LibreOffice file losing sections of text

English
#1

I hope that someone with more expertise than me can help with this strange problem.
I have a file saved in LibreOffice Writer - .odt suffix - which fails to save properly.

It is in six columns and several pages long and has been opened and occasionally modified in the past a few times without any problem. However, just today the file will not open properly, missing a few paragraphs at one place.
I have tried to correct the omissions and saved it as usual to my hard drive and also to Google Drive for temporary backup, but the same problem reoccurs. Other files still open correctly.

I have also downloaded the latest version of LibreOffice Writer, but the problem still occurs, so I assume this must be something wrong with my computer. I don’t want to try to change other files of the same type in case they also fail to reopen properly.

Any advice would be gratefully accepted.

#2

How did you lay this out? With a table? Or by forcing the page style to 6 columns (newspaper-like where one column fills up before the next one)? If the file is not too large, attach it. In case you consider it private, mail it to me with a private message (click on the icon left of my name).

I.e. which version ? 25.2.3.2 ? For which OS? It is simpler to paste data from Help>About LO. You have a button to copy information into the clipboard.

#3

Thank you.

Laid out by forcing the page style to 6 columns (newspaper-like where one column fills up before the next one)
I’ll try to mail it to you. Sorry, it won’t accept an .odt file.

Yes, 25.2.3.2 (x86_64) I assume for Windows.

#4

.odt is among the allowed file extensions. Have you tried to attach the file? Click on the tool with an icon looking like a mail basket with an up arrow (7th from left in the message toolbar). Alternatively, drag and drop the file onto the message area.

#5

I hope this works - no icon like a mail basket

Köln 25-1.odt (98.7 KB)

Thanks for your help. Please let me know if this doesn’t work.

#6

Just a quick feedback before thorough analysis.

Your document is badly structured. Though “only” 12 pages longs, it makes my computer rather show on scrolling. The main cause is total direct formatting and wrong choice of structure.

It looks like your data is not “newspaper 6-column” but rather “tabular by essence” as you try to synchronise columns with empty paragraphs. It is even possible that it is two 3-column information side by side.

IMHO, it would be easier if you had several tables (spread out in rows and columns would resolve the “sync issue”). Having several separate tables allow easy inter-table headings (line Hauptorgel at start or Querhausorgel later on).

To improve performance, you should apply dedicated paragraph styles to the various logically different data. Inside paragraphs, character styles allow for variations.

If your data is really newspaper-like, using separate sections (6-column inside a 1-column page) to segregate descriptions of different devices could be an alternative.

Better suggestions can be made when I know what you want to describe in your document. It is probably better to discuss this on private mail. I’ll initiate the channel to facilitate the task.

#7

Thank you. I am very grateful for your advice.
The Roman numerals and other numerical entries are common entries in organ specifications, so I assume that the use of them isn’t a problem. However, I’m not sure how I should alter the layout now. I simply selected columns initially and set that to six. As for the vertical dividing lines, some of these (apparently randomly) change their density as I change the ‘zoom’ setting at the bottom right. 140% makes them all of the same density.
Regarding the layout, I would like to list these entries in columns as that is how they are usually done. Is there some way of changing the settings but retaining the layout in six columns? As for separate tables, I could do that for each separate page if that helps, though I’m not sure how to accomplish that. Do I set up each page as a separate file perhaps, and then somehow join them together?
As for dedicated paragraph styles, I don’t know how to do that or, for that matter, what dedicated styles I should choose as I’d still like the overall layout and appearance to remain if possible, as that is a commonly presented style. Character styles, if I understand correctly, are simply the use of what is available on my keyboard: numbers, letters capital or lower-case, etc., and paragraph styles are simply new paragraphs within each column where necessary to separate the lists in places.
I should explain that all of these entries are simply lists of the various ‘stops’ (voices) in the design with names and ‘speaking lengths’ (in feet).
If you can help me further, I should be very grateful. I don’t particularly need this to be done by private mail, as there is nothing secretive about it. I don’t honestly imagine that anyone is going to take advantage of my ideas, and if they did I would actually be very pleased!
Perhaps I should add that none of the other similar lists (in columns) I have are still presented as they were originally, though to be honest I have avoided trying to make any alterations in case I create even more problems.
Thanks again for the advice.

#8

I have just noticed that when I opened this file again, the right hand (6th) column of the second page is now completely blank and the beginning of the first column of the following page has lost most of its content. This wasn’t the case when I opened the file earlier. Very strange.

#9

Could you tell me which data is lost? My OS is Fedora (Linux) 42 with KDE Plasma desktop. Fonts are not the same as under W$. Nevertheless, I think all your data is present. Tell precisely which data I should look at to see if it there or not.

