That familiar feeling? An important application to submit, a deadline that was “due yesterday”, and despite having brilliant material, a paralysing fear of the technical side of the task. You know what to show – but not how to dress it in a professional, coherent form.
That is exactly the problem a client called me with. I could hear the time pressure and stress in her voice. She urgently needed to prepare a digital portfolio for an important application, and the text editor features felt like black magic to her. She was afraid her great work would lose value to messy formatting.
The philosophy: not “do it for someone”, but “do it with someone”
I could have taken the materials, prepared the file and sent back a finished product. But that would solve only half the problem. The real challenge was not the document – it was the feeling of helplessness. So the goal was not just to do the task technically, but to walk her through the process without the nerves and hand back a sense of control.
During a short online call, step by step, we built the portfolio together. I showed every action, explaining why we do it and how she can repeat it in the future. That simple approach worked wonders – the stress began to fade, replaced by curiosity and confidence.
Knowledge that stays: mini-guides
We based everything on the free LibreOffice Writer, so there were no worries about licences. Two features turned a plain document into a professional portfolio. I left the client simple “cheat sheets” for the future:
Mini-guide 1: an automatic table of figures in LibreOffice 1. Right-click an image and choose "Insert Caption…". 2. Type the caption (e.g. "Fig. 1: Work title") and confirm. Numbering will be automatic. 3. Once all images are captioned, go to the start of the document, where the list should be. 4. From the menu choose "Insert" → "Table of Contents and Index" → "Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography…". 5. In the "Type" field change "Table of Contents" to "Table of Figures" and click "OK". The list generates itself.
Mini-guide 2: exporting to PDF From the menu choose "File" → "Export As" → "Export Directly as PDF". You can also click the PDF icon on the toolbar. It is the safest format for sending documents, because it preserves the original formatting.
The result: more than a PDF file
In under an hour, chaos turned into order. The client got not only an elegant, professionally formatted PDF ready to send – but something more valuable: practical knowledge, confidence and peace of mind. She already knew she would manage on her own next time.
This job reminded me that technical support is often much more than coding. It is the ability to listen, empathy, and explaining complex things in simple terms. My greatest satisfaction comes from knowing that technology which once intimidated becomes, in my hands, a friendly and understandable tool for someone.
