V7.3.2.2 Frequent crashes on large document

[wmeyer48]

I am working on a large document, around 600 pages, and have been experiencing frequent crashes. I am adding footnotes, so perhaps that is a trigger. I see similar reports on past versions, and wonder whether this is related.

Right now, I am working around the problem with frequent saves, and at each crash, a document recovery. It is tedious, but I know that MS Word also has a number of issues with large documents, so I hope there may be something which can be done to reduce the severity of the problem in Writer.

I am on Windows 10 64-bit, with LibreOffice 7.3.2.2 64-bit. System has 64GB of RAM.

[ajlittoz]

You put more or less stress on Writer depending on how you format your document. Using direct formatting is one of the surest way to cause instability. Give information about your skill with Writer. 600 pages should be well handled.
As a general advice, learn how to use styles.

[wmeyer48]

Thanks for your response. I am new to Writer, but not to word processing. I routinely make use of styles, though I have seen that there may be some issue there, as well, since I have set the Footnote style font and size, and I see that it persists between sessions, but the footnote font size in the text remains the same as for the Text Body style.

[ajlittoz]

You can tune separately several aspects of (foot)notes. Go to Tools>Footnotes & Endnotes.

Paragraph (Footnote by default) controls footnote contents (at bottom of page).

Text area (by default Footnote Anchor) is a character style to format the note anchor (the note number in main text), while Footnote area (by default Footnote Characters) is another character style applied to the note number preceding its contents (in the bottom part of the page).

Pay special attention to the fact that character styles do not exist in Word where only direct formatting is possible. Also, in Writer, direct formatting always takes precedence over styles. Thus, if some direct formatting was current when you added a footnote, this DF still has effect over the anchor, masking Footnote Anchor style effects. You must adapt your routines to Writer workflow and avoid as much as you can direct formatting.

[TXDon]

To help determine what might be causing your crashing problems, please answer some questions.

Was the document original composed in LibreOffice Writer?

Are you using styles or manually formatting the material or a combination of both?

Do you have other applications running at the same time on your computer? Check in the Task Manager by hitting Control + Alt + Delete.

Have you tried restarting your computer?

[wmeyer48]

No, it was imported from a plain text file. Yes, I am using styles.
Yes, I have other applications running, such as this browser. The machine is tried and true and has abundant resources. If there is any issue with LibreOffice being affected by other applications running, then it is useless to me.
Yes, I have been through reboots, and most recently (last 30 minutes) I updated to 7.3.3.2, in the hope that it may be more stable.

[wmeyer48]

I have tentatively established that updating to 7.3.3.2 may be the solution. More crash-free time will build certainty, but no crashes so far.

[TXDon]

It sounds like you’ve been actively searching for possible reasons for the crashes.

One other thought. Have you tried repairing or uninstalling and re-installing LibreOffice? I had to do that with another application recently that kept crashing.

[Hrbrgr]

Dear @TXDon ,
please do not write in answer (solution) boxes if you do not have an answer, but only guesses or questions. Please use comments for that. Thank you.

[TXDon]

Thank you @Hrbrgr . I’m still learning and didn’t realize the difference. Your advice is certainly welcomed.