Calc row and column headers have collapsed

ephemeris · Agent Joined: Feb 09, 2009 Posts: 16

For no apparent reason, the column and row headers have collapsed to the point they are only a few pixels across. This is true for old and new spreadsheets under the latest NeoOffice 2 and 3 releases.

I assumed it was a corrupt user preference so I tried logging in as a different OS X user and got the same results.

Toggling the header off and on in the View menu does not fix the problem.

Also the sheet tabs at the bottom of the Calc window have collapsed on top of each other. Any ideas?

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

Can you try the following steps and tell us if there is any change?:

1. Quit all running versions of NeoOffice
2. Move the following folders to the Desktop or Trash if they exist. Note that "~" means your Home folder:

~/Library/Preferences/NeoOffice-3.0
~/Library/Preferences/NeoOffice-2.2
~/Library/Preferences/NeoOffice-2.x

3. Restart either version of NeoOffice.

Patrick

ephemeris · Agent Joined: Feb 09, 2009 Posts: 16

Thanks for the quick response. Unfortunately the problem is still present. (I rather expected that since I saw the same problem after logging in a different user, but it never hurts to check these things.)

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

OK. If this is a sudden change, then I suspect that some software on your machine is interfering with NeoOffice's proper operation. So can you answer the following two question?:

1. Can you tell us which version of Mac OS X is displayed when you select the Apple :: About this Mac menu?

2. Can you open the /Applications/Utilities/Terminal application, paste the following commands in the Terminal application window, press the Return key, and paste the output into this forum topic?:

ephemeris · Agent Joined: Feb 09, 2009 Posts: 16

I first saw the problem this morning under 10.5.5

I ran the combo updater for 10.5.6 to see if it would break something lose but when that didn't work I posted here.

Terminal output shows nothing interesting.

narf · The Anomaly Joined: Jan 21, 2007 Posts: 1075

The ls output indicates you have the SIMBL and Smart Crash Reports system hacks installed on your machine. Can you disable the following two system hacks?:

/Library/InputManagers/SIMBL
/Library/InputManagers/Smart Crash Reports

You can disable these system hacks by moving the above folders to your Desktop and rebooting. You can find the folders by double-clicking on the main volume icon on your desktop and, in the Finder window that appears, navigating down through the Library and InputManagers folders to find the SIMBL and Smart Crash Reports folders.

Does moving these two system hack folders and rebooting your machine fix the problem?

--fran

ephemeris · Agent Joined: Feb 09, 2009 Posts: 16

Removed, rebooted, same problem.

I do not recall any recent installs that might have caused this problem. About the only thing I can recall was PRAM reset while working on a USB port issue.

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

ephemeris · Agent Joined: Feb 09, 2009 Posts: 16

Long story short, spotlight's mdworker process was running amok apparently. I found this repeatedly in the system.log file

Feb 9 14:12:36 Sand com.apple.launchd[95] (0x10db40.Locum[330]): Exited: Terminated
Feb 9 14:13:35 Sand mdworker[268]: (Error) Import: Importer force killed!
Feb 9 14:13:35 Sand com.apple.launchd[1] (0x10bea0.mdworker[268]): Exited with exit code: 1
Feb 9 14:13:39 Sand mdworker[331]: (Error) Import: Can't parse schema file '/Applications/OpenOffice.org 2.4.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/OOoSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/schema.xml'
Feb 9 14:17:39 Sand mdworker[331]: (Error) Import: Importer force killed!
Feb 9 14:17:39 Sand com.apple.launchd[1] (0x10bea0.mdworker[331]): Exited with exit code: 1
Feb 9 14:17:43 Sand mdworker[352]: (Error) Import: Can't parse schema file '/Applications/OpenOffice.org 2.4.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/OOoSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/schema.xml'
Feb 9 14:18:19 Sand com.apple.launchd[95] ([0x0-0x1f01f].org.neooffice.NeoOffice[201]): Stray process with PGID equal to this dead job: PID 205 PPID 1 grep
Feb 9 14:20:02 Sand com.apple.launchd[95] ([0x0-0x33033].org.neooffice.NeoOffice[366]): Stray process with PGID equal to this dead job: PID 369 PPID 1 grep
Feb 9 14:20:55 Sand [0x0-0x30030].com.apple.Console[350]: Console[350]: [FM] FSResolveAliasWithMountFlags() returns #-43 for installers
Feb 9 14:20:55 Sand [0x0-0x30030].com.apple.Console[350]: Console[350]: [FM] FSResolveAliasWithMountFlags() returns #-43 for media
Feb 9 14:21:45 Sand mdworker[352]: (Error) Import: Importer force killed!
Feb 9 14:21:45 Sand com.apple.launchd[1] (0x10bea0.mdworker[352]): Exited with exit code: 1
Feb 9 14:21:49 Sand mdworker[385]: (Error) Import: Can't parse schema file '/Applications/OpenOffice.org 2.4.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/OOoSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/schema.xml'
Feb 9 14:24:44 Sand StartupAgent[161]: <StartupAgent> -[MSTStartupAgent doWillPowerOffNotification:]
Feb 9 14:24:41 Sand [0x0-0x35035].org.neooffice.NeoOffice[0]: soffice.bin[380]: [FM] Adding System Pref Items

I opened the System Preferences/Spotlight pane and dragged all volumes into the exclude list to make mdworker cease and desist and now NeoOffice is back to normal. (See the attached file to see how it was messed up)

Thank you very much for the very prompt help! Few software groups can match this sort of support.

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

That is weird that Spotlight could cause such behavior. I suspect that Spotlight was consuming excessive window manager resources which, in turn, was causing some of the Mac OS X Cocoa calls that we and Apple's Java code invoke to fail.

Patrick

waterloobob · Sentinel Joined: Apr 02, 2009 Posts: 26

I just downloaded NeoOffice 3.0 and have the same problem mentioned above. Both the row and column headers are but a few pixels. Also the worksheet tabs are compressed.

I rely on Spotlight a lot so I'm reluctant to try that solution.

Just wondering if anyone had uncovered another fix.

Thanks.

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

If you are seeing Spotlight run amok like ephemeris did, you may want to try temporarily disabling Spotlight by dragging all your volumes in the System Preferences application's Spotlight panel, wait a few minutes for CPU usage to drop down to normal levels, restart NeoOffice, and then remove your volumes from the System Preferences application's Spotlight panel.

Does that work for you?

Patrick

waterloobob · Sentinel Joined: Apr 02, 2009 Posts: 26

Ho-lee, it worked. Thanks for your help.

But seriously, how bizarre is that?

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

OPENSTEP · Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 7:34 pm Post subject:

Also note that in the above console logs, the error mdworker seems to be reporting is from the OpenOffice.org Spotlight plugin, not the NeoOffice Spotlight plugin. You may want to try removing one or the other. Spotlight does not let two plugins handle the same file types, adn I suspect both are claiming the same oasis UTIs.

ed