Bug 146362 - Column flow in region stopped to work
Summary: Column flow in region stopped to work
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
7.1.5.2 release
Hardware: All Windows (All)
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Page-Layout-Columns
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2021-12-21 19:45 UTC by Ulrich Windl
Modified: 2025-07-28 03:10 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Screenshot of PDF created with Writer 6.4.X (28.62 KB, image/png)
2021-12-21 19:46 UTC, Ulrich Windl
Details
Screenshot of page in Writer 7.1.5 (20.31 KB, image/png)
2021-12-21 19:47 UTC, Ulrich Windl
Details
test document (16.43 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text)
2021-12-21 20:36 UTC, BogdanB
Details
Final redacted test document (14.64 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text)
2021-12-27 20:56 UTC, Ulrich Windl
Details
how the document look (56.83 KB, application/zip)
2021-12-28 02:07 UTC, BogdanB
Details
Sample page showing where I added a new paragraph (marked as XXX) (38.65 KB, image/png)
2023-07-28 20:32 UTC, Ulrich Windl
Details
Sample page showing balanced columns after I added a new paragraph (marked) (37.34 KB, image/png)
2023-07-28 20:34 UTC, Ulrich Windl
Details

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Description Ulrich Windl 2021-12-21 19:45:29 UTC
Description:
An ODT document last saved with LibreOffice 6.4.X (X unknown) displays differently when loaded in LibreOffice Writer 7.1.5; specifically the option to balance columns in a region seems to be ignored.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Load a document with a multi-column region
2. Edit text in the multi-column region


Actual Results:
The text accumulates in first column and is not distributed equally among columns.

Expected Results:
Text should be balanced between columns as instructed.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No



Additional Info:
Worked up to LibreOffice 6.4 it seems. When creating a new document, it also seems to work.
Comment 1 Ulrich Windl 2021-12-21 19:46:30 UTC
Created attachment 177067 [details]
Screenshot of PDF created with Writer 6.4.X

Here both columns are balanced.
Comment 2 Ulrich Windl 2021-12-21 19:47:53 UTC
Created attachment 177068 [details]
Screenshot of page in Writer 7.1.5

In Writer 7.1.5 all text is in the first column (columns not balanced).
Comment 3 BogdanB 2021-12-21 20:36:49 UTC
Created attachment 177070 [details]
test document

I tested this bug on Linux with 7.3 and 7.4 and no repro.

I have attached a demo file. Could you test it in 6.4 and also in 7.1 on your Windows?...
Comment 4 Ulrich Windl 2021-12-27 20:54:50 UTC
The test document https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/attachment.cgi?id=177070 looks fine here as well, but obviously that wasn't created with an older version of LibreOffice.
I made another experiment with my document:
When I replace text, the text flows into the second column, but when I add a new paragraph it does not. However when only replacing a few characters, the text does NOT flow into the second column.
I continued to replace most text piece-wise: In the end the text did not flow, BUT when inserting a new paragraph now, the text flows into the second column, and when I undo it, the text "unflows" back into column one.
Comment 5 Ulrich Windl 2021-12-27 20:56:43 UTC
Created attachment 177161 [details]
Final redacted test document

This is the test document that displays in the first column only in Writer 7.1.5.2.
Comment 6 Ulrich Windl 2021-12-27 21:08:57 UTC
The problem is still seen in 7.1.8.1 x86 running on Windows 10/x86_64.
Comment 7 BogdanB 2021-12-28 02:07:45 UTC
Created attachment 177163 [details]
how the document look

See the attachement. This is how the document looks on 3 different versions on Linux.

You could try 2 solutions:
- go to LibreOffice website and download 2-3 different versions of LibreOffice as AppImages and test this document (https://www.libreoffice.org/ - Download - LibreOffice as AppImage)
- maybe you have a corupted user profile. see steps here: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/UserProfile#Resolving_corruption
Comment 8 Ulrich Windl 2021-12-28 07:30:05 UTC
The test document also looks OK in 7.1.4.2 on Linux (openSUSE Leap 15.3), so maybe it's a Windows-only issue.
Comment 9 BogdanB 2021-12-28 09:06:20 UTC
Confirm this bug on Windows

Version: 7.2.3.2 (x64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: d166454616c1632304285822f9c83ce2e660fd92
CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19044; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: ro-RO (ro_RO); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded
Comment 10 BogdanB 2023-07-28 15:27:19 UTC
Ulrich, there have been a lot of development in the last 2 years. Can you retest this bug on a newer version? On Windows.
Comment 11 Ulrich Windl 2023-07-28 20:31:47 UTC
I still see the defect for https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/attachment.cgi?id=177161 (my redacted test document) in 7.4.7.2.
When I tried to insert new paragraphs at different places (starting for the end), the columns are not equally filled. However when I add a new paragraph rather early, the columns are suddenly balanced, and when I delete that paragraph again, the columns are no longer balanced. However I don't know why the blindtext (lorem ipsum) sample document behaves differently; newer templates, maybe?
I'll attach screenshots in a moment.
Comment 12 Ulrich Windl 2023-07-28 20:32:56 UTC
Created attachment 188616 [details]
Sample page showing where I added a new paragraph (marked as XXX)

The columns are not balanced.
Comment 13 Ulrich Windl 2023-07-28 20:34:50 UTC
Created attachment 188617 [details]
Sample page showing balanced columns after I added a new paragraph (marked)

After having inserted a paragraph break, the columns are balanced (limited by other formatting restrictions like orphans and widows).
Comment 14 QA Administrators 2025-07-28 03:10:03 UTC
Dear Ulrich Windl,

To make sure we're focusing on the bugs that affect our users today, LibreOffice QA is asking bug reporters and confirmers to retest open, confirmed bugs which have not been touched for over a year.

There have been thousands of bug fixes and commits since anyone checked on this bug report. During that time, it's possible that the bug has been fixed, or the details of the problem have changed. We'd really appreciate your help in getting confirmation that the bug is still present.

If you have time, please do the following:

Test to see if the bug is still present with the latest version of LibreOffice from https://www.libreoffice.org/download/

If the bug is present, please leave a comment that includes the information from Help - About LibreOffice.
 
If the bug is NOT present, please set the bug's Status field to RESOLVED-WORKSFORME and leave a comment that includes the information from Help - About LibreOffice.

Please DO NOT

Update the version field
Reply via email (please reply directly on the bug tracker)
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appropriate in this case)


If you want to do more to help you can test to see if your issue is a REGRESSION. To do so:
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