The reason why I switched to private mail is: tuning your document needs many trials with feed back. This is surely boring for the majority of visitors. It is better to add one final answer at end with all the conclusions, avoiding the need to scroll through the development.

1 Like
#10

Sorry to persist with this, but I have just noticed something which may help.
I went to the beginning of the remaining text, following the area of the preceding page where text had disappeared, and clicked ‘delete’, then ‘edit’ and ‘undo new paragraph’. The layout then returns to how it all was originally; the missing sections being returned.
This is very strange, and clearly I don’t know what is going on. Perhaps that might help getting to the bottom of what is happening.

#11

Sorry. That should read:
clicked ‘backspace’ (not ‘delete’), then ‘edit’ and ‘undo new paragraph’. The layout then returns to how it all was originally; the missing sections being returned.

#12

Yes, I can tell you that.
Second page, sixth column - mostly numbers very similar to the other tive columns
Third page, first column - half of the column what was above the remaining coloured text in that column. Each of those columns would then begin with a bold, black heading. The rest should then be as it once was.
Whatever it is has therefore eaten a column and a half of text as described.

I’m perfectly happy to continue in any way you prefer, and I can understand that much of the detail we are discussing could be condensed to comprise only the basic things that others might find helpful. I’d be very glad if, should this problem happen to others, your valuable help could help other people too.

#13

Lost text:

Zoom rate: 50% - 2 pages.
At first the pages 3 and 5 seemed to be blank.

When Toggling Print Preview (CTRL+SHIFT+O) the “lost”/hidden text appeared and when going back to edit mode it was displayed as well.

This could be the better choice for your layout. So you may prevent column breaks (instead of empty paragraphs), too. Each “topic” could have an own (independent) table.


As an advanced proceeding one could consider 6-column-sections - also one for each “topic”. Manual column breaks are necessary instead of empty paragraphs, in this case. (The page would contain only one single “column”.)


Nevertheless your main effort will be to think about paragraph styles and character styles. They will cause a slim and handy structure.

#14

Thank you for your help. Having tried various things without success, because my LibreOffice Writer files became corrupt since the software was updated, I have now begun to create the same files, one by one, in Microsoft Word.

#15

Now? With a current (automatic) update?

#16

tdf#166871

#17

I have now overcome the problem by removing roughly half of the original pages. However, the problem - the loss of some text - which was occurring always took place within the parts of the text which I retained, so I must assume that there was no problem in that part of the file. My initial conclusion is that the original file was too big for LibreOffice to handle, and the reduced size has overcome the problem. Apart from the removal of some of the later pages, the remaining text has remained exactly the same.
I am quite confident that restoring the removed (later) pages as a separate file would be unlikely to result in another similar problem as before.

#18

No, it was not too big. The actual problem is a bug with an “optimization”, when Writer uses the statistics (paragraph / page count) to predict, how much text should fit to page, before actually arranging the data. If manually edited to remove that information from the file (simply delete meta.xml from the package), it will open OK. I will fix that soon.

1 Like
#19

Thank you for the explanation. It is unfortunate that, for my specific purposes: a comparison of different sections of a pipe organ, it is necessary to lay out the text in a specific way. If you can fix this (are you involved in the creation of LibreOffice?), I’m sure that it is possible that others as well as myself would be very grateful.
Incidentally, having overcome this problem, I am very happy to continue to use LibreOffice as it is superior in many ways to MS Word (and, of course, cheaper. Er, I did make a donation!).

#20

As I said, I will. Fixing the bug is good for LibreOffice in general. But for your specific case, it would be much more useful to change the method: as @ajlittoz explained, you better use tables for this. The idea of using columns (a layout specifically designed for text filling and flowing from column 1 to column 2 then to column 3 then 
 then to page 2
) is 100% different from what you use (tabular layout, where rows consist of cells, and all cells in a row are related to each other, and the next row has a new set of data; the horizontal row of cells could itself span several pages, or start at the bottom of page 2, and end at the top of page 3). Using a hammer as a screwdriver replacement is always a possibility; and all the hammers’ defects that you notice in the process, of course, need to be addressed; but even when we made our hammer perfect, it does not become a screwdriver (or else, we would break the direct purpose of hammer’s existence / its usefulness for the purpose). E.g., adding some more data on page 3 would make your life a disaster on all following pages, where you would have to move all lines of text, which suddenly stop aligning correctly - esp. across pages.


 or I could completely misunderstand your layout. To be honest, I do not understand, where should I read immediately after the last line in column 2 of page 3: should I continue at the first line of column 3 on the same page, or at line 23 of column 3 on the same page (where “III Schwellwerk (18)” is), or on the first line of column 2 on page 4? Maybe the correct answer is “continue at the first line of column 3 on the same page”. Then my idea of changing the tool could not apply to your case. If your layout is columnar in nature, then sorry for the noise, and stay tuned for the fix.

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