Bug: Writer won't save Column widths correctly.

mrelwood · Agent Joined: Sep 17, 2009 Posts: 11

I created a text document, wrote the text, selected all text and applied two columns using the default offset spacing (2.28" and 1.14"). I align the rows correctly, all looks fine, and I save. When I open the document again either in NeoOffice or MS Office, the column spacings has been changed to almost 1:1.

The text of the first column is now divided on several lines, and the alignment has gone all wrong. If I open the Columns dialogue, it states that I only have one column in use.

I then copied all the text, created a new document, set the columns first, pasted the text, and saved. This way the column widths are saved and loaded correctly.

The problem seems to be if I create the columns after creating the text.

James3359 · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 9:04 am Post subject:

I have had a go at reproducing the problem you describe, but was unable to.

Please could you provide an exact step by step guide to reproduce the problem, and if possible also attach a sample document in which the problem occurs. Please will you also confirm which version and patch no. of NeoOffice you are using.

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949

James3359 · Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 9:23 am Post subject:

Good thought, Patrick, especially since I missed the obvious point that the user was saving in a non-.odt file format, so I've just had a go at that too and no problem shows. My steps are

Create Document
Add text
Select all text
Choose Forum::Columns and select the two column icon (text is now formatted in two columns
Choose File::Save As and select Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP (.doc) or Microsoft Word 2007 XML (.docx)
Close document
Choose File::Open and re-open document

In either case (.doc or .docx) the file reopens without problems with the formatting.

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949

mrelwood · Agent Joined: Sep 17, 2009 Posts: 11

The steps required seems to vary, but I now have sample documents attached.

I realized that I'm using a 97/200/XP .doc template I made a long time ago with NeoOffice 2, could it have something to do with the problem?

I'm now using OpenOffice 3 patch 7 intel.

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949

This is not a bug. The problem is that you are relying on the line spacing of all fonts to be an exact number of pixels in order to force the "First row on the right..." text to spill over into the second column.

Font line height will vary between different fonts and different versions of NeoOffice's underlying OpenOffice.org code. So, if you are trying to force text into a specific column, delete the blank lines and insert a column break by positioning the cursor at the start of the text that you want to push into the next column, selecting the Insert :: Manual Break menu, selecting the Column Break radio button, and pressing the OK button.

Patrick

mrelwood · Agent Joined: Sep 17, 2009 Posts: 11

Ah, perhaps these will sample the bug better. The problem is that the column _widths_ are different when opening the document again.

The first .pdf shows how the lyrics go neatly in their lines, but on the second .pdf you see how it opens up after saving. The column divider is more to the center, so one row of text won't fit in one row anymore.

Inserting a 'manual break > column break' just created a line break.
(Edit:) Oh, now I get it, this works with excisting columns. Good tip, but it wasn't the bug I ment to show.

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949

I can now reproduce the bug. I opened you document and deleted the blank lines at the top of the second column, saved the document as .doc, closed the document, and reopened the saved document. Sure enough, blank lines were reinserted at the top of the second column.

I have some bad news: I found that this same behavior occurs in OpenOffice.org 3.0.1 (which NeoOffice 3.0 is based on) so this is definitely an OpenOffice.org bug.

A workaround is to save the document in the .odt file format. The .odt file format is OpenOffice.org's native file format and does not appear to suffer from this bug.

Unfortunately, our very limited donations only provides enough funding for one fulltime developer which limits the current scope of the NeoOffice project to keeping a stable version of OpenOffice.org running on Mac OS X. Because of these limits, fixing OpenOffice.org's many feature bugs like this is not something we are able to do.

Patrick

mrelwood · Agent Joined: Sep 17, 2009 Posts: 11

mrelwood · Agent Joined: Sep 17, 2009 Posts: 11

OpenOffice 3.1.1. doesn't have the multiple window syndrome anymore, but it has the same bug, the columns do not keep their widths when reopening this document.

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949

James3359 · Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 4:19 am Post subject:

I've had a look at this today, and I think I can solve it for this document, and I have a guess as to why the problem might have arisen.

The document you have provided shows text which extends beyond the page margins that are set for the document. These are shown by the thin grey/blue border around the edge of the document. This means that the text is offset beyond the page margins - but as far as I can tell this offset is not shown in the place where I would expect to control it namely Format::Paragraph. (I think this problem may be introduced because the Word 97/2000/XP translator doesn't know exactly how to handle the conflict between the page margins for the document and where you are asking it to put text. It may originate in the template you used.)

The process of curing the problem is in stages. First the text has to be brought back within the existing page margins. Then you need to set the page margins to allow you a wide enough space for your text in the column format. Then you need to reformat your text. Once you have resolved the conflict between page margins and where the text is to appear than you can freely save and resave in .doc format without a problem.

Here is a step by step

Select all the text which is in two-column format and choose Edit::Cut.
Delete the one remaining return character which still has the negative offset. Your cursor should now be at the beginning of a line within the page margin guides. If desired you may now insert an additional return character
Choose Edit::Paste and reinsert your text. It should now appear all within the margin guides.
Choose Format::Page and on the Page pane set your left and right margins to 0.2" (or 0.5cm). Click OK
Select all the text to be divided into two columns and choose Format::Columns
Click the icon for two columns and uncheck the AutoWidth check box.
Set the left hand column width (Column 1) to about 5.25" or 13.30cm
Hit the tab key and the width for the right hand column (Column 2) adjusts automatically. (You can also add a little spacing between the columns, but with this document no more than about 0.15" or 0.3cm)
Click OK
As a matter of good practice, select all the return characters between your two columns i.e between "varann!" and "|no band" and choose Insert::Manual Break... and insert a column break. If you do not do this then any additional lines inserted in the left hand column will push down the top of the text in the right hand column.

You can now save your document in .doc format, and when you reopen it the formatting will be preserved.

Does this work for you?

mrelwood · Agent Joined: Sep 17, 2009 Posts: 11

James, it did work. The problem seemed to be the fact that I had manually widened the margins from the ruler bars of the two-column section. Therefore the two-column section was set wider than the topic section. Creating the columns before inserting text creates only one section that can have the width adjusted, so it fixes the issue.

I find it buggy behaviour that the page margins are read only from the first row. But the bug is clearly an OpenOffice bug.
.

I find it embarrasing to say at this forum, but since the OpenOffice 3.1.1 opens up so much faster than NeoOffice 3.0 patch 7, I'm afraid I will use OpenOffice in the future.

James3359 · Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 4:58 am Post subject: