I (a fulltime user of Linux since 1997, and professional software engineer) have just spent 6 hours trying, and failing, to correctly print the address labels for my company Christmas Cards, using LibreOffice (starting from a spreadsheet of addresses, and some expensive Avery labels). This is, admittedly, my first time trying to do a mail-merge, but surely it can't be THIS hard? Please would an experienced developer watch me attempt this again, and help fix the dozens of points of confusion and error that arise. It's too much for a single bug report - I can't even find a reliable way to reproduce the partial success! This includes: * The labels dialog doesn't let you choose the "database" from a filepicker, but insists on using a pre-defined ".odf" file (for that matter, what's ODF? I know about csv,ods,and xls). * the data-source being a totally blank pane, with no obvious way to add a new data source (aha! it's in the right-click menu), and no way at all to remove one (oh, we have to go into the LibreOffice config). * the wizard insisting on "first name" and "surname" fields, rather than a single "name" column. * Figuring out how to not use the a wizard - and now getting all labels identical, until one discovers the hidden setting for row-increment. * the "synchronise labels" toolbar being impossible to find, disappearing, and only existing in an intermittent toolbar. * Writer not being willing to import a "data source" from a spreadsheet (neither xls nor ods), but insisting on an intermediate "LibreOffice Base" step - which now doesn't update when the spreadsheet is saved. * confusing print-preview * the labels not actually aligning correct, unless I bodge in a 5mm left-tab to incorrectly force the labels into the wrong place, which is actually the right place on the paper. * No warning if a label text overflows the physical label. * Confusing terminology: my data source is a "spreadsheet" - it isn't really a "database". * the way that the link between the labels.odt and labels.ods files seems to be held as a config property somewhere in my machine's libreoffice profile, rather than as the direct link between two files contained in the same directory. Sorry this is an unusual bug report, but I think you need to watch me try all the obvious things and get it wrong, in order to see just how impossibly counter-intuitive this process is.
For anyone else who encounters this: use glabels and a csv file.
Please test with Menu>Help>Restart in Safe Mode. Please paste here the information in Menu>Help>About LibreOffice. (There is an icon in the center to copy the information).
Please attach a sample file of the spreadsheet with the data, reduced as much as possible, without private information.
Hi all, I did try completely eliminating my LO profile - that didn't help. Also, Version: 24.2.7.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community Build ID: 420(Build:2) CPU threads: 4; OS: Linux 6.8; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3 Locale: en-GB (en_GB.UTF-8); UI: en-US Ubuntu package version: 4:24.2.7-0ubuntu0.24.04.4 Calc: threaded (sorry, I had the wrong version number above, have corrected that now - I'm using the de-facto latest version that ships with fully updated Ubuntu (noble) 24.04.03 LTS) the minimal CSV file is literally this: ---begin--- Name,Company,Address John Smith,Acme Corporation,"24 My Street, Somewhereville, CountyShire, AB12 34DE" ---end--- i.e. it's a 3 column table, with a header row, where the 3rd column can contain newlines in each cell. My real-world one had about 100 rows in it. I originally had .ods as well as .csv The issue isn't primarily that Libreoffice doesn't work (though there were certainly some bugs); the issue is that it's extremely hard to figure out how to use it. What I'm suggesting is that someone in the usability team and I do a screenshare for an hour, where you watch me get it wrong (again), and then together we can work out all the user-interface hints, tweaks and fixes that would be necessary to make this easier to use.
(In reply to RichardNeill from comment #0) > Please would an experienced developer watch me attempt this again... Thanks for the kind offer. I'm afraid you wont find an experienced developer that runs a usability test - neither in open source projects nor paid software. And open source development works differently anyway: volunteers pick topics they like, there is no steering (beyond following proposals). Before going into the details a more general advice: most of these questions could be ask on https://ask.libreoffice.org/ where you find more experienced users than any developer is. And the outcome, if there is an issue, could be reported on Bugzilla. Keep in mind that a developer aims to submit a patch in order to resolve a ticket as fixed. How could that be done for a bunch of question? Another valuable source of information is the documentation. Find it at https://documentation.libreoffice.org/en/english-documentation/ > * The labels dialog doesn't let you choose the "database" from a filepicker Isn't this the standard behavior with databases that require some connection? > * the data-source being a totally blank pane... You mix two topics: how to handle a database and how to manage mail-merge/label-printing. > * Figuring out how to not use the a wizard... Skipping the other observations, sorry to my ignorance. I used the function once myself and was able to produce the result. Admittedly is is not the simplest task. A lot of issues have been reported on the META tickets bug 120679 and bug 102998. Could you please follow these reports and add your input there?