Bug : Libre office WRITER looses text box color after saving

English
#1

Hello guys,
I’m litteraly pulling my hair off on this one.
All of a sudden, I keep loosing my text box colors (for my titles & paragraph headers) AFTER saving. If I don’t save, they are all here. I can export as pdf (using windows print) and it will have the correct colors on the PDF. Yet if I save, close, reopen the odt. Some of the headings loses their colors, randomly, not always the same.

It’s been working fine for several months working on this project, recently as my document got bigger, i’ve noticed it happen : After RE-fixing my titles in red / some text bubble in light blue, some paragraph header in light gray. They just go randomly go back to transparent after save. Text bubbles that are “arranged to front” also go back behind images.

i’ve spent several hours trying to fix this issue (saving in all possible formats, creating smaller documents with less content in them, etc)… I am at my wit’s end !

Here’s the link to my document if anyone can help! Also some screen shot so you can see how it should be.

broken 1
broken 1691×1047 459 KB

Thank you

#2

Please upload your sample file directly here. It opens with some online Word for me but not with the LibreOffice. I think the document has been converted by the OneDrive/Online Word somehow.

For example: ODF1.3 to ODF1.2
.
Which version of the LibreOffice it was created?
.
Please upload the original file too. (I hope you have an original one on your PC what was not touched by OneDrive nor the Online Word…)

2 Likes
#7

Hello,
I did try to create a reduced sample version of my document (below 4mb). It was actually at 3.5mb and the forum still did not let upload. It suggested for me to use a cloud service. But I does look wierd from the onedrive editor. Normally there’s some option for you to download the original odt file ?

#3

@nellmusic
Thank you for the sample file.
On page 3 I added colors to the 2 problem objects, saved the document and opened from anew. The colors remained. Probably you could rename LibreOffice’s user profile and check with a new one if the bug still is present…

In general…
You use LibreOffice Writer as a DTP app, not as a text processing app. Therefore there exist too many objects (text boxes; drawing objects with added text…) which cause a waggly stability. Most of the images are anchored to character and not as character which is much stabler. If you had used simple HeadingN styles the TOC could have been generated on a few mouse clicks…
On request I could give some more examples for problem points (e.g. footer, header…).

I’m so sorry for you that an ingenious musician works on a text processing program as an amateur… For some advice check parts of https://openoffice-uni.org for better editing a profound document. The time you invest in investigation is not lost but pays off in easier and faster editing.

Cheers and godspeed!

1 Like
#4

This is an addition to @Grantler’s general remark.


Writer is intended to format contents which has some sequential reading ordering (e.g. the plot in a novel or the development of the argumentation in a scientific or legal paper). This is called “text flow”. Optionally, you can have “out-of-flow” material such as footnotes, illustrations, drawings, … which are not direct part of the topic but help to understand it. They can be skipped when reading without changing the meaning. They are put into “objects” which are outside the text flow as frames (and not drawing objects like text boxes as you do because these are even more alien to text flow then frames).

Your book exhibit a logical progression, therefore there is a logical flow of ideas which fit the Writer abstract model. This progression can be sketched through an outline, a skeleton, made of the lesson titles. Such an outline is a set of paragraphs styled with Heading n family. Why would you use this family? Because it allows to automatically create a table of contents which is guaranteed to always keep in sync with contents, whatever changes you make.

As an example of potential distortions: your chosen fonts are not installed on my computer; they were substituted for others which have not the same metrics. All your text shifted and ended up messy.

You opted for a 2-column layout but apparently you don’t master Writer features and you thought using text boxes would solve the difficulties. This is doubly faulty: formatting possibilities are much poorer in text boxes than is standard paragraphs; font substitution expansion caused doubling the number of lines in your boxes because you managed manually line wrap.

Globally speaking, it looks like you don’t understand the difference between a paragraph break and a line break and use them interchangeably which contributes to create a mess and make formatting tuning quite impossible. You try to position your elements with spaces and tabs which is impossible to control because their width depend on implicit default and selected font. Also, because of your excessive (and faulty) use of text boxes, you resort to empty paragraphs to position vertically your objects. I could also mention “positioning” manual page breaks (here I use “positioning” as opposed to “logical” or “semantic” breaks).

