Windows 10, Libre Office 7.4.1.2 (64bit). We opened a Microsoft Word 2020 document in Libre Office, and for 1st time ever formatting was messed up. Main problem is that the line spacing is like double, even though it is set at single line spacing. Have tried setting it to single via Format - Paragraph - Indents & Spacing, and Format - Line Spacing. It is set to Default Paragraph Style - changing to Text Body makes no difference, nor does clearing formatting and resetting to single line spacing.
Between paragraphs the cursor is huge, as if it was set to a very large font, but the font is 12, and says 12 in the font size box when the cursor is in the gap between paragraphs. Tried editing the Default paragraph style, which is set to single line spacing, no improvement. Tried using 80% proportional line spacing, and fixed at 40, no difference. Above & below paragraph is set to zero.
Has Libre Office become incompatible with Microsoft Office 2010 Word, this last few days? Is there anything else I can try?
Can’t tell without looking at the file itself. May be a bad mixture of styling and direct formatting.
Edit your question to attach the file. If you consider it private or sensitive, email it it privately to me: click on my name to access the mailer.
Hi. It is not my work, so I should mail it privately to you. I clicked on your name but could not see the mailer.
There’s a big blue button labelled “Message”.
Something not right - no blue buttons at all!
OK, I have cut out some of the text to make it OK to attach - see the question. In changing the text I noticed that the cursor is a space further right than it usually is. Disconcerting. Thanks for looking at it.
Very disconcerting, I looked at the underlying XML and I see very unusual elements. Your default paragraph styled is attached to a <page-layout> (first time I see this) which has a grid-like base height requirement. When I patch the value, I can improve spacing but other issues appear.
What I find strange is your paragraph style is not Default Paragraph Style (as reported in the toolbar) but Standard, which seems to be some Word intrinsics. This Standard is attached to a <page-layout> which is not a page style and to a drawing-page (?!?!).
It looks to me this is a mixture of Impress (~PowerPoint) and Writer which could explain why some configuration controls are missing in Writer and why Writer gets confused when rendering.
As it is, it goes beyond my skills. I’d suggest you start a fresh document and paste contents, first as is, then as unformatted text if problem persists. I’ve tested pasting “as is” and it seems to cure the problem.
PS: avoid using line breaks + inseide paragraphs. They create “permanent” line wrap points and your paragraphs are not laid out nicely when you edit text. Remove them all and let Writer do the flowing job.
PPS: remove the attached file as we can retrieve the initial text which has been preserved by track changes function.
I have no idea where Impress comes into it, as it has not been used at all for this document. I will paste the text into a new document. Thank you so much for tackling this weirdness.
Jaragon’s solution worked for the line spacing and large paragraph gap problem.
Thanks for the other tips also.
Snap to grid was not checked. I checked it, no change. Unchecked it, no change. I think there is something more deeply rooted in the change history of the document. You said it was a Word doc but I didn’t see the usual style mess brought in by conversion.
Odd. I did look at the Snap to grid and it was originally not checked.
But I had saved another copy of that document, for trying out different solutions.
And when I looked at the Edit Style-Alignment in that one, the Snap to grid was checked on that one. And unchecking it worked.
The other problem with the document was tracking. It had not been set to tracking before being saved in Word and reopened in Writer. But trying to delete a character just turned it small and pink, so I guessed it was something to do with some kind of editing mode. And turning off tracking worked to cure that.
Not sure what was going on. We had not experienced problems in working between Word 2010 and Writer before this occurred.
Modify the default paragraph style. On the alignment tab, uncheck “Snap to text grid (if active).”
Aha! I looked at the alignment tab before trying cut and past to new. Odd - because I looked at this earlier and it was not checked. This time is was checked. Unchecked it and the line spacing problem is solved.
Thank you for that.