OW Arctic uses LibreOffice, which is available for most operating systems. The original version of the spreadsheets only supported Windows. but now Linux and Mac are supported too. For the most part, everything will function the same as Windows and the information provided in the Transcribing Guide will still apply. This guide points out a few differences. (Note: Although some newer versions of ChromeBook can run Linux and LibreOffice, setting it up is rather involved and there are many idiosyncrasies. However, it is possible and a future guide will provide help for those adventurous people who want to attempt it.)
We do not have a Mac available for testing. If you are a Mac user, please post anything you find that differs from the information provided here, any problems you encounter, or any other information you think might be useful to other Mac users.
Installing LibreOffice
Do not follow the instructions for installing LibreOffice that are included in Installing and Setting Up, however the rest of that presentation is fine for Linux and Mac users.
Mac
Go to this site for installation instructions, Installation Instructions / OS X..
Linux
It is highly recommended that you use the version of LibreOffice that is provided by your Linux distribution. It will be optimized for your version of Linux and may include bug fixes specific to your distribution. Many Linux distributions already have LibreOffice included by default. If not, install it from your distribution's repository.
If your repository does not include LibreOffice, follow the instructions here, Installing LibreOffice on Linux to install it.
Directory path names
Linux and Mac use a different format for directory path names than Windows. When setting up a new spreadsheet you will need to specify directories in the Setup sheet indicating where you want image files to be downloaded and for saving the results of your transcription work. Be sure to enter the directories using the normal format for your operating system. You must create the directories. The spreadsheet will not create them for you if they do not exist.
Here are examples where a user (Sam) has created the directory /OldWeather for the spreadsheet, and the sub-directories /Data and /Images below /OldWeather.
Linux
| User Output: | /home/Sam/OldWeather/Data |
| Images: | /home/Sam/OldWeather/Images |
Mac
For the Mac you need to use the POSIX path name rather than the traditional Mac path.
| User Output: | /Users/Sam/OldWeather/Data |
| Images: | /Users/Sam/OldWeather/Images |
You can verify that the directory path names are valid by clicking on the orange buttons below where you entered them. If valid path names have been entered, the buttons will open the directory in the default file explorer for your system.
Bulk downloads and curl (optional)
Bulk downloading is an optional feature that will download up to 70 log page image files at once so that you don't have to wait for files to download each time you are ready to move on to the next page. The Bulk Download button is located among the buttons in the upper left of the Log Page.
To use the Bulk Download option, the curl application must be installed on your computer. If not, you must install it prior to using this option. Most Linux and Mac computers do not have curl installed.
Linux and Mac
First, enter this command at the command prompt in a terminal window to check whether curl is already installed on your computer.
Code: Select all
curl --versioncurl 7.58.0 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) libcurl/7.58.0 OpenSSL/1.1.0g zlib/1.2.11 libidn2/2.0.4 libpsl/0.19.1 (+libidn2/2.0.4) nghttp2/1.30.0 librtmp/2.3
Release-Date: 2018-01-24
If you get a message back saying that the file was not found, you will need to install curl.
Linux
Install curl from your distribution's repository. If you need help, this site How to Install curl and php-curl on Linux provides instructions for most of the common Linux distributions. The site includes instructions for installing php-curl, but that app is not needed by our spreadsheets. Installing php-curl is optional.
Mac
This site Install curl on Mac OSX provides instructions for installing curl. Post a message below if the information at this site does not work for you and/or you know of a site with better installation instructions.
Shortcut keys
As you gain experience transcribing from the logs, there are shortcut keys that will make the task easier and faster. Instructions for installing the shortcut keys are included in the How-To Hints, Tips and Tricks.
Known Linux LibreOffice Bug
The Location Wizard has color backgrounds for some of the text entry fields. There is a known bug in the Linux version of LibreOffice that causes the colors to not be displayed. However, the functionality of the Location Wizard is not affected by the missing colors and it still works fine with Linux. This bug appears to be fixed in the most recent versions of LibreOffice.