feature, but it isn’t even available on Linux.

There isn’t much documentation on OnlyOffice’s website, beyond instructions covering installation and basic usage, but you’ll find far more useful information from within the program itself. Depending on the application you’re running, clicking File>Help presents a categorised list, and there’s also a search bar if you’re looking for something specific.

In contrast, Calligra’s documentation is non-existent. Launching the handbook from within the program drops you to a KDE handbook page that doesn’t exist. When you do finally manage to track down some documentation on KDE Userbase, all it lists is a few isolated features. Thankfully, you can tap the user community for advice and assistance on the official forum boards.

LibreOffice boasts of detailed user guides, accessible from within each of the component applications. In addition to its thorough documentation guides, the project also has a Q&A website called Ask LibreOffice.