Software recommendations
Oct. 4th, 2020 01:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livCan anyone suggest to me:
A text editor / word processor that runs under Linux and handles Hebrew and bidirectional text?
A period and menstrual cycle tracking app where all the data is local only and never transmitted to the cloud?
Text editor:
Must have:
Desirable:
And more seriously, it just randomly changes the text direction mid typing, even for a block that is entirely in Hebrew. That means I have almost no control over the word order, if I try to type a sentence or a list, there's a good chance that it will randomly move the fifth word to the beginning of the sentence, or start a new line above instead of below the last item, and even copying and pasting text into the right place doesn't work. Also, whenever I save the file and reopen it, it moves a bunch of words around. Not just in position on the screen, which is annoying but I can live with it, it changes their order within sentences. Even copy-pasting from a high quality Unicode source doesn't work reliably.
My current workaround is a) reformat everything and if necessary move words back to the right place every time I open the document and whenever the weird direction bug shows up b) keep saving multiple versions as PDF, which at least doesn't mess up the formatting and word order, even if it's essentially not editable. This is really frustrating!
Period tracker
Must have:
Current solution: just a spreadsheet. This is probably good enough but if anybody has knowledge of something else more convenient that would be great. I'm happy with any business model except selling medical data, and specifically don't mind paying money for this.
I don't mind social bonding by chatting generally about related software, but I am mainly looking for actual suggestions that meet my requirements. Please don't bother telling me I should use a different operating system though. I'm not really interested in opinions about Ubuntu, Linux or Android.
Text editor:
Must have:
- Copes with Unicode Hebrew, including vowels and other punctuation.
- Allows Hebrew keyboard input rather than having to paste in one letter at a time
- Works on Ubuntu 20
- Does the right thing with mixed Roman and Hebrew text in the same document.
- Displays words in the order I type
Desirable:
- Saves in a file format that other people can open including on Windows and Mac computers
- Free Software (as in freedom, don't mind paying money for it)
- Copes with different sized text within the same document
- If not a full GUI, at least the ability to navigate through the document with a mouse and select text to delete, edit or move. I'm used to WYSIWYG but I can live without if the other features are present
And more seriously, it just randomly changes the text direction mid typing, even for a block that is entirely in Hebrew. That means I have almost no control over the word order, if I try to type a sentence or a list, there's a good chance that it will randomly move the fifth word to the beginning of the sentence, or start a new line above instead of below the last item, and even copying and pasting text into the right place doesn't work. Also, whenever I save the file and reopen it, it moves a bunch of words around. Not just in position on the screen, which is annoying but I can live with it, it changes their order within sentences. Even copy-pasting from a high quality Unicode source doesn't work reliably.
My current workaround is a) reformat everything and if necessary move words back to the right place every time I open the document and whenever the weird direction bug shows up b) keep saving multiple versions as PDF, which at least doesn't mess up the formatting and word order, even if it's essentially not editable. This is really frustrating!
Period tracker
Must have:
- Runs on Android or Linux
- Has the option to store all data offline and never ever put it on anybody else's computer. It's not like my period data is super top secret, just I feel uncomfortable with advertisers getting hold of it. So I don't need high security, just local storage.
- Not overly cutesie wootsy
- Gender inclusive if possible; I am in fact a cis woman so I'm not going to be hurt personally by being assumed to be one, but I would rather support an option that doesn't harm non-women who have periods.
- Doesn't insist on tracking, or otherwise nag me about, my weight.
- Allows me to ignore fertility-related inferences. I just want to track my periods as health data for my own use, I'm not trying to get pregnant, and in as far as I'm TTA cycle tracking isn't the major part of my strategy. I want something that reminds me I'm close to ovulation, without assuming, yay, now is a great time to have sex and make babies! nor, danger danger you might get pregnant!
Current solution: just a spreadsheet. This is probably good enough but if anybody has knowledge of something else more convenient that would be great. I'm happy with any business model except selling medical data, and specifically don't mind paying money for this.
I don't mind social bonding by chatting generally about related software, but I am mainly looking for actual suggestions that meet my requirements. Please don't bother telling me I should use a different operating system though. I'm not really interested in opinions about Ubuntu, Linux or Android.
