Imported document becomes corrupted, when edited.

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#1

I have a document -

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qp6rf6edhuui8qb/SpeyElectrics.v16.odt

It consists of a number of pages, the first two should have only writing on them, then there are some line drawings, then a page with an annotated image (page 6), followed by some more diagrams.

I am having a number of problems.
When I reopen the document after editing some of the draw lines and other objects. Things have leapt to other pages.
When I attempt to select multiple objects so I can group them, when I press the shift key and click, I end up on the image page page 6
When I select a line, the line tool bar does not appear. I have to draw a new open line and then by selecting that I can get the line drawing tools icons (to add and delete points etc), and I may then be able to edit the line I wanted to edit.
Is it something special about this document, or is this a more general problem.
What do I do to fix it?
I have the latest Libre Office installed - 4.2.1.1

#2

Hi Ian,

I have a document -

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qp6rf6edhuui8qb/SpeyElectrics.v16.odt

It consists of a number of pages, the first two should have only writing
on them, then there are some line drawings, then a page with an
annotated image (page 6), followed by some more diagrams.

I am having a number of problems.
When I reopen the document after editing some of the draw lines and
other objects. Things have leapt to other pages.
When I attempt to select multiple objects so I can group them, when I
press the shift key and click, I end up on the image page page 6
When I select a line, the line tool bar does not appear. I have to draw
a new open line and then by selecting that I can get the line drawing
tools icons (to add and delete points etc), and I may then be able to
edit the line I wanted to edit.
Is it something special about this document, or is this a more general
problem.

I see the same problems here with your document. (LibO 4.1.4 from TDF,
Debian Whezy).

What do I do to fix it?

IMO, you've got way too many diagrams/drawing objects in your Writer
document. I guess this is what creates the problems. I sometimes add
drawing items in .odt documents, but very few at a time (2-3 lines or
boxes at best), this without any problem so far.

Anyway, I'd suggest drawing with a dedicated drawing tool, such as...
Draw :wink:
Then you'd get a copy of the drawings into your .odt document.
You might:
-- copy and paste the drawings from Draw to Writer (group the drawing
objects that go together first)
-- insert drawings as OLE objects
-- insert drawings as pictures (in Draw, you'd export the drawings to
.png first)

Just pick your preferred option.

BTW, the existing diagrams can be copied and pasted from Writer do Draw:
you haven't lost anything :slight_smile:

HTH,

#3

What is up with all of these comments claiming that 4.2.1 is the latest version??

4.2.3 is the latest, and 4.2.4 is to be released very soon (if I'm not mistaken)...

#4

I had a similar problem recently with a document in which I was trying to insert about 15 pictures. It was okay until I wanted three pictures side by side on the same page. Every time I tried to resize a picture or move it slightly, it suddenly moved to another page. When I tried to move it back, all kinds of things weird things happened. I think it has to do with my anchoring settings, especially since all three pictures were anchored to the same place, but since I just had to get the project done and didn't have time to play with it, I imported it all into LyX and finished it there. Later, I'll go back into LO to learn how to do it right.

I sense that LO's wysiwyg approach makes things a little more complex. I even tried my document with pictures in a markdown editor and found it worked better there than in LO.

Again, I'm sure a lot of has to do with my lack of knowledge of this part of LO.

Virgil

#5

Suggestion: When inserting pictures, create an empty paragraph. Insert a frame in this paragraph, and insert the picture or pictures in the frame. Anchor both the frames and these pictures "As Character". You should also create a paragraph style for your frames so that you can align them horizontally uniformly. This also permits you to have a border around each frame if you like or no border.
      The document guides for LibreOffice contain pictures in the hundreds with no apparent problem inserting and anchoring pictures.

--Dan

#6

Hi :slight_smile:
Ahh, i was going to say i have more luck with "Anchor to page" but i
strongly suspect Dan's finesses would fix all that
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#7

I tried *some* of your suggestions when I was fighting with it. I discovered the frame styles, which helped a bit. I also tried anchoring to character, but I'm not convinced it helped. (Part of my problem now is that I tried so many things, I was changing too many variables to be able to isolate the ones that worked).