If you want ad hoc advice on how to handle “professionally” your work, contact me on private mail. Your book has a (highly) complex design but I feel this can be handled by Writer within the limits of its flow model without the need to go for DTP. (which would be very tedious for ~50 pages).

1 Like
#5

@nellmusic: I also changed some problematic parts and saved and no problems.
Here is small example with TOC, 2-columns design and table design. I also resized images to smaller sizes (to get really smaller size of final ODT).
You also use bitmap images for musical diagrams etc., I believe better is to use objects from Draw or SVGs. I use MuseScore for music sheets and it is possible to export it to SVG, and then open SVG in Draw, Convert to Curves, and complete it.
“Draw objects” are shown in example of my own script for guitar :slight_smile: (but the fact is, it is generated via macro in Writer)
example-design-with-2columns-or-tables.odt (211.4 kB)

2 Likes
Search/Replace text only when the parastyle is set to "Chord" via Macro <Solved>
#6

@KamilLanda good job! You clearly demonstrate the two approaches: multi-column section and table. The first one is ideal for “flowing text”; the second one is good for parallel independent flows though it trickier to cope with page breaks.
Just a remark: your “guitar schemas” are anchored As character but I feel they should probably be worked on and grouped in Draw so that you insert only one (or a few) drawings into Writer to lower the stress on Writer and control location in a more “abstract” way.

#10

@ajlittoz It is more complicated with “guitar schemas” :slight_smile:. It is generated by macro in hidden window of Writer and copied to current document.
generating-the-GitarSkript.mp4.RENAMED.ODT (755.3 kB) (rename ODT to MP4)

The anchor As Character is default, because I need to change the margins of page. I tried to set left margin of page to 1cm, and 1cm for right margin → and it was OK for A4. But I discovered I didn’t see it well, so I had to increase the Zoom to 112% for better visibility. And then 2nd problem occured, it wasn’t possible to put all diagrams to one page, and it was uncomfortable to turn A4 to 2nd page, so I printed both pages to A3. I used 2-columns layout for A3 (landscape), but better was to increase the space between columns, and it changed the area of page → and main problem is I want to have the left-hand schema joined with right-hand schemas, or in other words → I don’t want to have the aloned left-hand schema at the end of line. So I use all schemas anchored As Character now, and use Shift+Enter to separate the lines. But I think I will be able to make some grouping of left-hand schema with 1st right-hand schema.
You are right the stress for Writer is big :-), Spanish romance is small, but with J.S.Bach - Air it took the seconds when I did some modifications.
But main problem in these days is, I have main laptop in servis (dead display and broken cables) and backup laptop is small, slower and without my special keyboard tickets, so I mostly do only Ctrl+CV to examples now :slight_smile:

#17

Here is example with objects in Draw.
notes-range-for-guitar.odg (170.6 kB)

You can select it and CtrlCV to Writer. You can change sizes of object in Writer and the words in textboxes will automatically change their sizes. Description how to set Styles for textboxes to get automatically resized text in: Problem with odg file inserted into odt file - #9 by EarnestAl

Reading the manuals is very good, but LibreOffice has very large documentation :-). Maybe you will publish your book in current version with bitmap images and "strange hand“ layout, but who says it must be final version? Did you contemplate to translate your book also to other language than French? The remake to the correct Styles and vector graphic can look difficult, but it is not so hard :-). But the fact is the hard thing could be to make all images and graphic in one style, and not mix the different images from more authors.

#8

Thanks for all the reply and the time you guys spent trying to pinpoint the issue. Altough, we did not find the exact solution to the faulty text box, it is my understanding that inevitably, the bulkier my document gets, it is bound to happen with libreoffice. I plan to make roughly 20 to 40 pages document for my students in the future.
-I will look into this DTP software which is the 1st time I hear about it.
-Also, can someone describe the best practise (steps) to import my images/schemas to make them lightweight, lossless quality (they will eventually be printed by students or watched online on my website)

thanks

#9

Since you’re using an answer and not a comment, I assume you consider this topic now closed. You took some decision about it (which one?) and expect no more help/advice from us.

