v5 Document profile malfunction on v6

Working in LibreOffice 6.2 on a Thinkpad x201 running Linux Mint 17 I can create new writer documents, save them and the cursor is held at the position last used when I reopen them. But if I load a document created under v5x then the cursor goes to some random position rather than to the last position. I’ve followed the procedures from other posts to set the user data, but to no effect.

The position of the cursor is stored, for if I do a shift F5 then the correct position is found.

Is there a hack I can do to the file to make it perform as if it was created under v6? Copy and paste is not an option, since I am a novelist and the files (typically 220 pages and 80Kb words) use a number of styles, fonts and other enhancements.

LibreOffice reads last position from a document, and goes to it only if user data in profile is not empty and is the same as the user data stored in the file. So, not only should you fill the user data, but also you should make sure you fill it like in older version.

But when LO sees that user data doesn’t match, it should stay on the first page, not go to “some random position”. That part of your question looks strange.

Still trying to sort this out, as I have a dozen books that it affects. I’ve opened a file with archiver and examined the settings.xml file,(which apparently holds the current cursor position) but cannot see a cursor position tag. I’m beginning to wonder if the method of inserting images into a book is a factor.

Are you sure that it’s the cursor position that goes to a random position? I ask because I suppose it possible that cursor is actually right, but loading the document incrementally shifts view from the correct cursor position; so if you press an arrow key after loading the document, your view would jump back to the correct position?

Hi Mike. Thanks for your thoughts. It is weird. The cursor goes to a position a number of pages before the last position before a save. If I more the cursor key it behaves as expected, ie up/down/left/right and if I type text then it goes in at the displayed cursor position. But if I press Shift F5, even after typing a few words, it goes to the position when last saved. It’s the same for several files created under v4 and 5. I’m trying to examine the stored xml tags in the file, but can’t find where the position is stored. It’s not in settings.xml.

Tested on several files, and the offset seems to get greater the further into a file the cursor was left. Also when loading a file two or three pages are shown in succession before it finally settles.
Is there a writeup somewhere as to where the user data is stored in the document. I’m familiar with hex editors and hacking html.