LibreOffice write output has become incompatable with other versions

English
#1

Open Document Format such as what LibreOffice writer outputs has stopped being back compatible with earlier versions of LibreOffice and therefore other office programs that support the format. Attempting to read in a file, a dialogue reports that it is broken, offers to repair it, which fails.

That would not be a big deal, if LibreOffice offered me to save in old format option. The issue arises with different Linuxes and Windows. Open Office 7.? And 24.?

Shame, LibreOffice had been very good until now.

I tested saving in .doc and .docx format and as expected this worked fine, but additionally there were no warnings about loss of formatting I had anticipated. In addition, reading the files in Debian LibreOffice there was a warning about a missing hyphenation en-gb which I found in synaptic, installed and this means there are now no warnings.

The worked around is good always save in .docx or another not ODF format.

#2

What you wrote was your conclusions from unsaid actual phenomena; emitting some conclusions as final truth, without trying to discuss what you actually do and what you actually see, and also stating things that imply that there’s no way to do what you want … :slight_smile:

A bug? A specific situation like saving a password-protected document? Without details, nothing to discuss, actually.

#3

Could you describe more precisely the kind of “missing” back-compatibility your experience? I have absolutely no problem with antiquated files such as .sxw, predating .odt. ODF is a stable format developed for long-term handling.

Eventually, provide a small example file for analysis.

This is surely NOT a solution, even not a workaround. DOCX and ODF are sufficiently different to cause tons of issues if you adopt this strategy. Your documents will be subject to conversion when read and another one when saved. Most features of Writer will be translated to direct formatting which is a speedway to formatting nightmare.

#4

Yes it is written as a proposed solution having discussed this on one of Facebook LibreOffice groups. I do have some documents password protected.

I tested and proposed save as .docx because no one when I discussed this elsewhere could suggest another solution. The output does not look broken, as you suggest, in any case unless LibreOffice add save in old format then the comment is immaterial, I have no options.

I have run other things that are newer versions than the Linux Distributions have in their repositories. The problem with that is .odt output is never going to be a format I could safely send to someone, whereas .docx does seem to be okay.

#5

There is not - never was and never will be - 100% compatibility between the different file formats.
And the file formats must be developed to the new challenges.
The default native file format of the LO 25.2.x s the “ODF 1.4 Extended” version. Of course you can set this save property to an older version.

Always use the native (international standard) ODF file formats for the LibreOffice.
The LibreOffice will warn you, when you try to save the document into a foreign file format (you can switch OFF that warning):
SaveInForeignFormat

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#6

If the problem is about password-protected document - then the link above shows why is it incompatible, and how to disable this new enhanced incompatible protection.

#7

“IF” the cause of your issue is the file format (and this still has to be demonstrated), ODF has indeed received minor evolutions since its inception. You can configure Writer to output its documents in previous variants of the format.

Go to Tools>Options, Load/Save>General. At bottom, you can choose which ODF variant to save documents: from 1.0 to 1.3 Extended. But, beware, I have no idea about the differences. As a consequence, some formatting/layout may not be saved correctly.

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#8

Thanks - a bit difficult to find, but that is the answer I was looking for.

This is the first time the issue has arisen in 12 years of using LO on Windows and Linux, with files I use on both.

Thank you.

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