Bug 88859 - LO Writer math formulas disappear or shrink
Summary: LO Writer math formulas disappear or shrink
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 99225
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Formula Editor (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
Inherited From OOo
Hardware: x86-64 (AMD64) Linux (All)
: medium major
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: dataLoss
: 88890 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2015-01-28 15:47 UTC by Alon
Modified: 2021-03-18 07:16 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
An ODT file with a problem (56.94 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text)
2016-09-11 13:41 UTC, Alon
Details
Explanation to how I recieved the first ODT file (102.06 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text)
2016-09-11 13:50 UTC, Alon
Details
Formula that disappears suddenly, reproducible (297.86 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text)
2018-02-01 21:55 UTC, jon
Details

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Description Alon 2015-01-28 15:47:23 UTC
It's been about 5 years since I first got to see this bug in OOffice, and after moving to LO it's still there.
Changed computers and distros (now using MINT 17 x64 with LO 4.2.7.2 and this problem reappears every once in a while.
I googled this and found a few posts about it but since it's nowhere to be found here I decided to post this bug myself.
I can't recreate this bug, because I can't say exactly what causes it.
Didn't try in M$ cause I don't use it.
It happens every once in a while, and there is no way of telling it's about to happen.
What is actually happens is one of the following:
1. The content of a formula written using Writer's math editor disappears and I am left with a blank box.
2. The content disappears and the formula box becomes small, as if nothing was written in it.
3. The formula box becomes very small (as if it's empty), but its content is still there, only squished to the new size. When this happens, I can double click the box and sometimes the code is still there and I can copy it, delete the box and recreate the formula in a new box.

Last time it happened all I did was to hit the Enter key a few lines below the formula box, and the box went blanc.
(This should be in the most annoying bugs of LO...)
any other information needed from me will be happily supplied. :-)
Comment 1 Björn Michaelsen 2015-01-28 18:37:23 UTC
*** Bug 88890 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 2 Buovjaga 2015-02-19 14:22:59 UTC
Could you install LibreOffice version 4.4, so if you continue to see the bug, we can at least be sure it exists in the latest version?

Here are instructions for installing from a ppa: http://linuxg.net/how-to-install-libreoffice-4-4-on-ubuntu-15-04-ubuntu-14-10-ubuntu-14-04-ubuntu-12-04-and-derivative-systems-via-ppa/

If you find you're not seeing it on 4.4 after heavy use, you can close this as RESOLVED WORKSFORME.
Comment 3 Alon 2015-02-19 16:50:29 UTC
Installing LO 4.4 now.
Sadly I am during my semester vacation so I do not have the right conditions to test the fix enough, however I will do my best to inform you ASAP.
Comment 4 Joel Madero 2015-04-28 17:20:23 UTC
Unfortunately there's just not enough here for us to reproduce the issue.

Please when you find some time try to get reproducible steps together for us as the current steps don't actually tell us how to reproduce, instead it just tells us the end result (missing formulas).


Setting to NEEDINFO - once you can provide clear and reproducible steps please set the bug back to UNCONFIRMED. Thanks!
Comment 5 Xisco Faulí 2016-09-10 14:59:17 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 6 Alon 2016-09-10 15:20:46 UTC
Hey,
Sorry, but I can't seem to find a way to reproduce the bug.

It seems as if sometimes it just happens.
Most of the times the bug occurred were after copying and pasting a formula object (as an object) and then trying to edit it.
Other times it happened while writing a formula that includes an overbrace or underbrace attribute. In addition sometimes matrices seems to be the trigger (which is extremely annoying, due to the long time it takes to write a matrix).
One thing is that it almost always happens after editing a formula, but not necessarily the formula which eventually disappears
However I still can't be sure I can say exactly what causes the issue or how to reproduce it..
Comment 7 Alon 2016-09-11 13:41:46 UTC
Created attachment 127256 [details]
An ODT file with a problem
Comment 8 Alon 2016-09-11 13:50:30 UTC
Created attachment 127258 [details]
Explanation to how I recieved the first ODT file
Comment 9 Alon 2016-09-11 14:00:05 UTC
Well, this just happened!
I was writing a text document containing some formulas, when suddenly:
1. started writing a new formula.
2. A previous formula changed it's size and ratio.
3. Tried editing the misshaped formula and it's content disappeared (code erased).
4. Left editing, and a previous formula also disappeared.

