Bug 164579 - Check boxes appear as passive squares after PDF export
Summary: Check boxes appear as passive squares after PDF export
Status: CLOSED NOTABUG
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
24.2.3.2 release
Hardware: All All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: bibisected, bisected, regression
Depends on:
Blocks: Form-Controls
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2025-01-04 14:37 UTC by Carsten
Modified: 2025-01-10 10:52 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Demo document (9.70 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text)
2025-01-08 06:19 UTC, BogdanB
Details

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Description Carsten 2025-01-04 14:37:51 UTC
Description:
When you create a form with check boxes and export the document to pdf then in the pdf document they don't work anymore. You cannot check them.

Steps to Reproduce:
Create a new Writer document.
Insert a check box form field.
Export your document to pdf with ther Writer exoprt function.
Open the created pdf document.

Actual Results:
The check box appears as a passive square and cannot be checked.

Expected Results:
Check boxes can be checked in pdf document.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: Yes

Additional Info:
I uninstalled previous Libre Office and reinstalled it before testing.
Comment 1 BogdanB 2025-01-04 19:40:09 UTC
Confirm with
Version: 25.8.0.0.alpha0+ (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 2b68e8bc0303432625a87d6dd60d5e6c3de9be72
CPU threads: 16; OS: Linux 6.8; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: ro-RO (ro_RO.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded
Comment 2 BogdanB 2025-01-04 19:48:47 UTC
Also in
Version: 24.2.8.0.0+ (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 2a06848352e0ba2e35bc84f8491d06cece32e707
CPU threads: 16; OS: Linux 6.8; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: ro-RO (ro_RO.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded

We need to know a latest version that worked...
Comment 3 Carsten 2025-01-05 20:20:53 UTC
Last known working version is 24.2.3.2
Comment 4 BogdanB 2025-01-06 07:19:41 UTC
I have tested 24.2.0 and it is NOT working. Let't find out a working version...

Version: 24.2.0.0.alpha0+ (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 2709d6bcf248a072abdc6e219466727f52dc159b
CPU threads: 16; OS: Linux 6.8; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: ro-RO (ro_RO.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded
Comment 5 Carsten 2025-01-06 11:40:52 UTC
When I use follwing LibreOffice version all works fine.

Version: 24.2.3.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 433d9c2ded56988e8a90e6b2e771ee4e6a5ab2ba
CPU threads: 16; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 22631; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: de-DE (de_DE); UI: de-DE
Calc: CL threaded

I opened a Writer document, insteted a check box, exported the document to pdf file and opened the result with Firefox. I can check the check box as expected.
Comment 6 Carsten 2025-01-07 08:25:57 UTC
The Linux version 24.2.3.2 works fine too.

Version: 24.2.3.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 433d9c2ded56988e8a90e6b2e771ee4e6a5ab2ba
CPU threads: 8; OS: Linux 4.4; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: en-US (C.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded
Comment 7 BogdanB 2025-01-07 08:51:19 UTC
Maybe the app which is opening my PDF is not accepting the checkbox.
Comment 8 Carsten 2025-01-07 16:45:00 UTC
I always used very simple PDF-Viewers as Firefox to check the pdf result.
With newer LibreOffice versions I cannot check created check boxes. But with the older ones all works fine.
That's why I opened this ticket.
Comment 9 BogdanB 2025-01-07 20:38:50 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 10 BogdanB 2025-01-08 04:49:43 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 11 BogdanB 2025-01-08 06:16:54 UTC
Miklos, can you take a look here?
Thanks.


tdf#162009 PDF export: disable export of form fields as PDF forms by default
Open <https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/attachment.cgi?id=195586>,
notice that from "bbb", the middle "b" is bold, export to PDF, none of
the "b"s are bold.

The reason for this is that by default we map form controls and content
controls to fillable PDF forms, which can only contain plain text.

Fix the problem by defaulting to not exporting form controls / content
controls to PDF forms: most users just want a PDF that is close to what
they saw in the edit window -- and the ones who want a fillable PDF form
can still opt in. Once the UI checkbox is enabled, we even remember
that.

Based on <https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/152622>, thanks
Justin!

Change-Id: Iddb75d1dbd969045321e139154f254c059eebf16
Reviewed-on: https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/171226
Reviewed-by: Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@collabora.com>
Tested-by: Jenkins
Signed-off-by: Xisco Fauli <xiscofauli@libreoffice.org>
Reviewed-on: https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/171310
Comment 12 BogdanB 2025-01-08 06:19:16 UTC
Created attachment 198427 [details]
Demo document

The document for testing if the checkbox can be checked or not.
Comment 13 Mike Kaganski 2025-01-08 06:23:01 UTC
If you want to export a PDF form, make sure that you export a PDF form. In the PDF export dialog, check the respective checkbox. Previously, the *default* was to export PDF forms; bug 162009 made it necessary to change the default.

This is not a bug. But it might be useful to mention the change of the default in the release notes.
Comment 14 Carsten 2025-01-08 07:28:48 UTC
I can confirm that the form option in the export dialogue solves the problem.
Thank you very much for the quick processing and help.