Text in footnotes suddenly duplicated for no apparent reason

English
#1

Hello,

I started a document a few days ago (in .docx format, as I always do, and I’ve been using LO for many years).
So far, the document includes four footnotes, and they have cost me a LOT of time and thought.
Today, I opened the document and found, much to my dismay, that for some reason all the footnotes bear the same text (specifically, the text of the fourth note). In other words, the text of the first three notes has disappeared, having been replaced by the text of the fourth note.

I have never had this problem before; the document has not crashed; I have not changed any of the settings/preferences since I’ve started the doucment (or in the past few years, for that matter).

Because the document was so short, I did not make a backup copy (yet).

I don’t suppose there is a way of undoing this disaster?

Thanks.

#2

If you work with LibreOffice, you should save in OD-Format. For Writer ODT.

Frequently asked questions - General

But you should also make an error message on Bugzilla.

How to Report Bugs in LibreOffice

And basically, you should back up your data.

Preventing data disaster

#3

Hello,

thanks for replying.

Well, LO does offer other formats - and I’ve been using .docx forever (i.e. for over a decade - and I am a very heavy user, because I write for a living). Never had any such problem before.
And yes, one should - and I do - backup their data… but when you write a LOT every day, sometimes you forget to do it every.single.day, You know: life happens. :confused:

#4

What version of LibreOffice do you use? Did you upgrade it?

Of course you need to understand that whatever your preference is, DOCX is an external file format for LibreOffice, created for another office suite; it was not created to match Writer’s capabilities, and also it requires much work to convert stuff back and forth from/to Writer document model. That is fragile, prone to bugs, and is never perfect. It’s nice that you managed to avoid problems for so long time before, but that is just luck.

It might be tdf#153804, or something similar. It might be fixed in newer versions, or not. Generally, you need to understand that the most reliable (not 100% bulletproof, because bugs happen everywhere, but still much more reliable) way of work is use of native file format (this applies to just any software you use), and only exporting to external formats when necessary to send to someone who can’t open your native files. Life is complex; sometimes it’s simply not possible to follow this recommendation - but in other cases, where it is possible, it should be taken into account.

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#5

That’s probably because you use Writer just like a mechanical typewriter where typist must do the formatting by himself. And this is even the wrong way to use Word.

When notes are involved, Writer (and probably Word too) implicitly style your note paragraphs. Notes are already in the “advanced feature” domain because they require layout deferring until their position is known.

Since it looks like your fourth note has quite a considerable size, you have certainly added formatting to the base paragraph(s). This direct formatting interacts in a non trivial way for a newbie and this is worsened by the conversion to/from .odx.

The safest way to export (word emphasised to insist upon the fact DOCX should not be used as a work format) a document is to maintain a straightforward structure for it by minimising direct formatting. Of course, character and page styles don’t exist in DOCX but using them in Writer clearly gives hints about your intent and this helps Writer to do the best and correct export.

1 Like
#6

Thank you for replying.

I am using version 7.5.0.3 (X86_64), on Windows 10.

Yes, I do understand about native formats; but since I’ve had clients who had “problems” with .odt (probably on their side, not that it matters much), I just preempt any such complaints by using .docx. Anyway, I’ve written more than 10.000 pages this way in the last decade - never a problem. But yes, I understand.

#7

Thanks for replying.

I use .docx simply to avoid purported “problems” that a few of my clients reported having with .odt (the “problem”, if any, was most likely on their side, but that’s irrelevant). But, again, I’ve used this format - in LibreOffice - for 10+ years, which means more than 10.000 pages written, and nothing like this ever happened before.

My fourth note, while it is the most extensive one, isn’t really all that sizeable - only 12 lines. The text of the other ones was comparable in size (the problem is that long hours of research and careful phrasing went into them to synthesise the data).

All I know is that yesterday I closed the document normally, as I’ve been closing my documents every day for more than a decade - and when I opened it today, I noticed the text was the same in all of the footnotes.

#8

Since I wrote this, I’ve saved and closed (uneventfully) and reopened the document four times. Every single time it’s happened again: the footnotes are a total mayhem. Of course now I’ve made a backup copy each time before closing the doc, but obviously it is an untenable situation. This is no way to work.

P.S. The Gmail preview of the last saved backup copy (I emailed it to myself) shows all the footnotes correctly - but as soon as I open it with LO, all the footnotes go haywire.

#9

Not really a “solution”, but I’ve upgraded to the latest version, and now it seems to work fine (touch wood!).
It would be good to know what caused this, though.

Thanks everyone.

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