Bug 141014 - RTL footnotes that are added to ms-word files appear mirrorred in ms-word
Summary: RTL footnotes that are added to ms-word files appear mirrorred in ms-word
Status: VERIFIED WORKSFORME
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
7.1.1.2 release
Hardware: All All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: possibleRegression, text:rtl
Depends on:
Blocks: Footnote-Endnote DOC Hebrew
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2021-03-14 08:44 UTC by Yotam Benshalom
Modified: 2023-05-04 21:14 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Footnote is good in Writer but broken in ms-word (15.00 KB, application/msword)
2021-03-14 08:44 UTC, Yotam Benshalom
Details
Original file as received from sender (55.50 KB, application/msword)
2021-04-03 15:40 UTC, Yotam Benshalom
Details

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Description Yotam Benshalom 2021-03-14 08:44:25 UTC
Created attachment 170472 [details]
Footnote is good in Writer but broken in ms-word

After recent updates, RTL footnotes that are added to ms-word files appear mirrored in ms-word (the order of the letters is reversed in each word). This is a serious regression.

To reproduce: 
1. Open an existing RTL ms-word file.
2. Add an RTL footnote, save and close.
3. Open the file in ms-word.

Expected result:
1. The file looks the same.

Actual result:
2. The footnote text is mirrorred (the letter order is reversed).

I attach an example ms-word file showing the issue. The footnote is readable in Writer but not in MS-word (and somehow the original line is invisible as well - something really bad happened). This is a serious regresiion, blocking RTL interoperavility.
Comment 1 Dieter 2021-03-30 09:26:37 UTC
Yotam, I can see the difference. I assume, that the document has been created in LO Writer and saved as DOC-File, correct? Could you please add a sample odt-file (before saving as DOC)? This would make it easier for us to verify the bug.
=> NEEDINFO

BTW: Regression is defined as "issues previously fixed but somehow broken again". So has it worked in a previous version of LO?
Comment 2 Yotam Benshalom 2021-03-30 09:34:22 UTC
The document has been created in ms-word, and was edited in LO.
Comment 3 Dieter 2021-03-30 09:41:28 UTC
(In reply to Yotam Benshalom from comment #2)
> The document has been created in ms-word, and was edited in LO.

Is it possible for you to create a new document in LO with footnotes in Hebrew and to save it as doc and reopen in MS-Word. This will show, if it is a problem with LO or not. If it is possible for you to reprodce the problem this way, please attach odt-file. Thank you.
Comment 4 Yotam Benshalom 2021-03-30 10:16:07 UTC
I can't reproduce it on my windows 10 environment, neither when adding the comment in ms-word nor when adddin it in LO (note that the buggy scenario was this: I received a document created by a client on ms-word\windows, I used LO\linux to add comments to it, and the text I added looked fine in LO but garbled on the client's ms-word\windows; I don't know exactly what ms-word or windows my client uses).
This seems to me to be a regression, because I have been doing this for many years now, and the problem never occured before.
Comment 5 Yotam Benshalom 2021-03-30 10:17:31 UTC
Sorry, correction - the problem was of course in footnotes, not comments.
Comment 6 Dieter 2021-03-30 10:38:18 UTC
Thank you for further explanation. I'm not familiar with such a case, so I don't want to assess, if it is a bug of LO or has it reason somewhere else.

Buovjaga, how to proceed in such a case?
cc: Buovjaga
Comment 7 Buovjaga 2021-03-30 10:56:15 UTC
(In reply to Dieter from comment #6)
> Thank you for further explanation. I'm not familiar with such a case, so I
> don't want to assess, if it is a bug of LO or has it reason somewhere else.
> 
> Buovjaga, how to proceed in such a case?
> cc: Buovjaga

I think finding out the exact MSO version used to create the .doc would be nice.
Comment 8 Yotam Benshalom 2021-03-30 12:28:53 UTC
My client sent me his MSO version:
MS Word 2003 (11.8169.8172) SP3
(MSO Proffessional Edition)
Comment 9 Justin L 2021-04-03 14:15:55 UTC
So the next step is to have a clean version of the document that has not yet been edited by LO. Can you provide the original document as your client gave it to you? (And please first confirm that adding a footnote to this document does produce the problem described here before adding the unedited file.)

Better yet would be finding out how to reproduce this from scratch, but that might be difficult. Another thing to try would be some older documents that worked before - do they also break now, or is it just something about this particular document?
Comment 10 Yotam Benshalom 2021-04-03 15:40:52 UTC
Created attachment 170938 [details]
Original file as received from sender

The file is attached.
Comment 11 Yotam Benshalom 2021-04-03 15:42:11 UTC
(Sorry for not checking again for the bug - usually I do not have access to a Windows system).
Comment 12 Dieter 2021-04-17 14:14:39 UTC
I can reproduce it with

Version: 7.1.2.2 (x64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 8a45595d069ef5570103caea1b71cc9d82b2aae4
CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19042; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: de-DE (de_DE); UI: en-GB
Calc: CL

Steps to reproduce:
1. Open attachment from comment 10 in LO
2. Add a RTL footnote (I took the first line of the footnote in attachment 170472 [details])
3. Save and close
4. Open in MS Word (Word 2016)
Comment 13 QA Administrators 2023-04-18 03:23:27 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 14 Dieter 2023-04-27 19:03:09 UTC
Looks good to me with

Version: 7.5.3.1 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: d29ee673721b12c92b3de9b9663473211414f0db
CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19045; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: de-DE (de_DE); UI: en-GB
Calc: CL threaded

Saving as doc-file and open in MS Word 365

Yotam, could you please retest?
Comment 15 Dieter 2023-04-30 09:40:11 UTC
(In reply to Dieter from comment #14)
> Yotam, could you please retest?

YOTAM, let's change to RESOLVED WORKSFORME for the moment. Feel free to change it back to NEW, if you can still reproduce it in a 7.5.3 or newer.
Comment 16 Eyal Rozenberg 2023-05-04 21:14:20 UTC
Works for me as well with LO 7.4 on Windows 64bit.