RTF support

tracey002 · June 27, 2011, 6:16pm

I had discovered that Open Office Writer does NOT really support functional
RTF features (the ones that I tried anyway).
When I posted issues to an OpenOffice Users Group, I was re-directed to
Libre Office.
Can I help in some way?
Please advise.
Thanks, Tracey
As an End User, my experience has been to export (Documents and/or Data) in
simple HTML or RTF text format for other End Users to use in their word
Processor or Spreadsheet.

nunojsilva · June 27, 2011, 9:39pm

I don't have experience with RTF myself, so I can't say myself how good
is it.

But LibO has a rewritten RTF export, I guess it includes what Miklos
Vajna did in Summer 2010.

Miklos made a presentation about it, slides are at

http://people.freedesktop.org/~vmiklos/2010/lo-opensuse-nurnberg-2010.pdf

Starting at slide 14 there are several screenshots of export
enhancements.

This Summer, Miklos is working on RTF import,

http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/project/google/gsoc2011/vmiklos/9001

There are also a couple posts on RTF export issues in Miklos' weblog,

http://vmiklos.hu/blog/tags/libreoffice

Meanwhile, you can fill bug reports, if there's none yet, for the
features that aren't working,

http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/BugReport

planas · June 27, 2011, 10:08pm

On Mon, 2011-06-27 at 11:15 -0700, tracey002 wrote:

I had discovered that Open Office Writer does NOT really support functional
RTF features (the ones that I tried anyway).
When I posted issues to an OpenOffice Users Group, I was re-directed to
Libre Office.
Can I help in some way?
Please advise.
Thanks, Tracey
As an End User, my experience has been to export (Documents and/or Data) in
simple HTML or RTF text format for other End Users to use in their word
Processor or Spreadsheet.

--
View this message in context: http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/RTF-support-tp3114703p3114703.html
Sent from the Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

--
Jay Lozier
jslozier@gmail.com

planas · June 27, 2011, 10:13pm

Tracey,

I had discovered that Open Office Writer does NOT really support functional
RTF features (the ones that I tried anyway).
When I posted issues to an OpenOffice Users Group, I was re-directed to
Libre Office.
Can I help in some way?
Please advise.
Thanks, Tracey
As an End User, my experience has been to export (Documents and/or Data) in
simple HTML or RTF text format for other End Users to use in their word
Processor or Spreadsheet.

--
View this message in context: http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/RTF-support-tp3114703p3114703.html
Sent from the Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

Try FILE>>SAVE AS and select RTF as the file type. You will get a dialog
box asking if you are sure. I do not know the which version of RTF LO
fully supports currently. The last version released is 1.9.1.

My understanding is this will be the last release of the RTF standard by
MS. Depending on what you other users have, their software may not
support the current version.

Dennis_E_Hamilton · June 27, 2011, 10:37pm

It says "Are You Sure" for HTML too. It is not that it has checked the features you are using. I believe it is a knee-jerk warning. (Something that Microsoft Office apparently set the precedent for.)

- Dennis

tracey002 · June 27, 2011, 10:46pm

Is Libre Office the same/identical application as Open Office or are they
separate projects?
The names and icons of the applications look identical.

If not, can you briefly explain the difference.
Thanks, Tracey

planas · June 28, 2011, 12:17am

Tracey

Is Libre Office the same/identical application as Open Office or are they
separate projects?
The names and icons of the applications look identical.

If not, can you briefly explain the difference.
Thanks, Tracey

--
View this message in context: http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/RTF-support-tp3114703p3115694.html
Sent from the Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

LO is a fork from OOo and is a separate project from OOo. This occurred
when Oracle bought Sun. LO is a project of The Document Foundation and
Open Office is now is a project of the Apache Foundation. At the present
time there are many similarities between us and OOo

Tom_Davies · June 28, 2011, 9:45am

Hi
LibreOffice is more highly developed, it is developing faster and has a more
certain future. Substantial clean-up of the code has made it about 30% smaller
so it's faster to download and since it is more streamlined, hopefully it runs a
bit faster.

