Documents suddenly have broken formatting?

[ERE]

Hi there, to whoever may be around. I’ve used LO for document creation for a number of years. Made many complex documents with images, borders, fonts, and etc. carefully built for my needs. Been great for years.

Until now.

As of last week, any document I want to open with any kind of formatting beyond standard paragraphs has been majorly bunked up. It’s like… everything gets bigger, irrespective of everything else. Font gets larger, so that text that fit neatly on one line is now too large and has to cut itself off onto two different lines. Text centered between images A and B now overlaps with both images. Borders get bigger and start overlapping with neighboring borders. Spacing between things gets bigger so that a space with two “paragraphs” of text suddenly has the lower text much further down the page. Etc. EVERYTHING gets bigger. (Except for embedded images…) It’s completely screwed up a large number of documents I use and made them unusable.

I’ve attached an image above. The left side is the “correct” side. This is the thumbnail as seen in the “open a document” window. The right side is the current side. It’s what it looks like currently in Libre Office.

I checked and there was no update between the last time the documents opened correctly and now. Still, I tried rolling back to a previous update and no change in results. The thumbnails of the files, as-saved, still show the file correctly (though very small). But when opening the files, they’re screwy. I haven’t changed any settings or profile in the program. This happens to new files/edits that were just made in the last week or so, as well as older files/versions of files that are many years old. These are all files that I’ve used and edited/opened multiple times in the past without issue.

I have not saved any document since discovering this. Every time it’s close > do not save changes to [document].

To be clear, this is just one document included in the photo for example purposes, but it has happened to all of my Writer documents with custom formatting. Most of them are little more than a nuisance - formatting changes in the same way but there was enough white space to not matter, or to require very little correction to put to rights. Other documents are like the pictured example where the entire thing is basically ruined and I’ve lost dozens of hours of work. There are no problems with my calc documents at this time, but I’m also worried problems may arise there.

Is there a way to make documents open exactly like the thumbnail preview? Is there a way to easily return a document to the proper/correct formatting? Failing that, if I have to rebuild everythign basically from scratch, is there a way that I can save/backup/etc. my documents in the future that can avoid this problem?

[EarnestAl]

Click on the larger text, if you look in the font field, is the font name shown in italics? If it is, it means that the font used cannot be found by LibreOffice and a substitute font, which may have different metrics, has been used to display the document.

Installing the missing font(s) should resolve the issue

[Edit]
I would hazard a guess that the font for the main heading, Quick Start Guide, is supposed to be Arial Narrow

[Wanderer]

@ERE

Is there a way to make documents open exactly like the thumbnail preview?

No. It is just an image saved together with your text. It could even be changed or removed. There is no information in the image for LibreOffice itself. It serves only as quick way to display a “preview” for file-mangers or LO itself.

@ERE

Is there a way to easily return a document to the proper/correct formatting?

My guess is the same as @EarnestAl Start checking fonts. Were your “changed” documents created with Win11/your current environment or maybe with previous Win10?
.
Other things to try: Try to restart LibreOffice in “Safe-mode”. If problems vanish then there is a problem in your user-profile. (Then archive the old profile and create a new one).
.
For Windows there are also portable installs (and I use the GUI for parallel installs of multiple versions) So maybe you could also try an older version to compare results.

@ERE

is there a way that I can save/backup/etc. my documents in the future that can avoid this problem?

I hope you already know how to backup files, as this is an essential skill for most people.
.
To have always(?) a printable version I recommend to archive exported pdfs with embedded fonts. Even this requires caution: Some fonts don’t allow embedding and - depending on versions - some features like transparencies are not allowed in PDF/A.
But this would not give you a version, wich you can edit easily.
.
Maximum security: Create a virtual environment of the setup you used to create the document, so you can use this with VM-ware, Virtual Box or QUEMU…
.
The problem is: LO relies on the OS for fonts. So changes there will affect the visual appearance on computers. On Linux we see sometimes problems, when flatpack-installs don’t “see” the same fonts than regular installs.

[mikekaganski]

Here you see the definite difference in fonts:

[ajlittoz]

@EarnestAl’s guess is probably the cause of the problem: a missing font in your OS.

However your images suggest that you are your documents are not in standard Writer targets. They don’t look like “flow documents”, i.e. documents where an argumentation develops along a flow (or ordered sequence) of text and Writer allocates pages according to need. In other words, location of text within the page in not really important as long as it is consistent and various constraints are fulfilled.

On the contrary, your documents seems to be a DTP (desktop publishing) one where layout of {independent] elements in the page is the primary concern.

You give no detail about the current “nature” of the document. Are you using frames or text boxes? Within the “standard”’ text parts, do you apply styles or direct formatting? It seems you have arrows to visually connect items. Note that drawing objects (text boxes, arrows, …) have difficulties to interact with text ant this ends up with what you experience when text changes (size, spacing, …).

You didn’t mention the save format. Only .odt guarantees stability with such complex layouts.

All in all, my best advice is: drop Writer and consider a real DTP program.

[ERE]

@EarnestAl
Thank you for that suggestion. All of the fonts used in the original document (and all my documents) are default Fonts that I did not install independently, just those that came pre-installed on either my desktop or LO. Something like “Arial Narrow” would probably be right.

Perhaps a Windows update removed my fonts? Or messed them up some other way? This would explain why LO update didn’t match the time period, and I was looking in the wrong direction.

I have checked and the font name is indeed in Italics. But it is listed as “ATX_N”. I do not know what this is, and a quick google search for “ATX_N font” or “ATX font” yields no good results. Any ideas?

[ERE]

@Wanderer

No. It is just an image saved together with your text.

