ver. 4.2 copy/past bug

users
#1

I'm reverting to ver. 4.1.4.2, after spending almost 40 min. this morning trying to isolate a problem. I could reliable crash the problem by trying to copy two cells in Calc to another location in the same sheet. I got this error message:

/vector::_M_range_check

/I'm working and have no time to go beyond posting the problem here. That's just the reality of my life this Monday morning. I'd attempt a bug report, but every time I've tried that I've gotten lost in the sheer strangeness of the process. No time for that either.

I can offer to share the spreadsheet in which the crash occurs, for what that's worth. It has maybe 30 sheets and is about a meg. in size. I did find that removing about 15 of the sheets appeared to stop the problem, for unknown reasons.

t.
//

#2

Tom,

my thoughts FWIW. I would suggest restoring the latest version, deleting your user profile and trying again. This has been known to work in the past.

What operating system are you using?

is this an old file which has seen a number of different LO versions?

Cheers

#3

Hi :slight_smile:
If something worked and suddenly stopped working as if by magic then
the first thing to try is to rename your User Profile
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/UserProfile

Renaming is better than deleting because you might have tons of stuff
in your profile (templates, galleries, Extensions, file-backups etc)
that you don't want to lose. If renaming or deleting the User Profile
DOES work then you might be able to copy chunks of your old one back
and that can be a good way of trouble-shooting down to pin-point the
problem. If you have deleted the User Profile then that is, of
course, impossible. If you just renamed the User Profile then you can
leave the trouble-shooting to a day when you do find time (or never
but at least it's possible). If renaming DOES NOT help then you could
rename the old one back without suffering any losses.

On the other hand it is quite possible that you don't have anything
exciting in your User Profile or that it might be a good time to start
afresh with reconfiguring LO's settings and with installing fresh
Extensions that you need now rather than trying to keep using ancient
ones or ancient versions of ones you don't really use any more.

If the problems happened straight after upgrading to a newer version
then reverting to an older version makes a LOT of sense. Preferably
an x.x.4 or higher. It's that 3rd digit that shows greater stability.
The 4.1.4 should be about as solid as they get but some people are on
4.0.6 to get the extra stability of that although they miss out a lot
on features and compatibility with MS formats. Although i have some
machines still on 3.5.(something) without really missing anything but
then my needs are modest for those machines. Anyway, 4.1.4 is a good
release and it's worth carrying on following the 4.1.x branch as it
gets developed further and stability increases further.

However 30+ worksheets in a single file and 1Mb means it's quite a
huge file! If you can't break it up easily (or even if you can but
don't want to) then it is well worth considering using a specialist
spreadsheeting program instead of Calc/Excel. Both the later are
designed to integrate well with other modules/programs within an
office suite but means you are carrying extra baggage and your
computer is using resources to make it easy to switch into
Presentations, Drawing programs, and all sorts of stuff that you
probably don't need while using the spreadsheet. A specialist tool
focussing resources on, and designed purely for handling, spreadsheets
might be better.

Gnumeric uses the same formats as Calc natively and can also handle
the relevant MS formats and is often found to out-perform Excel and
even Calc especially on low spec. machines.
http://projects.gnome.org/gnumeric

From their News section the quick link to directly download their

latest Windows version is
http://people.gnome.org/~mortenw/gnumeric/gnumeric-1.12.9-20131128.exe
NOTE this directly downloads an Exe file!!! I NEVER usually give
links like that because you don't know me and have no reason to trust
me so you really should try the first link and have a look around for
yourself before attempting any downloading! The only reason i give it
this time is because i found it difficult to find on their site so i
just wanted to make it easier for you.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#4

Hi :slight_smile:
No worries! It's what we are here for! :slight_smile:

The thing in my answer was to try Gnumeric
http://projects.gnome.org/gnumeric
instead of Calc/Excel for that 1 spreadsheet (or for all of them to
make it easier).

Renaming (or deleting) the User Profile seems to fix something like
90% of weird problems that suddenly start but didn't occur before.
It's a "magic cure all" worth knowing. I prefer renaming so i can go
back (some day (if i ever get around to it)) to get details of why it
happened. I keep meaning to back-up my User Profile when i get it
just right but keep forgetting.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#5

Hey, thanks, guys. That's a ton of help. I've a bit more time today, and will pursue the problem.

There's also some great stuff in your email, Tom, for my carefully kept notes on LO, and especially on Calc., which I use a great deal every day. You took real time to give me that much info. I seriously appreciate this effort!