I also wanted an automated caption under each picture (Illustration 1, Illustration 2, etc.). I discovered that I could do that automatically, but when I did, LO created two frames, one for the picture, and one for the caption. The picture frame was placed on top of the caption frame. But, when I tried to move the picture, they became separated, and I ended up moving the picture without the caption frame.

I'll keep playing with it because I know it's more about my understanding than the abilities of the program. Thanks for the suggestions.

Virgil

#8

Hi,

I have a document -

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qp6rf6edhuui8qb/SpeyElectrics.v16.odt

It consists of a number of pages, the first two should have only writing
on them, then there are some line drawings, then a page with an
annotated image (page 6), followed by some more diagrams.

As a general rule, it is a bad idea to draw in Writer. It is more robust
to draw in Draw module, group all objects of the same drawing and
copy&paste it in your text document. Grouping objects is very important.

Best regards.
JBF

#9

Hi,

[...]

I have the latest Libre Office installed - 4.2.1.1

No, current stable version from 4.2 branch is 4.2.3 and 4.2.4 is on the
way to be released soon (RC1 available).
Please, check : https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/

Best regards
JBF

#10

Ian McCarthy wrote

I have a document -

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qp6rf6edhuui8qb/SpeyElectrics.v16.odt

It consists of a number of pages, the first two should have only writing
on them, then there are some line drawings, then a page with an
annotated image (page 6), followed by some more diagrams.

I am having a number of problems.
When I reopen the document after editing some of the draw lines and
other objects. Things have leapt to other pages.
When I attempt to select multiple objects so I can group them, when I
press the shift key and click, I end up on the image page page 6
When I select a line, the line tool bar does not appear. I have to draw
a new open line and then by selecting that I can get the line drawing
tools icons (to add and delete points etc), and I may then be able to
edit the line I wanted to edit.
Is it something special about this document, or is this a more general
problem.

Make certain that you have enough memory for LibO and it's images, and that
you leave them in memory whilst you work on the document. TOOLS > OPTIONS >
MEMORY. Otherwise LibO will spend its time manipulating the drawings. Ifind
the defaults are not correct for me. As well as the anchor point, I find it
is also useful to manage the WRAP option. This has quite an effect on the
text when you are adjusting the graphics. Peter

#11

Have you tried inserting a table to your page?
3 columns and two rows.
Row 1 is for the pictures and row 2 are for the text for each photo.
You can easily center the photos in each of their cell[s].

Seems to work for me.

I tried it in LO 4.2.2.1 on a Linux Mint/MATE OS.

Yes, in another post there is a comment about the object memory size. If the Memory size of the object and the number of objects values are too low, it might give you problems. Remember, the file size and the "memory size" are not the same. JPG images have a compression rating and can be much smaller than the memory that is needed to display it. I worked with a 4 MG file size JPG file and it took almost 20 MB of memory in the image editor. If I set the memory per object to 10MB and need 20MB, then they will be issues with the document, or so I have seen in tests a year or two ago.

I never tried the Anchor to a Character before. I usually use Page or Paragraph types. But Page anchoring is not "wise" if you document will be added to before the image page, since the relative position of the image[s] in the document will change.

#12

Great idea! I don't know why I didn't think of it, since that was the precise solution suggested when I was trying the document in Markdown.

I'll give it a go, and let you know.

Virgil

#13

Hi :slight_smile:
Wrt frames and captions.

Forget doing the frame if you know you are going to put a caption on. Try
this way instead to get the same result (except it's the way it should work
rather than some broken way). Just right-click on the image and select
"Caption". The caption gives a free frame that is automatically extended
all the way around the image.

Looks like Tim's idea will probably do what you need or use the paragraph
above to do it Dan's way. There is always more than one way of doing
things.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile: