Bug 170612 - Formatting persistence: Text color remains visible in external ODT readers (OnlyOffice) unless "Clear Formatting" is used
Summary: Formatting persistence: Text color remains visible in external ODT readers (O...
Status: NEEDINFO
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
25.8.0.4 release
Hardware: x86-64 (AMD64) Linux (All)
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
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Blocks:
 
Reported: 2026-02-05 05:59 UTC by Salvodif
Modified: 2026-02-07 01:50 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

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Description Salvodif 2026-02-05 05:59:57 UTC
Actual Results: When changing text color back to "Default" in LibreOffice Writer, the previous color remains visible when the ODT file is opened in other editors (e.g., OnlyOffice), even though it appears correctly in LibreOffice. The formatting only truly resets if "Clear Direct Formatting" is applied.

Expected Results: Setting the text color to "Default" or "Automatic" should completely remove the previous color attribute from the ODT XML, ensuring consistent rendering across different ODT-compliant software.


1. Open a new Writer document and type some text.
2. Change the text color to "Red".
3. Select the text and change the color back to "Automatic" or "Black" (Default).
4. Save the file as .odt.
5. Open the same file with OnlyOffice (or another ODT viewer).
6. Observe that the text still appears "Red" in the external viewer.
7. Go back to LibreOffice, select the text, use "Clear Direct Formatting" (Ctrl+M), and save.
8. Re-open in OnlyOffice: the color is now correct.
Comment 1 Mike Kaganski 2026-02-05 06:52:36 UTC
Please attach an ODT that you created using your procedure, that is shown in OnlyOffice wrong.

Note that your expectation that "Setting the text color to "Default" or "Automatic" should completely remove the previous color attribute from the ODT XML" can be completely wrong expectation. Setting the color to default may apply something atop of another setting, e.g. when considering style-level formatting vs. direct formatting, or paragraph-level formatting vs. character-run-level formatting, or when using tracked changes, etc. So the very likely cause is not "Writer does something wrong, and should change", but "OnlyOffice support of ODT has a bug, and then should fix it". But what I wrote is just a speculation, and checking specific file could clarify.
Comment 2 Salvodif 2026-02-05 15:13:11 UTC
actually I used "default" so that could be the case.

BTW cannot attach the file for copyright purposes
Comment 3 m_a_riosv 2026-02-07 01:50:58 UTC
(In reply to Salvodif from comment #2)
> actually I used "default" so that could be the case.
> 
> BTW cannot attach the file for copyright purposes

Please create a sample file with a couple of lines.

Please paste here the information in Menu>Help>About LibreOffice.

(There is an icon in the center to copy the information).