Text File Statistics
Linguist: A Statistical Extension for LibreOffice Writer

Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash
Linguist offers writers interesting, valuable data to help them make the best of their words.
LibreOffice Writer includes features for both the home user’s short files and a publisher’s lengthy manuscripts. However, a professional writer would benefit from statistical tools to answer to such questions as: How often does each word appear? What is the average sentence length? How readable is a passage? Needing such information for a book-length manuscript, I turned to LibreOffice’s extension site, confident that among the hundreds of extensions available I would find at least one that would give me such statistics. Within seconds I had found Linguist, which was able to give me the raw data I needed, although without any filters or more than a summary in a LibreOffice file.
Linguist is installed like every other LibreOffice extension: Download the extension, open Writer |Tools | Extensions to find and add it, and Linguist will be available the next time you reboot Writer. Just be sure that you download the 1.5.1 release at the bottom of Linguist's page rather than use the Download Latest button at the top of the page, which does not do what it says. When you reboot, you will find that, unlike many extensions that add a menu item or a toolbar icon seemingly at random, Linguist adds its own easily found menu. If, like me, you are not fond of extra menus, you can leave Linguist disabled in Tools | Extension and only enable it when needed during revisions.
Linguist’s menu lists four self-explanatory items. Selecting any one generates a Writer document with its results displayed one per line. The analysis is rapid, generating results for a 400-page document in less than 20 seconds on a modern desktop system. However, you may prefer to work chapter by chapter rather than with an entire document in order to minimize the scrolling as you work.
[...]
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
Danish Ministry of Digital Affairs Transitions to Linux
Another major organization has decided to kick Microsoft Windows and Office to the curb in favor of Linux.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.