In Writer, text boxes misbehaving

English
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#1

Using LO v 7.2.5.2. (haven’t yet updated to 7.3.1.3). Working on a large Writer file, a document being edited for legal review, with dozens of text-boxes used for comments, temporary notes, questions, etc. Suddenly tonight, a few of the text boxes are intermittently “losing their minds” – the line (outline), fill, and text contents all just disappear. I can click on where I know a corner exists, and usually the “handles” appear, and I can move the corners or sides to change the dimensions of the text-box, but it remains blank. I can “grab” the entire box and move it, but it remains a ghost. If I move the cursor to another location and then try to come back to find the text-box, often even the handles have disappeared. It’s just GONE.

Sometimes I have succeeded in resurrecting a text-box, but I’m not certain how I did it, because when the same thing happens a few minutes later, I try the same steps, and…nothing. I’ve tried highlighting another text box, and then using the [Tab] key to move from box to box, throughout the 36-page document, cycling through several times, but that missing box is no longer in the “trap-line” - it’s just gone. And now, I can’t even create a NEW text-box. This is frustrating.

Has something similar happened to anyone else?

#2

Which operating system do you use?
In which file format do you save?

Can you please upload a reduced and anonymized document here, in which the problem is present? Thank you.

#3

Warning! Text boxes are not the appropriate tool to record comments, notes, questions, … These are rather side/margin notes. If it is a step in elaborating a “public” document and comment contents will not be retained in the final copy, use Comments (Insert>Comment). In collaborative work, comments are individualised by author and date, allowing to follow the discussion. One advantage of comments is they don’t disturb formatting because they are off-page.
If the comments are really side notes to appear in the final copy, use text frames which offer full formatting capability, the same as the main text flow, with styling. This is more versatile, user-friendly and powerful than what can be offered with text boxes which are mere graphical objects, not text.

#4

I find if something odd happens it is best to close without saving and re-open the document up to the previous save.

Do a Save As [a different filename] because it sounds like your document is getting corrupted somehow and the more you do the more it gets corrupted. With 2 files you have a better chance of recovering something.

If you open the Sidebar and click on Navigator you should see a drop-down field box at the top, select Drawing then click on the little green down arrow next to the box to go from one to the next. If you find a missing one, press Ctrl+X to cut it, then paste it back on the page, the anchor might have gone somewhere it shouldn’t so pasting it back on to the page might help.

I find Drawing objects a little wayward in Writer sometimes so prefer other methods such as images or frames. For your described use, Comments is the tool

#5

I’m on a PC, op sys is Windows 10 Pro. Others on the editorial team use MS Office s/w, so I save the files as type: “Word 2007-365 (*.docx)”. I cannot upload a document exhibiting the “vanished” text-boxes. For legal reasons, I couldn’t upload the file, or even a few pages of it. I can’t reproduce the problem in another file (I tried).

I WAS able to find a workaround for this problem in the document I was editing – I copied another (similar) text box, pasted it where the old one was, and edited its contents. Good enough for now.

Thanks for the very fast response. Sorry I couldn’t provide you with an example.

#6

I save the files as type: “Word 2007-365 (*.docx)”.

And that is your biggest problem.

It could be a compatibility problem with DOCX.

Basically:

Recommendation for clean working with LibreOffice when different Office programs are used.
Always create and save your files in LibreOffice and save them in ODF format (ODT, ODS, etc.).
Always keep these files as their source.
If you need other formats for distribution to partners, you can open an ODF file and save and distribute another format with ″ Save as… ″.
This way, you always have working files available in your system environment.

See:

Edit different file formats in LibreOffice

Please report the behavior as a bug in Bugzilla .

See also:

How to Report Bugs in LibreOffice Please post the link from the bug here.
To do this, edit your initial question. Thank you.

#7

Your comments and suggestions, while perhaps a bit didactic, are yet correct, I admit freely. I should have started out using Comments…but I didn’t, and our meeting with the lawyer is tomorrow morning, so I sure can’t correct my bad choice at this point. We are not collaborating on the inputs, or I would certainly have opted for Comments. We have meetings and I take notes, and then I make the editorial changes on which we have reached agreement – inserting text-boxes as an “on-the-fly” technique for noting areas where I’m not sure I’ve captured everyone’s inputs. Comments would be better, but I’m dealing with technophobes, who cannot (or will not) participate in on-line collaborative editing. Should I have the (dis)pleasure of working on another such document, I’ll use Comments.

#8

If you have enabled the backup function in LibreOffice, you could possibly use the backup file. See:

File Backup

#9

It feels that using comments would be just as good (or better) when taking notes, when you simply put cursor to whatever place you are commenting, and press Ctrl+Alt+C instead of pressing a toolbar button and drawing some rectangle, or copy-pasting then selecting and replacing. It doesn’t need any other person (however “technophobe” they were) to do anything, just the comments would all be attributed to yourself.

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