LO fails to pick-up change in font location for existing files (not 'docx file incompatability')

[Morgan1]

Folks, I’m having a nightmare opening a docx file sent from some using MS software.#

• It opens as a blank LO Writer document as a ‘docx’;
• I’ve uploaded and imported to Google Docs - and it looks like the printed/ PDF version - and d/l as odt and, it opens as a blank LO Writer document as a ‘odt’;
• I’ve uploaded and imported to M$ office365 - and it looks like the printed/ PDF version - and d/l as odt and, it opens as a blank LO Writer document as a ‘odt’.

I’m at my wits end - I haven’t had this sort of nonesense for 15 years (which I guess is some indication of M$'s success in competition to Google’s online presence).

Any suggestions how I can get productive again much appreciated,
Thanks
Morgan.

[ajlittoz]

Are you experiencing display artefacts? Suppose the original .docx has been written on a computer in dark mode and user has somehow forced text colour to white. If your computer is light mode, background colour becomes white but forced colour text remains white. Then, “blank” document!

As a check, enable View>Formatting Marks. If you see pilcrows (mirrored P hinting at paragraph marks), centred dots (for spaces) or small arrows (for tabs), converted document is not empty at all but direct formatting is playing tricks on your back.

Try to select all text, then Format>Character, Font Effects tab and set Font color: to Automatic.

Does it improve the case?

If you need more help, please mention OS name and LO version. We already know document is DOCX.

EDIT

(You shouldn’t have clicked on “Suggest a solution” but on the Comment call out below my own comment because you don’t provide a solution.)

What is the file size? If it is not confidential or private, can you attach it to a comment (file size limit on the order of 1MB)?

EDIT 2

Change the file extension from .docx to .zip and open it with a ZIP utility. If the file structure is not corrupted you should see a collection of directories and files. Extract the “contents” file (likely named contents.xml) and try to open it with a text editor. It should show the text with formatting mark up.

It is not manageable under this form but this will rule out a certain number of hypotheses.

I also suggest you ask the author for a txt version. Of course, all formatting will be lost, but if you have a deadline, you can start working on the document.

[Morgan1]

(What the *!@?; I feel as shoehorned as if I were using M$ software commenting on a post here - apparently I’m supposed to be ‘Suggesting a solution’ do open my mouth - rant over, promise)

Thanks @ajlittoz very much for coming back - I do my work with the formatting marks on, so no there’s no formatting marks I can see of - just 1 apparently blank (white) A4 page.

To make matters worse, I’ve just received the same document from sender who’s helpfully saved as ‘odt’ and ‘rtf’ and both are just the same!!! 1 blank A4 page. Naturally, I suspected my install of LO, but I’m able to open an ‘odt’ file I created a week ago without issue - looks as expected. This is just nuts…

Thanks everyone.

[EarnestAl]

@Morgan1

apparently I’m supposed to be ‘Suggesting a solution’ do open my mouth

Just click on the comment bubble in the comment or question to which you want to reply.

Can you select everything (Ctrl+A) and then set font colour to automatic? Or copy and paste to a new document?

BTW there seems to be something broken in Google export to odt, better to export to docx I think.

[Morgan1]

Thanks @EarnestAl and @ajlittoz - this is very strange, but I’ve gone back to a back-up of an earlier draft of the same file in which I added comments to the text, before returning it to the author - and, my comments are there, but the text is not - so, I know my memory is correct, that I have edited this document and been able to see it to do so, but can’t see it any more. There’s obviously something daft I’ve done to my set up that’s caused me to snooker myself somehow. I think I should go away and scratch my head a bit and try and work out what I’ve done… Thanks again, M

[Morgan1]

Now, I can use the reply button as it’s titled: ‘Suggest a solution’!

And, the solution is - this has nothing to do with (anticipated) incompatibilities with M$. Instead, in order to read the docx files faithfully, I had to install the Aptos font. Having installed it and used it within OL to edit earlier drafts of the document, I realised I’d installed the fonts locally only to ~/.local/share/fonts and it’d be better to install the fonts system wide so moved them to /usr/local/share/fonts…

It seems, OL didn’t pick-up the system update of the font location and wouldn’t pick-up the change until, I opened a fresh (default template) document in Writer, selected the Aptos font and did some writing. Having done that and closed OL down, when I next ‘clicked’ to open the miscreant file, low and behold, there was the document again in all it’s glory. Thanks for listening.

[EarnestAl]

I would say always close LibreOffice before installing fonts or moving them, unless you want long delays or problems.
When LibreOffice is opened it reads the available fonts

[Morgan1]

I was closing Writer - but, it may have been an unconnected spreadsheet I had open in Calc for another job that was preventing LO from updating - it was recognising the new font location for a new Writer document, the issue was with the document that had been edited before the change.