The main increased functionality that i remember is the improved vector graphics
capability but there is a list of release notes somewhere that gives a better
idea of how much faster LibreOffice is fixing and developing things.
Regards from
Tom

Tom_Davies · June 28, 2011, 10:20am

Hi
Things have moved on a lot in the last few years. MS Office can read the older
ODFs and LibreOffice / OpenOffice can read the older ".doc" and ".xls" etc. The
newer ".docX" and ".xlsX" etc do often work but sometimes create problems with
images and text-boxes and stuff. You can change the defaults in LibreOffice.

Word-processor formats will often display slightly differently on different
machines and in different versions of word-processors but it's easy to edit.
This still happens with Rtfs too. The pdf (= Portable Document Format) displays
the same on every machine but it's not so easy to edit. LibreOffice can export
to Pdf so you can keep 2 versions; one to edit the other so people can see how
it should look. If you need to collaborate with other people that all need to
make edits to a document then Google-Docs might be a good option, or else just
give them all links to download LibreOffice or ask your IT department to
roll-out onto all machines.

MS Office is less sophisticated about placing pictures and text-boxes and stuff
like that so sometimes pictures and things get moved around a bit. This does
also happen between any 2 versions of MS Office. However, documents created in
1 version of LibreOffice look the same in other versions.

Trying to convince MS Office users to use formats that everyone can read is "an
uphill struggle". They seem unable to use "Save As ..." and they are suspicious
of any other format. Oddly it is only their default formats that have carried
malware.

To change the default formats in LibreOffice / OpenOffice go to
Tools - Options - Load/Save - General
to change the default ODF to the older 1.0/1.1. Alternatively at the bottom of
the same screen perhaps change the 2 drop-downs to save "Text Documents" to
"Word 97/2000/Xp" by rolling back up the list 1 place. For Spreadsheets and
Presentations roll back up the list 2 places to avoid saving as templates.

Regards from
Tom

From: Dennis E. Hamilton <dennis.hamilton@acm.org>
To: users@global.libreoffice.org
Sent: Mon, 27 June, 2011 23:37:22
Subject: RE: [libreoffice-users] RTF support

It says "Are You Sure" for HTML too. It is not that it has checked the
features you are using. I believe it is a knee-jerk warning. (Something that
Microsoft Office apparently set the precedent for.)

- Dennis

From: planas [mailto:jslozier@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, June 27, 2011 15:13
To: users@global.libreoffice.org
Subject: Re: [libreoffice-users] RTF support

Tracey,

> I had discovered that Open Office Writer does NOT really support functional
> RTF features (the ones that I tried anyway).
> When I posted issues to an OpenOffice Users Group, I was re-directed to
> Libre Office.
> Can I help in some way?
> Please advise.
> Thanks, Tracey
> As an End User, my experience has been to export (Documents and/or Data) in
> simple HTML or RTF text format for other End Users to use in their word
> Processor or Spreadsheet.
>
> --
> View this message in context:
http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/RTF-support-tp3114703p3114703.html
> Sent from the Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>

Try FILE>>SAVE AS and select RTF as the file type. You will get a dialog
box asking if you are sure. I do not know the which version of RTF LO
fully supports currently. The last version released is 1.9.1.

My understanding is this will be the last release of the RTF standard by
MS. Depending on what you other users have, their software may not
support the current version.

--
Jay Lozier
jslozier@gmail.com

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Ernest_Kurtz · June 28, 2011, 1:39pm

'Lo
As one who uses only Writer on LO and OO, roughly on alternate days, never at the same time, I find LO to be less stable, crashing about every other time. OO crashes are rare, maybe one in ten use-days.
But I keep hoping, as it appears there is more current work on LO.
BTW, I save all files in RTF.
ernie kurtz

Stefano_Fraccaro1 · June 28, 2011, 1:50pm

Hi Ernest,
in our company we don't have any crash at all with LibreOffice 3.4.x . How many pc have this behaviour? Which is the system configuration?

