Results from a survey about Writer templates
LibreOffice Writer has long been a trusted tool for users worldwide, offering an open-source solution for documents. But what happens when we take a step back and look at the user experience? How do templates fit into the workflows of users, what makes a great template and where do users want LibreOffice writer to improve? To answer these questions, we conducted an in-depth survey in December 2024, gathering feedback from users to better understand their needs, pain points, and expectations. The survey responses provided valuable insights into how LibreOffice Writer can evolve to better meet the needs of its dedicated community, with an impressive 241 participants contributing their feedback.
How Templates Fit Into User Workflows
The goal of the first survey question was to understand how users utilize LibreOffice Writer (Figure 1). The analysis revealed that respondents primarily use the Writer for research papers or academic essays, resumes, business letters, and invoices, in that order.
Fig 1: Image showing analysis of question 1
One recurring theme in the feedback from question two about the difficulty of starting a document from scratch without using a template (Figure 2), was that creating a document from scratch is time-consuming and frustrating by many users. Formatting a blank page often required repeated adjustments to margins, fonts, and styles, which added significant time to their workflows.
Beyond the issue of time, many respondents expressed that creating a professional-looking document without a template was challenging. Even with their best efforts, users often felt that their documents lacked polish. Others mentioned uncertainty about how to structure their documents, especially for tasks like resumes or formal letters. Insights found in
Fig 2: Image showing analysis of question 2
What Makes a Great Template?
The survey also explored what features users value most in a template (Figure 3). One of the top priorities was a professional appearance. Users wanted their documents to look polished and well-designed.
Ease of use was another critical factor. A template should be simple to customize, allowing users to make quick adjustments without getting bogged down in complicated settings. Respondents also highlighted the importance of visual appeal and compatibility. A good template should work seamlessly across devices and versions of LibreOffice, ensuring consistency no matter where the document is opened.
Fig 3: Image showing analysis of question 3
Where Users Want LibreOffice to Improve
From the answers to questions four and five, we can learn a lot about what users want from LibreOffice Writer templates.
In question four, the word “template” appears most often, showing that users want more and better templates. Many people mentioned the need for letter templates, especially those following DIN A4 standards, which are used for formal letters. Also, the word “style” came up a lot, meaning that users want better formatting options to make their documents look nicer and more organized.
Users also expressed interest in templates for things like books and technical writing, showing a need for templates that work well for more complex documents. Words like “paragraph” and “technical” suggest they want templates that help with special types of content. Additionally, words like “default” and “page” indicate that users want templates that are easy to customize and set up right from the start.
From this, we can understand that users want templates that are easy to use and follow professional standards. They want templates that help with things like page layouts, paragraph styles, and creating more complex documents like books or academic papers.
In question five, “template” is still the most common word, showing that users still want more variety and better options. This time, “design” was mentioned more, meaning users want templates that are modern, look good, and are easy to use. They also want templates with creative designs for different purposes like business or academic use.
The word “style” comes up again, showing that users want templates with easy-to-apply formatting options. They also want templates with specific “themes“, like business or academic designs. Words like “better,” “make,” and “use” show that users are not happy with the current templates and want improvements.
This suggests that users prefer templates that are simple to use, with styles that are already set up, but they also want more flexibility to change things like fonts, designs, and layouts.
Conclusion
This survey provides clear guidance on how LibreOffice Writer can improve to better meet user needs. Templates are a key part of how people use the software, and there is significant room to make them more effective. To better serve our users, we will expand and improve LibreOffice Writer templates based on user feedback from the survey. This includes offering a wider range of templates, and focusing on both design and ease of use. We will engage the community through feedback, to ensure we create what users truly need. Continuous updates and monitoring will help us maintain relevance and meet evolving user demands, in order to make LibreOffice Writer a more reliable, versatile, and user-friendly tool.
Please let us know if you have any feedback or question. We also welcome recommendations for new templates.
