Bug 99639 - Basic Document - Interoperability (Loss of Formatting)
Summary: Basic Document - Interoperability (Loss of Formatting)
Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
5.1.2.2 release
Hardware: All All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard: interoperability
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2016-05-02 22:29 UTC by Joel Madero
Modified: 2017-08-02 22:39 UTC (History)
6 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Original File (ODT) (24.96 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text)
2016-05-02 22:29 UTC, Joel Madero
Details
Original File (Docx) (15.20 KB, application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document)
2016-05-02 22:29 UTC, Joel Madero
Details
PDF Output (MSOffice 2013) (249.54 KB, application/pdf)
2016-05-02 22:30 UTC, Joel Madero
Details
PDF Output (MSOffice 2013) retested (310.95 KB, application/pdf)
2016-05-04 13:37 UTC, Timur
Details
PDF Output (MSOffice 2010) retested (219.09 KB, application/pdf)
2016-05-04 13:38 UTC, Timur
Details
screen print of original docx from Writer opened in Word (114.09 KB, image/png)
2016-05-16 20:50 UTC, Cor Nouws
Details
screen print of original ODT from Writer opened in Word (101.32 KB, image/png)
2016-05-16 20:51 UTC, Cor Nouws
Details

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Description Joel Madero 2016-05-02 22:29:34 UTC
Created attachment 124802 [details]
Original File (ODT)

Windows 7
Bodhi Moksha
LibreOffice 5.1.2.2 & MS Office 2013

I wrote an incredibly basic paper over the past few days with zero styles used, just bold, underline, one size font (12 Times New Roman). Because there was a page limit on the paper I had to pay close attention (and cut out substantial portions) to hit the limit. After writing the entire document in LibreOffice, I booted into Windows and opened both the odt and the docx only to find out that the 10 pages shown in LibreOffice became just over 9 pages in MS Office. I lost a substantial amount of work (cut out because I thought I was over the limit) and time (trying to add back what I had stripped out) because of this.

For a document that has zero funky things going on - 1" margins, single font with a single size, a little direct formatting (bold/underline/italics) I had assumed perfect interop. 

I am attaching the original odt, the original docx, pdfs of both LibreOffice and Microsoft Office.
Comment 1 Joel Madero 2016-05-02 22:29:52 UTC
Created attachment 124803 [details]
Original File (Docx)
Comment 2 Joel Madero 2016-05-02 22:30:14 UTC
Created attachment 124804 [details]
PDF Output (MSOffice 2013)
Comment 3 Cor Nouws 2016-05-03 11:09:48 UTC
Hi Joel,

Strange.
Do you notice the difference in the header spacing?
Did you track what parts disappeared?

Ciao - Cor
Comment 4 Joel Madero 2016-05-03 14:49:44 UTC
It's line spacing - LibreOffice only fits 21 lines per page, Microsoft Office at the standard Times New Roman font fits 23 (which is expected - the assignment I had due said "Times New Roman font, 10 pages max, double space with 23 lines per page)".

Verified both on Windows and Linux.

Nothing disappeared. Everything matches up in terms of settings yet LibreOffice shows 10 pages while Microsoft Office shows 9.25.

Both LibreOffice and Microsoft Office show:
Times New Roman font;
Size 12;
Double Spaced;
1" page margin

So it's either LibreOffice is using some different line spacing, the font despite being 12 is a little bigger than MSO, the margins are slightly larger (despite both saying 1")


There's not much more I can provide. I gave the proof - if you open the odt or docx in MSO you'll see nothing is missing yet the pages to align. 

