Description: When LibreOffice is updated and an existing Writer document created with an older program version is opened and then saved, all Styles are wiped out. All styles must be added and then manually reset line by line. This is disastrous when working in formatted templates, such as screenplays. I have been forced to stop accepting all LibreOffice updates as a result. Steps to Reproduce: 1. Save a style-formatted Writer document, such as a screenplay. 2. Update to a newer version of LibreOffice. 3. Open the older document, work on it, save it, and close it. 4. Reopen the same document. Actual Results: All existing style formatting is gone. A 100 page screenplay will now take two hours to reformat with required styles. Expected Results: All style formatting should NOT be erased. Reproducible: Always User Profile Reset: No Additional Info:
Thank you for reporting the bug. Please attach a sample document, created with an older version of LO (please add informations about that version), as this makes it easier for us to verify the bug. I have set the bug's status to 'NEEDINFO'. Please change it back to 'UNCONFIRMED' once the requested document is provided. (Please note that the attachment will be public, remove any sensitive information before attaching it)
Created attachment 157201 [details] Test screenplay with multiple styles in version 6.3.2.2 A two-page Writer document in screenplay format, using multiple styles (name, dialogue, direction, transition). Saved in version 6.3.2.2
Created attachment 157224 [details] Screenshot of the example screenplay opened in 6.4.0 RC2 I can not reproduce with the attached example in either 6.3.4 or 6.4.0 RC2. The screenplay displays fine to me in both versions. An screenshot is attached.
Hi... Did you: 1. Open the document in a later Writer version 2. Make a few text changes 3. Save and close the document and then close Writer 4. Restart Writer and reopen the document again This has happened to me at least 4 times after upgrading LibreOffice. All styles disappear and the entire document becomes left-justified. Much appreciated
(In reply to medelste from comment #4) > Hi... Did you: > > 1. Open the document in a later Writer version > 2. Make a few text changes > 3. Save and close the document and then close Writer > 4. Restart Writer and reopen the document again > > This has happened to me at least 4 times after upgrading LibreOffice. All > styles disappear and the entire document becomes left-justified. No I have not yet, but I'll test. However, why would you do this with .doc format, which LibreOffice will assume as old MS Word 97-2003 format? Why not the .docx Word 2007-higher format?
doc vs docx = force of habit. Years ago I used to have compatibility/exchange issues with .DocX for other users, whereas everyone could read Word .doc files. If that's what is causing the problem, then I can start using docx...? Thanks again
Created attachment 157226 [details] Test screenplay in docx format from version 6.3.2.2 Same screenplay from version 6.3.2.2 in docx format.
No, it's not about the DOC v. DOCX format. I've tried opening the example file, editing it, saving (both as .doc and .docx), closing Writer, and opening again in LO 6.4.0 RC2. The styles are kept and the content looks fine, including the edits I made. @medelste, you need to provide more details about your system and work flow to help the developers reproduce and fix this bug. What older version were you using that worked fine for you? Which new version did you upgrade to that wiped out all the styles? Where did you download the new version? You may want to copy the version text in the "Help > About LibreOffice" dialog (like the one in my screenshot) and paste it in this report.
Also, you might want to test the safe mode (Help > Restart in Safe Mode...) and see editing and saving still wipes out the styles. It may be related to your local user profile.
Perhaps it's the actual program upgrade that causes the issue? It just happened to me again this week when I opened an older screenplay with version 6.3.2.2, which I had upgraded to in the interim. Apologies, but I don't recall which version that older document was created with. Not only did all the text become left-justified, all the available styles also disappeared from the toolbar style dropdown until I manually added them again. Thanks again for your help. Here is my About text Version: 6.3.2.2 (x64) Build ID: 98b30e735bda24bc04ab42594c85f7fd8be07b9c CPU threads: 8; OS: Windows 10.0; UI render: GL; VCL: win; Locale: en-US (en_US); UI-Language: en-US Calc: threaded
no repro in Version: 6.4.0.1.0+ Build ID: c8e88aee3c058c57c96760cfb07a2330639cbc72 CPU threads: 4; OS: Linux 5.4; UI render: default; VCL: kf5; TinderBox: Linux-rpm_deb-x86_64@86-TDF, Branch:libreoffice-6-4, Time: 2019-12-29_01:56:30 Locale: ru-RU (ru_RU.UTF-8); UI-Language: en-US Calc: threaded
Hi... I was able to reproduce this error yet again, with an older screenplay last saved with a prior version of LibreOffice (don't know which version). But this time I was ready. I made a backup copy of the screenplay and tried a few different things. The workaround is to open the older-version screenplay, copy and paste the entire document, and then save. My guess is that this re-establishes all the styles present in the document, so that next time it's opened all the styles are still there. Thanks
I was not able to reproduce using Ubuntu 20.04 and development LO 7.0 or 6.4.2. I opened LibreOffice Test Screenplay.doc, entered some text and set it to "balloon Text" style, saved, exited, reloaded, and confirmed that balloon style, along with name, dialogue, and direction styles were all retained on the relevant paragraphs. [P.S. We always save as .doc too. DOCX has gotten decent, but there is still a lot of bugfixing continuing on it.] I can't think of any reason why or how you could be losing the style information. Since it must be very user specific, I'd first try to use a clean user profile, or as Ming suggested, start in safe mode. https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/UserProfile If possible, try to reproduce this on a different computer, or else with a different user account on the same computer.
Hi Justin... Did you update the LibreOffice version before reopening the style-formatted doc? That's where the problem occurs -- when I open an old doc after updating the program, it loses all style formatting. However as I commented above, I found a workaround by copying the old document and then pasting it into the updated Libreoffice version. This seems to preserve the style formatting.
(In reply to medelste from comment #14) > Hi Justin... Did you update the LibreOffice version before reopening the > style-formatted doc? That's where the problem occurs -- when I open an old > doc after updating the program, it loses all style formatting. However as I > commented above, I found a workaround by copying the old document and then > pasting it into the updated Libreoffice version. This seems to preserve the > style formatting. There is nothing in the update process itself that would affect this. You can install multiple versions in parallel and do experiments: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Installing_in_parallel/Windows
Since this has never been confirmed by anyone and a workaround has been found, let's just close this report.