Bug 170057 - NAVIGATOR: When opening docx-file, Writer does not fetch headings and sub-headings unlike Google Docs and WPS Office
Summary: NAVIGATOR: When opening docx-file, Writer does not fetch headings and sub-hea...
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: All All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Navigator Heading-Numbering DOCX-Paragraph
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2025-12-20 00:07 UTC by Danat
Modified: 2026-02-04 12:52 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Google Docs (7.82 MB, video/mp4)
2025-12-20 00:07 UTC, Danat
Details
WPS Office (11.07 MB, video/mp4)
2025-12-20 00:07 UTC, Danat
Details
File in the videos (33.80 KB, application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document)
2025-12-20 00:08 UTC, Danat
Details
No headers and sub-headers in Writer (195.72 KB, image/png)
2025-12-20 00:08 UTC, Danat
Details

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Description Danat 2025-12-20 00:07:02 UTC
Description:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1uiWgjKlftPF499JCtgpm0G1bAb5BbcLl?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kzNvAcM0uHomStF4XNcR1m1zlh6orFJo/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=110288689114897472935&rtpof=true&sd=true

https://sg.docworkspace.com/d/cbPa2lsWtbsXl7os_lyzcdibgpivglmv45a?from=dco


Steps to Reproduce:
1.Open an outside docx file in Writer with headers and sub-headers
2.
3.

Actual Results:
No headers and sub-headers

Expected Results:
Same as Google Docs and WPS Office


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No

Additional Info:
In the video
Comment 1 Danat 2025-12-20 00:07:28 UTC
Created attachment 204730 [details]
Google Docs
Comment 2 Danat 2025-12-20 00:07:50 UTC
Created attachment 204731 [details]
WPS Office
Comment 3 Danat 2025-12-20 00:08:18 UTC
Created attachment 204732 [details]
File in the videos
Comment 4 Danat 2025-12-20 00:08:45 UTC
Created attachment 204733 [details]
No headers and sub-headers in Writer
Comment 6 Danat 2025-12-21 05:14:51 UTC
This is the actual file in the video. At first, I gave a wrong link

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12VXPL_tK8xJHREqTVtDktrqAAlcYFfOc/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=110288689114897472935&rtpof=true&sd=true
Comment 7 Dieter 2026-01-06 21:33:58 UTC
So heading numbering is missing after opening the document. I'm surprised, that this problem hasn't been reported before. Unfortunately I can't assess, if document tabs are equal to numbered headings

Jim, any insights from you?
Comment 8 Jim Raykowski 2026-01-08 01:01:36 UTC
I think the reason the headings aren't shown in the Navigator is that the paragraph styles used for the headings have Outline level set as [None]. This can be seen in the Outline & List tab in the Paragraph dialog by placing the cursor on a heading then Menu > Format > Paragraph... or right-click context menu > Paragraph > Paragraph... or by editing the heading style using the sidebar Styles deck.
Comment 9 Danat 2026-01-08 02:28:54 UTC
(In reply to Jim Raykowski from comment #8)
> I think the reason the headings aren't shown in the Navigator is that the
> paragraph styles used for the headings have Outline level set as [None].
> This can be seen in the Outline & List tab in the Paragraph dialog by
> placing the cursor on a heading then Menu > Format > Paragraph... or
> right-click context menu > Paragraph > Paragraph... or by editing the
> heading style using the sidebar Styles deck.

It's been proven that Writer's alternatives count them, even though the file is the same

So how do you judge this report, and what do you think should be done? Is it a bug?
Comment 10 Jim Raykowski 2026-01-08 05:34:17 UTC
(In reply to Danat from comment #9)
> So how do you judge this report, and what do you think should be done? Is it
> a bug?
I say it's definitely not a bug with the Navigator. It could be a bug in the docx import filter code. I don't know much about that area of the code base. Thanks for the motivation to poke around there to see what I can learn :)
Comment 11 Jim Raykowski 2026-01-08 07:15:48 UTC
Examining the following heading in document.xml inside of the attached file:

Before setting an outline level:

<w:p><w:pPr><w:pStyle w:val="Heading1"/><w:rPr></w:rPr></w:pPr><w:r><w:rPr></w:rPr><w:t>The Quranic Verse &quot;Everything is Going to Perish Except His Face&quot; (Surah Al-Qasas 28:88): Classical and Contemporary Islamic Interpretations</w:t></w:r></w:p>

After setting an outline level:

<w:p><w:pPr><w:pStyle w:val="Heading1"/><w:numPr><w:ilvl w:val="0"/><w:numId w:val="0"/></w:numPr><w:outlineLvl w:val="0"/><w:rPr></w:rPr></w:pPr><w:r><w:rPr></w:rPr><w:t>The Quranic Verse &quot;Everything is Going to Perish Except His Face&quot; (Surah Al-Qasas 28:88): Classical and Contemporary Islamic Interpretations</w:t></w:r></w:p>

There is no outlineLvl property in the original.

I don't have MS Word so can't open the file with it to see if the outline structure is shown in whatever Words equivalent to Navigator is. Perhaps Google Docs and WPS Office default to use the <w:pStyle w:val="Heading1"/> property as the outline level if the outlineLvl property isn't found.

So it doesn't seem like it is a bug in the docx import filter either.
Comment 12 Danat 2026-01-08 08:12:09 UTC
(In reply to Jim Raykowski from comment #11)

Thank you. I'll mark this as new. But if anyone objects - you may unmark