You can use the first file to try and edit the empty formula objects, it sometimes reproduces the problem once it exists in an object (sometimes it doesn't)

Thank you! :-)
Comment 10 Buovjaga 2016-09-14 17:56:08 UTC
Aha, interesting. I tried with 05.מוליכים.odt

I didn't get a problem with the last formula (empty), but then I double clicked the 4th last formula to select and copy the contents and it went empty!
Now I can reproduce this every time I reopen the file and double click it.

Arch Linux 64-bit, KDE Plasma 5
Version: 5.3.0.0.alpha0+
Build ID: 798d55fcd8efc10fcef6b8ac3fa5abdbc82501ec
CPU Threads: 8; OS Version: Linux 4.7; UI Render: default; 
Locale: fi-FI (fi_FI.UTF-8); Calc: group
Built on September 13th 2016

Arch Linux 64-bit
LibreOffice 3.3.0 
OOO330m19 (Build:6)
tag libreoffice-3.3.0.4
Comment 11 Buovjaga 2016-12-20 14:17:00 UTC
I checked and this has the same issue as bug 99225

Markup in the Object 18 content.xml is only
<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="block"/>

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 99225 ***
Comment 12 jon 2018-02-01 21:54:05 UTC
I have a document that has the problem. I saved it just before it happens, and every time I open it the same formula disappears. I have attached the document to the bug here. The formula that is the problem is the third one from the bottom, beginning with F(Y). I hope that this can be of some help as it is the first reproducible event that I have been able to create.

The formula suddenly becomes empty whenever I try to edit it, please let me know if I can be of any more assistance.
Comment 13 jon 2018-02-01 21:55:02 UTC
Created attachment 139513 [details]
Formula that disappears suddenly, reproducible

The third formula from the end of the document disappears everytime I open the document and try to edit it.
Comment 14 Umit Dolap 2019-10-21 19:08:15 UTC
I've encountered this problem while trying to save an .odt and .pdf after writing two pages on trigonometric identities. I'm not sure when exactly this problem appeared, after saving as .odt or saving as .pdf after that. I thereafter divided each of the two pages as separate files, then the pages were saved correctly, both as .odt and .pdf.

I would like to ask you to resolve this bug, surely there are many people who write math texts with this wonderful application

Many thanks.

Sincerely,

Umit Dolap

GNU/Linux version: Debian 9.11 (stretch) running with Plasma 5.8.6
LibreOffice version: 6.3.2.2
Comment 15 Vincent Bamps 2021-03-17 21:25:40 UTC
The problem still occurs with latest version:
Version: 7.1.1.2 / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: fe0b08f4af1bacafe4c7ecc87ce55bb426164676
CPU threads: 8; OS: Linux 5.4; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: fr-BE (en_US.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: CL

The formula isn't editable anymore.
The formula appaers squished to the new random size
Comment 16 Alon 2021-03-18 06:59:18 UTC
tl;dr:
I have an idea of writing a macro to redesign the addition of formulas to a LO document (as an SVG image object). The pseudo-algorithem is down in this message. Please have a look at it and tell me how stupid I am for offering such workaround...


I have very little time and very little knowladge of coding, but I have an idea to bypass the "normal" way of inserting formulas, thus allowing to "draw a formula in the "Libreoffice Math" tool, exporting it and using it as SVG object (inline with text).
I don't know enough to be able to create this type of macro myself, but I'll start by writing a pseudo-algorithm here. You are more than wellcome to give notes and help with the writing of the actual macro. in addition, if this can be done as an online code collaboration thing (again, I know very little about these things), don't hasitate to help.

The pseudo-algorithm:
1. creat an inline with text object.
2. name the object "FSVGObj#n", where n is an integer, a changing number according to the number of such objects in the document.
3. open LO Math and wait for user input.
4. when user finishes writing formula, he\she should have a button for continuing the process
5. the formula should be exported to PDF in a temporary location
6. using inkscape (should be installed) convert the PDF to SVG
7. editing the svg as text to keep the text in the buttom of the PDF (the actual code in the formula editor) as an SVG comment(i.e. <!--...-->)
8. removing al the rest of the pdf (i.e. the frames, and titles etc.), kipping only the actual formula
9. Resize page to content using inkscape
10. insert svg to the aforementioned object ("FSVGObj#n")
11. if one is to update a formula, the code for the formula editor should be availible in the commented part of the svg assosiated with the object.
Comment 17 Buovjaga 2021-03-18 07:16:59 UTC
Vincent: The other report is still open, so no need to change the status of this one

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 99225 ***