Yes, I am aware the screenshot is not a rendering of the file itself. I didn’t mean to imply that. Just… maybe “open it with the exact same formatting that was in place when the file was saved and the thumbnail was generated” might be a better way to word my frustration.

My guess is the same as @EarnestAl

I do think @EarnestAl is correct after checking my fonts and finding they are ALL labelled as “ATX_N” and italicised. And they did say that italics means a font not installed.

Were your “changed” documents created with Win11/your current environment or maybe with previous Win10?

As far as my current environment, as I said I have been using LO for many years and some of my documents were made in W10 while others were made after the update to W11 more than a year ago. No problems arose during the update from W10 to W11.

I hope you already know how to backup files, as this is an essential skill for most people.

Yes I do know how to backup files. For example I have 2 different versions of this document used as an example saved in 4 different places. Roughly the same is true of all my important documents. But EVERY one of those files from every source opened broken. I checked that before searching for answers here. I just wasn’t aware if there was some other file format or saving method that would avoid documents getting broken like this. Again, perhaps I’m not wording my questions properly. Still, archive printable PDFs with embedded fonts seems to have answered my question, even allowing for the caveats you provided.

[ERE]

@ajlittoz
Honestly… I’m not sure how to answer your questions. I’ll do the best I can. Please forgive my lack of using/understanding proper terminology.

They don’t look like “flow documents”, i.e. documents where an argumentation develops along a flow (or ordered sequence) of text and Writer allocates pages according to need. In other words, location of text within the page in not really important as long as it is consistent and various constraints are fulfilled.

I… guess? Not entirely sure I understand what you’re saying but there are various different documents. I chose this specific one because it was the most obviously “messed up” from a glance. Other examples include a page with 2 paragraphs, 1 image, and 10 bullet points. On the original it all fit neatly into the page with a nice 1" margin on all sides. After the issue, the bulletpoints overflowed so that 8/10 were on the page and 2/10 were on a new page.

I would say, in response to “location of text within the page in not really important as long as it is consistent and various constraints are fulfilled”, that I am an amateur doing this and learning/teaching myself as I go with no formal education or proper education in such a subject. I figure out a way to make my document(s) work how I need them to, and then save them and want them to stay that way until and unless I change them. I don’t know if that makes them “flow” or not. Sorry.

On the contrary, your documents seems to be a DTP (desktop publishing) one where layout of {independent] elements in the page is the primary concern.

In this specific case, layout of all elements, including borders, text, and images, working in tandem is what’s important. It’s kinda necessary to fit everything in one place, as it’s a lot of densely packed information. For some simpler examples (i.e. the bullet points page mentioned above), overall layout is unimportant as long as it all fits onto 1 page. You could decrease the size of the first half of the page (paragraphs) by 15% and increase the bullet points by the same margin, as long as it all fits neatly into the page.

You give no detail about the current “nature” of the document. Are you using frames or text boxes? Within the “standard”’ text parts, do you apply styles or direct formatting? It seems you have arrows to visually connect items. Note that drawing objects (text boxes, arrows, …) have difficulties to interact with text ant this ends up with what you experience when text changes (size, spacing, …).

That’s valid. Again, emphasizing that this applies to the document on example and not all of my documents which were messed up.
The blue bordered areas are called “frames”. I got them via “insert > frame > frame”. Then options I selected were “wrap > through” and “borders > style > [double line]”, “borders > color > blue” and “borders > size > 7.5”. I don’t see any other changes to those frames from default. They were placed in specific locations by clicking/dragging, and sized on an individual basis. Each “frame” contains it’s own distinct “area” that accepts text/images, so that any text/images inserted into it moves with the frame if I were to drag the frame elsewhere on the page.
All images in the document are set to “wrap > through”, and set to “arrange > send to back” so that any text will be written over them.
The blue banner at the top is simply an image I made in MSPaint (honestly, most of the images are a simple thing I made in MSPaint, barring a couple I found on a free-use website) with the text that goes on top set to white color.
All text, both inside and outside of any “frames” are simply aligned using center/left/right, and then using spaces/tabs to get it exactly where I want it. Most set to “automatic” black color except in the instances where it’s set to white to contrast when being written over an image.

In my other affected documents, similar procedures are usually used. Always “wrap > through” every element that supports such so that it doesn’t mess up my document if I move it 1mm, always “arrange > send to back” every element that should not appear over any text, and using only elements that I can find in the “insert > [whatever]” menus, and simple images that I usually design in MSPaint to fit my needs.

I hope that adequately answers your questions about “nature” and “styles” and “formatting”.

You didn’t mention the save format. Only .odt guarantees stability with such complex layouts.

Yes, all these files are saved in .odt format.

[ERE]

@EarnestAl

Okay, after taking some time to respond to everyone, I went and downloaded “Arial Narrow” font pack. Installed it, opened the file and selected all, chose “Arial Narrow” as the font, and… success?

It fixed about 95% of the problems. Still slightly formatted wrong and some things need a bit of wiggling to put to rights, but a manageable task instead of basically having to remake the whole document. On my simpler documents it fixed them at least close enough to the original that it doesn’t matter, and I only have a few as complex as this example. I’ve only tested a few documents out of the many affected, but confident this solution will work equally well on all of them!

I’m marking your answer as the “solution” and thank you SO VERY MUCH for not only being smart enough to know the issue, but even identifying the correct font (or one close enough) that it can salvage my work!

I wish I knew why the correct font disappeared from my installed fonts so I could avoid this happening ever again, but I will take @Wanderer’s advice and start saving “PDFs with embedded fonts” on the more complex documents, just in case.

Thanks to everyone who contributed your time to helping with this!