Subj : Re: Open/LibreOffice ?
To   : OGG
From : Mike Powell
Date : Tue Dec 30 2025 10:13:44

> ** On Thursday 20.11.25 - 13:54, Mike.Powell wrote to ALL:

> > I have been experiencing some strange issues with Libreoffice
> > Writer.  If you are typing text on a page and hit ENTER, or
> > if you insert a page break using CTRL-ENTER, the text on at
> > least the previous page will randomly lose its formatting --
> > any intentional spacing or TABs that you've put in the text
> > can disappear but, as it is random, it doesn't always happen.

> I suppose that's the *nix version (since this a linux network)?

Yes, that is correct.  LO Writer was acting goofy on a *nix machine,
running Debian Trixie to be exact.

Older versions of LO Writer used to have a disclaimer message, when you
tried saving things in any format but ODT, that claimed there might be
"compatability issues" with formats like DOC or RTF.  However, I *never*
encountered said issues... the documents always reopened fine in LO Writer,
as well as MS-Office (on a Win machine).

It appears that newer versions (1) no longer display the disclaimer, and
(2) do indeed have issues.  Not only do they have issues with DOC, for
example, but if you realize it and change the DOC document to save as an ODT
instead, the problems can persist.

The LO folks (in their online forums) suggest copying the text out of the
document and restarting a brand-new ODT file, rather than resaving the
original as ODT, but even they seem baffled that this doesn't always fix
the problems -- and that you can still sometimes have problems even if you
started the document off as an ODT.

ONLYOFFICE seems to prefer that documents be saved as DOCX but, once you
are working with one, the formatting seems to remain consistent.  I have
switched to it as a result.  I cannot speak to portability between it and
MS-Office as I no longer have access to a current Windows machine.

Mike

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