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My daughter lost her social studies essay because LibreOffice doesn't have autosave on automatically.

This is about the most recent version of LibreOffice on Windows 10. I can't speak for other versions.

My daughter worked hard on her social studies essay. I type things in for her because she’s a really bad typist, but she tells me what to write… but I didn’t remember to manually save her social studies essay yesterday, and for some reason the ThinkPad rebooted, LibreOffice crashed and we lost the whole thing... because autosave was not automatically on when I installed it.

No, recovery didn't work. We just got a blank file.

I rewrote it for her based on the information we had and what I remembered and tried to make it sound like what a 13-year-old would write because it was basically my fault and she did do the work. I did have her sit with me as I wrote it in case she didn’t like something I wrote, but it was sort of cheating. I'm okay with that cheating since I know she worked hard on it.

First, though, I went into the settings and turned on autosave.

I like LibreOffice, but why the hell is that not on automatically? Honestly, I don't really understand why someone wouldn't want their documents autosaved, but I'm pretty sure most people would want that.

This isn't fucking 1993. I shouldn't have to remember to save a document anymore and it shouldn't be lost forever because of it.

Like I said, I like LibreOffice. I don't really want to trust documents to Microsoft or Google. But this was really annoying.

regdog ,

That could be a great learning experience. If it's an important document not only do I save regularily, I also create copies of the file at regular intervals.

LordCrom ,

Jesus never loses any data.

Because Jesus saves.

Bezier ,
@Bezier@suppo.fi avatar

I guess it's about what one's used to. I'd be pretty annoyed if it started overwriting my documents when I when I do not explicitly tell it to do that.

I copy something from the document, maybe hit cut instead of copy. Now it's gone from the original.

FlyingSquid OP ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

I'm not sure what you mean by overwriting. With something like Office365 or Google Docs, it saves each time you type or delete a character. I don't see any reason why that couldn't be the same with FOSS software.

Bezier ,
@Bezier@suppo.fi avatar

Overwrinting as saving the (unwanted) changes over the file.

I know the workflow on these collaborative online tools is like that. I also don't see a reason why an offline tool can't be like that, but I think turning it on by default would cause more bad surprises for people who don't expect it to do things unannounced and without asking.

I guess this is something the program could ask on initial startup and make the editor UI very clear on what the state is.

cali_ash ,

Learning how to properly save and backup is the more important lesson anyway.

IWantToFuckSpez ,

This is why I rather use something like Google docs, even though I’m not a fan of Google, it saves automatically and has a version history I can revert to.

UNWILLING_PARTICIPANT ,

I love that there are still kids learning this hard lesson in the year 2024.

summerof69 ,

You lost it because you didn't save. You are a parent, it's time to take responsibility for your mistakes. Don't blame LO as if you were 13 y/o.

FlyingSquid OP ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

From my original post:

it was basically my fault

summerof69 ,

From your original title:

because LibreOffice doesn't have autosave on automatically

FlyingSquid OP ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Yes? And it was my fault for not saving because of that.

I'm not sure why you saw me explicitly saying it's my fault and are trying to tell me that's not what I said, but it's not a very good form of gaslighting.

summerof69 ,

Lol, you wrote in the title that you blame LibreOffice. I wrote that you shouldn't blame LibreOffice. Now you're blaming me for gaslighting. I can't believe I'm talking to an adult.

FlyingSquid OP ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Insulting me will not change the fact that I admitted it was my fault no matter how hard you try to convince me I didn't.

summerof69 ,

Man, I couldn't care less about you. I read the title where you blamed LO, and I left the comment That's it. Stop bitching over nothing.

FlyingSquid OP ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

If you don't care about me, maybe don't keep insisting I didn't say something I very clearly said. I'm not forcing you to continue to insist it.

summerof69 ,

🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

UnaSolaEstrellaLibre ,

Bad UX design is pretty ingrained in many FOSS projects unfortunately.

callouscomic ,

Never rely on autosaves for anything, ever.

WalrusDragonOnABike ,

Even if its on by default, first thing you should do when installing or first using it is adjust the settings imo. How often is still a matter of personal choice. And other settings are as well. Granted, I get I'm probably far from the average given how much I like to tinker with settings and customizing toolbars, etc. Still agree it should be on by default along with some basic version history to undo unwanted autosaves.

bufalo1973 ,
@bufalo1973@lemmy.ml avatar

Or have a VCS by default.

AtomfriedMegaforce ,
@AtomfriedMegaforce@lemmy.world avatar

No Backup no pity

Emerald ,

No Save no pity

LinyosT , (edited )

Autosave should always be seen as a back up option that covers unexpected closes or whatever. It shouldn’t really be a thing to rely on as the main option.

You never have to worry about a document saving if you make sure it’s actually saved by manually saving before closing.

Emerald ,

Just Ctrl + S every few sentences.

valkyre09 ,

I learned to use MS Office back in the days of Word97. Things were so unstable back then we were taught to hit save every paragraph

polle ,

Lol. We came this far that forgetting to save is caused by shitty software...

HotCoffee ,

Good UX and quality of life features should prevent users from having mishaps like this. So yeah it's shitty in this regard.

generichate1546 ,

Nothing you say is wrong but best practice is to constantly save regardless of auto... we've all been fucked by this in the past.

westyvw ,

I do not like auto save. Why would it be an automatically?

yokonzo ,

Why would you not like auto save, it's literally got a negative amount of impact on you

westyvw ,

I have had documents and spread sheets ruined by auto save. Let me decide the revision history.

yokonzo ,

I guess but as a creator a return back to the dark ages of the 90s use it or lose it and hope you don't crash system is a waking nightmare to me

WalrusDragonOnABike ,

Just use version history to undo autosaves if needed. Which at least some basic level of VH to include the last manual save should be part of writer/calc/word/excel imo. But its easy to use other software to handle version history so you can do restores.

westyvw ,

Just tested in Word and revision history did no have several of the revisions a lot was lost. It is far worse in Excel. I will stick to manual saving. And I did that with an Enterprise account using business one drive.

Just as a sidenote: I am comfortable in Libre or Micsosoft Office, I have found good reasons for both over the years, and they both have auto recovery (which is the most important) and both can by autosave. But my preference is to manage my changes myself.

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