For cases where there is a page limit (often times with grants, court documents, etc...) this is a blocker which prevents me (and others in my position) from using LibreOffice in a professional way as it strips out as much as 10% of the available writing space in an incredibly simple document.
Comment 5 Timur 2016-05-04 13:37:25 UTC
Created attachment 124840 [details]
PDF Output (MSOffice 2013) retested
Comment 6 Timur 2016-05-04 13:38:52 UTC
Created attachment 124841 [details]
PDF Output (MSOffice 2010) retested

As shown, both MSO 2010 and MSO 2013 show DOCX just as LO, on 10 pages. 
So, not reproduced. Tested in Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.
Comment 7 Joel Madero 2016-05-04 14:56:02 UTC
(In reply to Timur from comment #6)
> Created attachment 124841 [details]
> PDF Output (MSOffice 2010) retested
> 
> As shown, both MSO 2010 and MSO 2013 show DOCX just as LO, on 10 pages. 
> So, not reproduced. Tested in Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

That is really weird and even more concerning...I open the attached document in Linux and Windows in LibreOffice, both show 10 pages, MSO 2013 shows 9.25...
Comment 8 Buovjaga 2016-05-13 14:01:54 UTC
(In reply to Timur from comment #6)
> Created attachment 124841 [details]
> PDF Output (MSOffice 2010) retested
> 
> As shown, both MSO 2010 and MSO 2013 show DOCX just as LO, on 10 pages. 
> So, not reproduced. Tested in Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

I have the exact same result.

Win 8.1 32-bit
MSO 2013
Comment 9 Timur 2016-05-13 14:35:51 UTC
Of course, Joel, please try to find out why you get that result.
Comment 10 Joel Madero 2016-05-13 14:40:19 UTC
I honestly don't have a lot of time to be experimenting with it right now. Closing as WFM and I'll just have to rely on MSO when doing these kinds of assignments (no blame, stuff happens....just need things to work when I'm working on things for work).

Thanks all for taking the time to test.
Comment 11 Joel Madero 2016-05-13 15:59:41 UTC
Thanks to bearon in #libreoffice-dev - the underlying issue has been determined. Reported a new bug (bug 99828). Still a big problem for professional work interoperability but at least that bug identifies the underlying issue. Thanks all.
Comment 12 Cor Nouws 2016-05-16 20:50:54 UTC
Created attachment 125103 [details]
screen print of original docx from Writer opened in Word
Comment 13 Cor Nouws 2016-05-16 20:51:44 UTC
Created attachment 125104 [details]
screen print of original ODT from Writer opened in Word
Comment 14 Cor Nouws 2016-05-16 20:56:33 UTC
I've attached two png's (comment 12 and comment 13) showing original docs and ODT opened in Word2010.
Mind dat ODT cannot be opened directly be goes through a MS repair washing street ..

The docx is 10 pages.
The repaired odt a bit more than 9.

Conclusion 1 : ODT>DOCX in Writer gives correct result in Word
Conclusion 2 : ODT from Writer in Word 2010 is not interpreted correct.
Comment 15 Yousuf Philips (jay) (retired) 2016-09-25 16:15:25 UTC

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 33304 ***
Comment 16 Yousuf Philips (jay) (retired) 2016-09-25 18:46:01 UTC
So the issue turned out that Joel added '.doc' in the save as dialog without changing the file type drop down list to DOC, so it was saving to odt format in the saved .doc.
Comment 17 Aron Budea 2016-09-25 20:06:27 UTC
Ok, so since in this case Word's ODF handling is buggy, let's use status NOTOURBUG.
Then we can have a followup enhancement for setting saved file type based on extension.
Comment 18 Yousuf Philips (jay) (retired) 2016-09-25 22:19:01 UTC
Return it back to WFM as it was user error of joel to incorrectly save the file with .doc extension in odf format.
Comment 19 Aron Budea 2017-08-01 22:14:04 UTC
This is actually a bug in handling file extensions during save (extension .odt should have been added by LO), and I opened bug 111070 on it.
Comment 20 Aron Budea 2017-08-02 15:32:16 UTC
For clarification, the expected/propsed behavior in bug 111070 wouldn't change the file type during save (that behavior was dismissed in bug 93199), but would eliminate the confusion by adding the extension.