Hi all,
in my document I have some overlapping Drawing Objects like Shapes. When I save, close and reopen the document, some of those Drawing Objects disappeared. I can find them in the Window “Navigator”, but they are declared as “Hidden”. I can’t select them anymore. Printing them doesn’t work either. The
I didn’t find any setting to get them back as set bevor. Please help, the document is very important.
Thanks in advance
MSr
OS name, LO version, save format?
What is the purpose of your drawing objects? Illustration? Or arrows between elements of texts (or between other shapes)?
Usually, it is much better (and “comfortable”) to design your decorations in Draw, select the relevant shapes, group them and paste as a single unit in Writer. Remember that drawing objects can’t be controlled by a (frame) style and therefore are a pain to position. This must be done on each object individually.
For best diagnostic, attach a reduced sample file (1-2 pages long) still exhibiting the unexpected behaviour. In case text is private or confidential, replace it with “neutral” text.
Hi ajlittoz,
my OS ist macOS Mojave 10.14.6, the version of LO is 7.4.2.3. . See the 2 images maybe the problem becomes more obviously.
Images are really insufficient to diagnose your problem. The only guess I can make is the excessive use of direct formatting. This, alone, creates huge problems.
I’d say that your goal document is not of the “text flow” type (think of a novel). It looks rather like a commercial flyer where layout is more important than flow. Writer may not be the best tool. It would be easier to do your job with a desktop publishing application (DTP) like free Scribus.
If you want more targeted comments, send your document as an attachment of a private mail (click on the icon left of my name).
Hi ajlittoz,
I started with modern templates for applications in Word (such as those at 120 Bewerbungsvorlagen zum Download) and then designed my own.
In the meantime, I have also discovered that my particular problem with the suddenly hidden objects is probably due to a bug in my program. When I reopened the document after restarting the computer, the problem disappeared again. But came back after working on it for a while.
So my last question for that topic here is, when you take a close look on those templates (see link above), would you recommend to do a application document in libreoffice writer? Some years before I was used to do this kind of work in indesign. Of course, this program is much more professional, but I hate the crazy costs for a subscription if I only need it for a short time.
Can you post your template or a blank document from the template? You can insert a random shape (and image of that disappears too ) for the disappearing object
There may (!) be some conversion problems (and some lack of experience 
). Working with these templates means that you have to build up new structures (styles; anchoring) for Writer to get a stable and usable basis for designing your personal forms for applications.
Recommendation (German website similar to “Bewerbungsvorlagen” in your posting):
https://www.bewerbung-rheine.de/index.html (LibreOffice templates)
There is also an instruction how to work with styles on these templates: https://www.bewerbung-rheine.de/media/files/Anleitung2.pdf
EDIT
On the above mentioned website there is an instruction about avoiding hard formatting as well:
https://www.bewerbung-rheine.de/media/files/anleitung-formatvorlagen-bewerbungsvorlage-01.pdf
Thank you for your answers. I downloaded one of the templates and the corresponding instruction. I noticed, that the blue shapes are anchored to the paragraph. Wouldn’t it be better to anchor the object to the page? So it would be fixed, which is the desired behavior.
Don’t be confused by anchor to page! Anchoring and positioning are independent from each other.
Anchoring determines on which page the frame will be displayed.
Positioning is under user’s control. There is a primary reference location which can be the paragraph (top, left, bottom, right) as only the text rectangle or the full paragraph rectangle including indents and spacing or the page with or without margins. You can select to align left (top), centre or right (bottom) on this reference location. You can also offset from top left.
So, assigning a fixed position in the page is done with To paragraph anchor (so that the frame is in the same page as the paragraph referencing it) and position relative to page with absolute coordinates.
Learn about frame styles but understanding all the properties is quite difficult.
There is a “platinum rule” with frames (it is extremely more important than the general “golden rule” with paragraphs and characters): avoid direct formatting. Even resizing or moving a frame with the mouse creates direct formatting which you can hardly get rid of. Frames are EXTREMELY sensitive to direct formatting and this creates a real hell.
Is your own document in docx-format or in odt-format? Or is it a true document template (.dotx, .ott)?
From your screenshots I guess, that the shapes belong to the header. Is that the case?
In general, if needed, you should convert once from docx to odt format, correct problems and never convert back. Better it is, to start directly in odt format. If the receiver is not able to read odt format, send him the document as PDF.
A main problem to solve or answer your question is that you don’t share your (edited) document, you only have offered us two screenshots and a URL with 120 templates and round about 300 possible single documents. Same problem with the better configurated ODF templates URL which I provided - including the instructions for good practice (use of styles; avoiding direct formatting).
Have a view to @Lupp’s guidance about screenshots and sample files.
Read @ajlittoz’ and @Regina’s tipps thoroughly - and share your edited document. - Cheers
Yes, I think I have experienced this hell.
The original was ,docx. But I saved it first as .odt and then worked with it.
Though this document is an .odt, it is not a Writer one in its design. It uses dreaded text boxes positioned freely in the page and absolutely does not resort to Writer text management possibilities. Text boxes offer really weaker text formatting than standard text or frames. In particular, you can’t apply styles and are condemned to direct formatting. Also, text boxes don’t cooperate nicely with text. Fortunately you have no “ordinary text” (because everything is done inside text boxes).
This confirms my opinion that a DTP program should be used if you want to keep all the fancy graphics design. Trying to fix “problems” is a daunting task without guarantee of success. You can try and recreate the document from scratch, albeit probably without all “artistic” effects, basing your effort on strict Writer styling and architectural compliance: multi-column page, activation of header, avoidance of tables (IMHO they aren’t necessary; a bunch of ad hoc paragraph styles would do the job).
This file is a perfect example of choosing the wrong tool for a task (personal opinion; yours can legitimately be different). And at 1.6 MB, it is clearly oversized for the purpose.
The problem is, that the objects are anchored to a page 3. As such page does not exist in the document, the objects were likely set to hidden at some time during initial import for to be not taken into account for layout.
For to “repair” the document, you can do this:
You should really think carefully about whether you use a job application designed in this way. The two-column layout is unfavorable because it does not allow the reader to add comments. The document properties contain, that this was original a Word-document, created by a ‘Jennifer Kuchelberg’. The technical implementation of the layout contains gross errors.
Thank you all for your great help. I will take your advice to heart. 