Best regards
Stefano

Tom_Davies · June 28, 2011, 1:52pm

Hi
That doesn't sound pleasant I don't use OpenOffice at all anymore.
LibreOffice has not crashed on me at all. I don't use it every day tho. Which
version do you use, the 3.4.0? I stick with the 3.3.2 on Ubuntu still.
Regards from
Tom

Davide_Dozza · June 28, 2011, 1:55pm

3.4.x is a development version and it's not suggested for production
environment but just for early adopters.

http://www.libreoffice.org/download/release-notes/

Davide

Ernest_Kurtz · June 28, 2011, 5:29pm

Hi2--
I am using aMacBook3,1; Intel Core 2 Duo; 2.2 GHz; L2 Cache: 4 MB; Memory:4 GB; Bus Speed: 800 MHz;
LibreOffice 3.3.; OOO330m19 (Build:202); tag libreoffice-3.3.2.2
Thanks for the several quick comments.
ernie kurtz

Steve_Edmonds · June 28, 2011, 5:49pm

Hi. I use LO also on a makbook pro, every day. Firstly 3.3.2 and now 3.4 and I have not had a crash.

I wonder if it is the RTF file format. When does LO crash (what activity).
steve

Ernest_Kurtz · June 28, 2011, 6:11pm

Steve:
Several things can trigger a crash, but especially importing a file into the document on which I am working. Size seems to make no difference.
ek

Steve_Edmonds · June 28, 2011, 6:17pm

Hi Ernest. On my office linux machine with LO 3.3.2, I get a crash on importing some older lotus files. Possibly it is the RTF format (or rather the import filter). Can you try using the odt format for a day to see if crashing stops and then may be a bug can be filed if the RTF import is the culprit.
steve

Johnny_Rosenberg · June 28, 2011, 6:25pm

'Lo
As one who uses only Writer on LO and OO, roughly on alternate days, never at the same time, I find LO to be less stable, crashing about every other time. OO crashes are rare, maybe one in ten use-days.
But I keep hoping, as it appears there is more current work on LO.
BTW, I save all files in RTF.

I did that too maybe 10 or 15 years ago, which I later regretted very
much. Fortunately I need very few (none, I think) of those old
documents today. Since then I always make sure no RTF files comes near
me ever.

Kind regards

Johnny Rosenberg
ジョニー・ローゼンバーグ

nunojsilva · June 28, 2011, 9:16pm

Hi
LibreOffice is more highly developed, it is developing faster and has a more
certain future. Substantial clean-up of the code has made it about 30% smaller
so it's faster to download and since it is more streamlined, hopefully it runs a
bit faster.

As one who uses only Writer on LO and OO, roughly on alternate days,
never at the same time, I find LO to be less stable, crashing about
every other time. OO crashes are rare, maybe one in ten use-days.
But I keep hoping, as it appears there is more current work on LO.

It is expectable that LibO is more crash-prone: it has new features that
aren't as deeply tested as the rest of the code.

Also, the code cleanup may cause issues itself.

Keep your hope, more work means even if LibO has new issues, they'll be
fixed.

The best you can do to help that happen without looking at the code is
(attempt to) indentify what triggers each crash and fill a bug report if
there's none yet.

If it's your first time filling a bug report, this may help:
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/BugReport

("identify" means not filling "Writer crashed here!!!" reports without
some more information, like:
- step-by-step instructions of what to do to raise the crash
- stack trace
- some office document (like a RTF file!) that causes a crash

That is, something that makes it easier to chase the problem.)

BTW, I save all files in RTF.

Please make sure you always keep the "main work copy" in OpenDocument
Format. Some other formats aren't completely implemented, may have some
issues.

Dunno about RTF, but this is the case with Microsoft's Office Open XML.

Also, even if the format is 100% supported, it may not support some ODF
feature used by LibO.

nunojsilva · June 28, 2011, 9:25pm

LibreOffice and OpenOffice.org separate projects.

Please note that some GNU/Linux distros distributed (distribute?)
OpenOffice.org with the Go-oo patches. Even if branded OpenOffice.org,
this is closer to LibreOffice than to OpenOffice.org.