Proofreading problems...

users
#1

Ever since version 4.0 I have not been able to use LibreOffice
interchangeably with others who are using word in proofreading projects.

LibreOffice continues to strip out the comments in a .doc file completely,
so I am forced to using MSWord.

What gives?

*Rogier Fentener van Vlissingen <http://viz.me/vliscony/t/7>*
*About Me <http://about.me/vliscony>*

#2

Hi :slight_smile:
Tbh i am not sure. The 4.3.0 made it easier to cope with comments on
slide-shows (i think) but i'm not sure if that would help with comments
from Word.

Which format do they use? Is is DocX or the older Doc? If it's DocX then
do you know what version of MS Office they need you to use to be compatible
with them? A clue might be if you are already using a version of MS
Office. Do you know which one you are using? Is it MS Office 2007 or an
earlier one? If it's earlier then they are being sensible enough to use
the older Doc format and that should be working just fine on LibreOffice.
The DocX keeps changing all the time so probably other people would be
having the same problem as you, or different problems.

It's funny how they seem to insist on you buying a program that only runs
on 1 or 2 platforms and that costs money to buy but wont consider using
something that can be used for free on nearly any platform! I wonder if
they have thought about it or are just happy to squander money without
thinking about it.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#3

Hi :slight_smile:
Ok, so it's a Doc that was originally made in LO 4.2.x. Although the
comments are being added by MS Office 2010 it 'should' be able to be read
with the 4.3.0, imo, but is just not working :frowning: It is nice to hear that
even after opening and saving in LO, despite LO not seeing the comments the
comments do reappear when the file is opened with MS Office 2010 again or
with MS Office 2007. Still, it must be a bit annoying!

I think it might well be worth writing a bug-report about it. It might be
a feature request but either way we apparently have at least 1 dev fairly
interested in fixing this sort of thing so now is a good time to post a
bug-report about it, to hopefully grab her/his attention;
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA/BugReport
https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/bug/

Apols and regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#4

fellows,

sorry for the bad form of not quoting the thread! won't happen again!

very, very obvious thing to check but maybe worth mentioning: doesn't one have to check something called 'changes' or whatever (don't have the program here) to see comments?

I hate the whole commenting facility as such, and it is tricky between different word processors.

F.

#5

Hi :slight_smile:
Good point. There is a feature for comparing 2 different documents, or the
same document stored in 2 different folders.

That gives all the red writing like "track changes" does in Word, or does
something to show the differences and those can be accepted, rejecte or
left til later.

However i thought the "comments" were a bit different from that? I thought
it was the sort of thing teachers used to do to my essay to show where i
had missed the point or been astute
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#6

It just got funnier. Last night I opened the SAME document for about the
4th or 5th time, and suddenly the comments started showing up in LO as they
should...

So, there still is something going on, but it's not like LO is losing them.
I'll experiment with this and see if I can nail it sufficiently to report
it.

*Rogier Fentener van Vlissingen <http://viz.me/vliscony/t/7>*
*About Me <http://about.me/vliscony>*

#7

Hi :slight_smile: ]
Weird! Have you been able to try another document to see if that now
works, ie if LO just needed a nudge before it works for all? If that is
all solved now that would be great but if each document needs to be nudged
in the same way that could be really painful! (and probably easier to
report as bug because it's less like an intermittent bug)

I imagine the "track changes" tools is good when everyone is using the same
version of MS Word or when everyone is using non-MS. The rest of the time
it might be easier just to use the "compare documents" approach instead. I
vaguely remember someone saying that track changes was more elegant and
sophisticated but obviously only when it works!

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#8

Perhaps check that:
   Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > View > Display > Comments
is enabled?

Also Edit > Changes > Show might have some effect on comments from a Word document? I think in Word visibility of comments and tracked changes are toggled together by the same option. Not sure if that would carry over to a Word document opened in LibreOffice though...

Mark.

Tom Davies wrote: