Bug 123602 - Spacing changes when .odt file opened with more recent version of Writer
Summary: Spacing changes when .odt file opened with more recent version of Writer
Status: RESOLVED INVALID
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
6.1.4.2 release
Hardware: x86-64 (AMD64) Linux (All)
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2019-02-21 03:07 UTC by kuggdyar
Modified: 2019-05-15 05:59 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Part of an ODT made 2017-06-16 (475.85 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text)
2019-05-11 06:16 UTC, kuggdyar
Details
Extract of a PDF made 2017-06-16 (27.66 KB, application/pdf)
2019-05-11 06:17 UTC, kuggdyar
Details
PDF made 2019-05-11 (18.01 KB, application/pdf)
2019-05-11 06:18 UTC, kuggdyar
Details

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Description kuggdyar 2019-02-21 03:07:30 UTC
Description:
I made an .odt file containing text, styles, &c. I exported it as a PDF on 4 September 2018. I opened the same .odt file today (21 February 2019) and the spacing of the document has changed. It is compressed – the spacing of lines is closer – compared to when I last opened it. I can confirm this because I have the PDF, and it is very clearly different.

I cannot say for sure (because I do not wish to install the version of LibreOffice the was current on Ubuntu on 4 September 2018 to check) but I think that – at the minimum – all of the double spacing set in styles was changed to 1.5 spacing.

I cannot provide the documents because they contain sensitive information.

Now I think of it, I have had this problem with other .odt files, but I have not so clearly noticed it until now.

The PDF's properties says 'producer' was 'LibreOffice 6.0'.

I am using Ubuntu 18.10, and LibreOffice is updated on my system by Ubuntu (i.e. I am not using a .deb file from LibreOffice.org or some other repo.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Create .odt file on 4 September 2018
2. Export that file with built-in PDF export
3. Open .odt file on 21 February 2019

Actual Results:
Spacing in .odt file was compressed compared to when it was originally saved.

Expected Results:
Spacing in .odt file was the same as when it was originally saved.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No



Additional Info:
Comment 1 Dieter 2019-02-21 08:29:00 UTC
Andrew, at least spacing of the default style has been changed in one of the latest releases. So I suppose it is not a bug. Perhaps it is possible to have a closer look, if you give informations about the styles, that are affected.

I have set the bug's status to 'NEEDINFO'. Please change it back to 'UNCONFIRMED' after giving the informations. Or close the bug report as RESOLVED NOTABUG, if the explanation given above is sufficient for you.
Comment 2 kuggdyar 2019-05-01 05:27:29 UTC
G'day Dieter, my apologies for the delay in replying. I have spent some time trying to work this out today, but to no avail!

Just to clarify: for a few years, I have made ODTs, then exported PDFs from those ODTs, and kept both. Now when I open those ODTs, the line spacing is different (closer together) from how it used to be/appear, and I can see that very clearly when I compare what I am now seeing (i.e. the ODT opened in LibreOffice now, or the PDF exported from LibreOffice now) with the PDF which was made from it earlier.

Today I used a VM to open some relevant ODTs with older versions of LibreOffice, selected based on hunches I had about what is going on. I haven't been able to find a before issue and after issue point. The issue is there for 5.4.7.2, 6.0.0.1 and 6.2.2.2. Perhaps if I downloaded a bunch more versions, I could find the changeover point, but that would require a lot more time and downloads.

My guess (from looking at the dates of my documents and their formatting) is that something happened in the versions of LibreOffice that were provided in the Ubuntu main repository between approximately September and December 2018.

The reason this is of any importance is that people might open up old ODTs and find that they have different spacing (and other formatting?) from what they had when they saved them a year earlier.

I will leave the status as NEEDINFO because I haven't been able to give you anything concrete. But I can say that I am confident that it is not that the default spacing was changed because all of the spacing in all of the files I am talking about is set at double spacing, that didn't change, but the actual spacing on the page has.
Comment 3 QA Administrators 2019-05-08 21:47:26 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 4 Xisco Faulí 2019-05-09 08:58:39 UTC
Please attach a sample document, as this makes it easier for us to verify the bug. 
(Please note that the attachment will be public, remove any sensitive information before attaching it. 
See https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA/FAQ#How_can_I_eliminate_confidential_data_from_a_sample_document.3F for help on how to do so.)

I have set the bug's status to 'NEEDINFO'. Please change it back to 'UNCONFIRMED' once the requested document is provided.
Comment 5 kuggdyar 2019-05-11 06:16:49 UTC
Created attachment 151299 [details]
Part of an ODT made 2017-06-16
Comment 6 kuggdyar 2019-05-11 06:17:45 UTC
Created attachment 151300 [details]
Extract of a PDF made 2017-06-16
Comment 7 kuggdyar 2019-05-11 06:18:11 UTC
Created attachment 151301 [details]
PDF made 2019-05-11
Comment 8 kuggdyar 2019-05-11 06:44:39 UTC
It was very difficult to find a document (or part of a document) that I could show you that was not sensitive. Anyway, I think I have assembled what I need to show you what is happening.

The documents —

1. Part of an ODT made 2017-06-16
2. Extract of a PDF made 2017-06-16
3. PDF made 2019-05-11

— were created in the following way.

On 2017-06-16, using LibreOffice (version unknown), I made an ODT. Call that 'file A'.

On 2017-06-16, using LibreOffice (version unknown), I opened file A and exported it to PDF. Call that 'file B'.

On 2019-05-11, using LibreOffice (v 6.2.2.2), I opened file A, deleted the text that made up its first 3 pages, and saved it. That file is now attached as 'Part of an ODT made 2017-06-16'.

On 2019-05-11, using pdfsam, I opened 'file B' and extracted only page 4. That file is now attached as 'Extract of a PDF made 2017-06-16'. I confirm that 'Extract of a PDF made 2017-06-16' looks exactly like page 4 of file B.

On 2019-05-11, using LibreOffice (v 6.2.2.2), I opened 'file A' and exported only page 4 to PDF. That file is now attached as 'PDF made 2019-05-11'.

OK, having established that, the point: the spacing in 'Extract of a PDF made 2017-06-16' is as I wanted it, and exactly represents what I was looking at in LibreOffice back on 2017-06-16. The line spacing and spacing between paragraphs in 'PDF made 2019-05-11' is substantially closer than in 'Extract of a PDF made 2017-06-16', and that is also what you see when you open the ODT in LibreOffice on 2019-05-11.

Thus, you take the same ODT file, open it (and export it to PDF) on 2017-06-16 and 2019-05-11, and you will see different things.

As you will see from my post of 2019-05-01, I have not been able to determine by experiment when this change took place.
Comment 9 Dieter 2019-05-13 15:00:40 UTC
I opened you document from comment 5 in LO 5.4 and in master (LO 6.3), but I couldn't see a difference (also after PDF-Export).

But as far as I can see, this document is done with LO 6.2.2.2 (I had a look at meta.xml), what might explain, htat I can't reproduce.
Comment 10 kuggdyar 2019-05-14 00:31:07 UTC
Dear Dieter, I have another idea. Since you have access to multiple versions of LO, could you:

1. open a new ODT using LO 5.3
2. type a paragraph, set style to Text Body
3. set Text Body style line spacing to double spacing
4. save then export to PDF
5. open that ODT in LO 6.x then export to PDF
6. see if there is a difference in line spacing between those PDFs

If that doesn't show a difference, then something weird was/is going on with my installation, and the problem is not reproducible.
Comment 11 Dieter 2019-05-14 13:03:39 UTC
I tried those steps, but there is no difference in line spacing.
Comment 12 kuggdyar 2019-05-15 05:59:48 UTC
Hmm. Well, in that case, it seems that something weird is happening on my computer only. If I/we can’t replicate it, then that’s the end of that. I am very sorry to have bothered you.