Description: LibreOffice Writer tries to add spaces intelligently when copy-pasting whole words with CTRL+C, CTRL+V. Usually it works like this: Step 1. Open a new LO Writer document. Step 2. Type this three-word line: start middle end Step 3. Copy “middle” with CTRL+C. Step 4. Place the cursor inside a word and paste with CTRL+V. Note that LO adds both leading and trailing spaces. Undo. Step 5. Place the cursor immediately before a word and paste with CTRL+V. Note that LO adds a single trailing space to separate them. Undo. Step 6. Place the cursor immediately after a word and paste with CTRL+V. Note that LO adds a single leading space to separate them. Undo. Step 7. Type two spaces anywhere, place the cursor between them, and paste with CTRL+V. Note that LO doesn't add spaces (to avoid double spaces). Undo. This behavior breaks in at least three cases (A, B, C). Case A: Instead of Step 3, copy either “start” or “end” with CTRL+C. Step 4. Place the cursor inside a word and paste with CTRL+V. Observe results, then undo. Step 5. Place the cursor immediately before a word and paste with CTRL+V. Observe results, then undo. Step 6. Place the cursor immediately after a word and paste with CTRL+V. Observe results, then undo. Step 7. Type two spaces anywhere, place the cursor between them, and paste with CTRL+V. Observe results, then undo. Actual Results: In each case, LO doesn't add any spaces. Expected Results: LO should add leading and/or trailing spaces as appropriate, as it would for any other copied word or group of whole words. (Comment: This behavior is at least inconsistent, and presumably a bug. It happens specifically when the text selection starts at the start of a paragraph or ends at the end of a paragraph, and contains only whole words and punctuation.) Case B: Follow Steps 1-3. Step 4: Type a space after “end”. Step 5: Leave the cursor after the space and paste with CTRL+V. Actual Results: LO adds an unwanted leading space, resulting in two spaces. Expected Results: LO should not add another space. (Comment: I encounter this bug frequently when I have copied a long word, proper name, or phrase to use throughout a paragraph. When I come to use the copied text, I type a space because I am about to insert a word that I have copied without a leading space, then when I paste it I get two spaces. This is bad enough, but Case A makes it worse because occasionally I happen to have copied the word from the start or end of a paragraph, so I actually DO need to type the space!) Case C: Follow Steps 1-3. Step 1: Select the word “middle”, and paste with CTRL+V. Observe that LO correctly replaces the word without adding any spaces. Undo. Step 2: Select the word “end”, and paste with CTRL+V. Actual Results: LO adds a leading space, resulting in two spaces between the second and third words of the line. Expected Results: LO should not add a space. (Comment: This unwanted space is only created when copy-pasting over the words at the end of a line, similarly to Case B. Note that if there is a period or other symbol after “end”, then this bug occurs if the symbol is included in the selection, and not otherwise. Multiple whole words at the end of a line can be selected and this bug occurs. If the first or last words of a line are copied and pasted, this bug does not occur, due to Case A.) Steps to Reproduce: Follow the steps for Cases A, B, and C. Actual Results: Case A: No spaces added. Cases B,C: Unwanted spaces added. Expected Results: Case A: Spaces added consistently. Cases B,C: No spaces added. Reproducible: Always User Profile Reset: No Additional Info: Version: 24.8.3.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community Build ID: 48a6bac9e7e268aeb4c3483fcf825c94556d9f92 CPU threads: 12; OS: Windows 11 X86_64 (10.0 build 22631); UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win Locale: en-GB (en_NZ); UI: en-GB Calc: CL threaded
This bug makes copy-pasting unpredictable and actively creates typos on behalf of the user. There is no setting to turn off the behavior where LO adds new spaces to pasted text. Some (see e.g. Bug 81855) don't even want that behavior when it works perfectly. I would rather have LO never add spaces than the current buggy and unpredictable behavior. Rebinding ‘paste without formatting’ to a shorter combo and using that is a workaround, but a bad one. CTRL-C is deeply ingrained muscle memory, and if I replaced that binding then of course I would lose the text formatting when pasting, which is almost never desirable.
If do you select "middle ", there is no added extra space to the left if it is pasted between a word. Version: 24.2.7.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community Build ID: ee3885777aa7032db5a9b65deec9457448a91162 CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19043; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win Locale: es-AR (es_AR); UI: en-US Calc: threaded
Inconsistent or not, I prefer no added space/s automatically. So, it could be added an option to choose or not this behavior. I see that it is not an autocorrect feature, because Undo do not delete the extra space/s.
Version 25.2.1.2 Build ID: d3abf4aee5fd705e4a92bba33a32f40bc4e56f49 CPU threads: 8; OS: Windows 11 x86_64 UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win Locale: en-US; UI: en-US Calc: threaded Bug confirmed. The copy/paste behavior is inconsistent in the way described. Not sure if this is intentional, but I agree with LeroyG that I would also prefer that no spaces were included automatically.
Reproducible: Version: 24.8.4.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community Build ID: 480(Build:2) CPU threads: 4; OS: Linux 6.4; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3 Locale: es-MX (en_US.UTF-8); UI: en-US Calc: threaded
There is no added spaces if pasted as unformatted text or as rich text formatting.
Reproducible in the master branch. Version: 25.8.0.0.alpha0+ (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community Build ID: dcd3427149c33852428b4198c22f6f858125c294 CPU threads: 16; OS: Linux 6.12; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3 Locale: en-US (en_US.UTF-8); UI: en-US Calc: threaded