Thank you both for the quick and thoughtful response.

Tom

#6

Tom,

Well, I'm back on ver. 4.2. I have a lot of files in Calc with links - to various sheets, and to other files. THEY ARE ALL BROKEN NOW.

This is a disaster, and reverting LO isn't, I think going to fix it.

Sigh.

Re: faster load/save of files - xml is a text format, and will necessarily be slower than a binary equivalent - that's my understanding, anyway. I noticed quite some time ago, when converting from Excel to Calc that the save took about 3 times as along.

t.

#7

UPDATE re: the below problem:

This is very odd. Here's an example of what I'm seeing: I have a hyperlink from a cell in sheet C to a cell in sheet A. I click/double-click the link. Nothing happens. I inspect the link, and where the link target URL should be I see "!!br0ken!!"

But the tool-tip over the link advises me to try "Ctrl-click...." and that actually works.

Is this the default? Could be, for all I know. And why does the link indicate it's broken, yet it still works?

I can make NO sense of this, I'll admit.

t.

#8

It may be related to this issue:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=74042
which claims to have been fixed in 4.2.1 but is still present in
Version: 4.2.1.1
Build ID: d7dbbd7842e6a58b0f521599204e827654e1fb8b

Dave

#9

Hi :slight_smile:
I think it might be best to start a new thread with a fresh new email
to the Users List

Users@Global.LibreOffice.Org

(capitals or lower-case makes no difference in email addresses except
that CamelCase is easier to read)

A new subject-line mentioning "broken links" might attract the
attention of the right people. I have no idea about this topic.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#10

It seems that I have too many test versions installed to accurately
recognise which one I am looking at.

Correction: The issue _HAS_ been fixed in 4.2.1.1 RC1

Sorry for the noise.

Dave

#11

Hi :slight_smile:
Brilliant! Nice one Dave! :slight_smile:

Tons of features and stuff was added to Calc for the 4.2.0. Plus we
got a massive code donation from AOO to deal with Accessibility
issues. Both of those are things a lot of us have been anxiously
waiting for but both arriving at once was a surprise. Any time any
software has new features there is a good chance that unexpected
problems will arise.

I've just heard from another mailing list that the 4.2.1rc1 has fixed
a ton of such issues and 4.2.1"final release" is racing to be released
= to the point where it might not have all the languages fully
translated even where the translations have been done. RC = "Release
Candidate" and we normally have 2 of those with the rc2 being
identical, or almost identical to the final release. The 4.2.2 is due
to follow quite swiftly and that will have the languages and will
smooth out wrinkles in the 4.2.1.

So, we do need people to use the 4.2.1 as much as possible. There is
tons of amazing stuff in the 4.2.x branch that was not in previous
branches and we need people to post bug-reports about any slightest
problem they find so that it can settle down quickly.

For my colleagues machines i am not going to install 4.2.x until it
reaches 4.2.4. But for my own machines i intend to install it asap.
However i tend to only use the fairly basic features so i probably
wont find any problems.

Similarly it's unlikely you will have any troubles with the 4.2.1
unless you are as unlucky as the o.p. (Tom Cloyd), if you do then go
back to the 4.1.4 and keep following that branch just occasionally
trying out this newest feature-rich branch to see if your issue has
been resolved yet.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#12

Hi :slight_smile:
Noise is sometimes good. This list often solves problems as a team by
"brain storming". Looking through the list of "known issues" for the
particular release is a brilliant idea.

It's clearly something odd and unusual because otherwise Brian or
Regina or someone would have given us the right answer by now.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#13

Tom -

I started a new profile. All has been well. Then I copied over my dictionaries, and a few other files. Still no issues.

But this morning, which is the first time I really had a chance to see if I gotten past the problem I initially reported (for complex reasons I won't go into), the initial problem occurred once again.

Given that an update to this release is expected soon, and that I've found a workaround, I'll stay with the 4.2 release.

An update on the "broken links" problem -

The links DO work, if one uses Ctrl-click to activate them. But the link, when examined, has a "!!br0ken!!" in the target area. I'll post this as a new thread.

Tom

#14

Working with a new profile, but with my dictionaries, and a few other files copied over from my old profile, I'm still having this problem. I have a work-around, but the issue is clear and replicable. I'd give a better description, but I don't really know how to.

I'll hope the next version fixes this.

t.