Regarding your graphics material:

  • pictures: the “quality” of photos depend on the printing process
    If you’re going to use consumer-grade printers, photos in 300dpi will be enough. You can resize and resolve them with programs like Gimp (free) or Photoshop (commercial). If you’re book goes to professional printshops with high-end typesetters, you needs perhaps higher density, like 1200dpi though offset process is much lower.
  • drawings: redesign them “vectorial”
    You can do this in Draw. Shapes can be resized without the risk of getting blurred or pixelated. In addition, vector format is usually way lighter than the equivalent bitmap. Bitmaps cannot be resized except for “special” factors (integer multiples) but they get either blurry or pixelated. Avoid extreme JPEG compression: it is lossy and creates artefacts on edges when compression is too high.
  • for website: prefer size optimisation over quality
    Your images won’t be looked with a magnifying glass. Screen density is in the order of 100dpi. There is then no need to send very detailed pictures. Web browsers usually know how to display SVG drawings. This is a suitable format for the net.
#11

@nellmusic I use XnView for edit the images like JPG, PNG etc, it is free for non-commercial use. It can Batch conversion of sizes etc.
DPI of images isn’t so important for bitmap images in Writer, because mostly you set the sizes of images in cm, so it does the “conversion” of size that “ignores” DPI. But I use 110 DPI for JPGs, then Libre imports and shows me the images in the same size on monitor like XnView.
So I looked to your document for the size of image in Libre (it was something like 8,7x6,6cm), opened this image in XnView, set DPI to 110 and converted to this size in cm (you can switch to pixels to see the sizes in px for batch conversion), saved, and pasted to Libre.

#12

oops, sorry, it seems after doing one reply earlier this morning, I could not reply some more. Only button I could find was saying : suggest solution or something like that.

Well here’s my solution for the time being : as I was waiting for some reply yesterday, I tried different alternatives and was able open up my odt file into WPS office. It was pretty much intact after conversion (maby 5 min of editing) and it seems to handle the workload (schemas, images, etc) very fine with no saving problems/crashing.

I know in an ideal world : I would read the libre office manual and become well acquainted with all the it’s workflow. At the end of the day tho, I’m lacking time as a freelancer (building a website, video editing for the guitar lessons, etc, etc. So libre’s office is pretty far up in the priority atm.

I had found a way to work that was satisfactory to me and pretty fast paced (granted not the “proper” way). Yet my 50 pages guitar book was edited and pretty much “ready to ship” when this bug arrived.

Just wish the software could handle it but of well, if it’s not designed for that. I understand. Only thing I have yet to try is the user profile suggestion for libre office.

#13

Large files with drawings and images don’t normally have problems. Using vector drawings can offer considerable space savings, some extensions might be useful, like these with a search for “music”, Extensions » Extensions

Losing the line and fill of a text box is not a usual LibreOffice thing. If the OneDrive editor chose to resave then it probably would only save that which Microsoft Word or docx support, the rest would be dropped. Always work with one suite only.

#14

I never worked with the onedrive editor. Just used the cloud to work on both my laptop and pc using libre office. It worked great for several months until the corruption arrived. I did try to duplicate the file outside of onedrive to do so some tests, and the saving problem occured even with no onedrive involved.

#15

@nellmusic We still have no idea about your OS and LO version.

Regarding sharing files between your laptop and desktop, why do you bother to go through the cloud? Your files become “public” which is not always a good idea (re-read the conditions of use: many providers trade free cloud storage for the right to use stored files any way they wish). You could turn your desktop into a file server or, more simply, allow file sharing.

Could you better describe the context in which the corruption occurred?

#16

When I clicked on your link, it opened your document in the editor. The editor saves automatically every few seconds, see What is AutoSave? - Microsoft Support which also says you can turn off autosave

Just my clicking on your link and it opening in the editor instead of offering the download will have saved it using the Office 365 editor.

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