[Solved] Table problem with .doc after 3.0.1 upgrade

[mkemp]

Hi,

I recently upgraded from 3.0.0 to 3.0.1 of OO. I have been working on some documents in Writer and been saving them as .doc Word 97/2000 documents for sending to others. Prior to the upgrade the documents were fine, however, since the upgrade when I save them and then subsequently open them in MS Word the tables are compressed so that the contents of the table cannot be seen in full. All looks fine in OO, but seems to be a new compatibility issue with MS Word since upgrade.

Thank you in advance for any help in this regard.

Cheers,
Mike

[Hagar Delest]

Indeed, I can confirm that with the files made by former versions of OOo (not sure if 3.0.0 is included) make MS Word 2003 crash when they have tables.

Seems to be that one: Issue 96307 - WW8: MS Word 2003 crash when opening exported writer document (tables).

Edit: Or perhaps that one: Issue 99024 - WW8: table with center alignment disappears when exported, fixed in 3.1.

Edit: There are still bugs (regressions) with that 3.1, see: [Issue] Tables made with 2.x wrecked at .doc export.

[FredStluka]

I have a related problem.

Summary:

Saving a table with alignment "Manual" or "From Left" to Microsoft Word 97/200/XP
format seems to save the columns widths wrong.

Details:

I created a new Text document via OOo 3.0.1.
I inserted a table with 2 rows and 2 columns, and entered some text into both
columns of the first row.
I changed the table alignment from Automatic to Manual by dragging the left
edge to the right a bit, the right edge to the left a bit, and dragging the middle
divider to the exact position I wanted it.
I then saved the file in Microsoft Word 97/200/XP format and exited OOo.

When I re-opened the file in OOo 3.0.1, the column widths had changed.
When I look at the Table properties, I see that the alignment is now "From Left",
not "Manual".

The problem definitely occurs during the save, not during the re-open. Opening
the file in Microsoft Word 2003 instead of OOo shows that the column width is
also wrong there.

When I re-open the file in OOo 3.0.1 and drag the columns to the desired width
again, and then check the Table properties, I see that the alignment is still
"From Left", not "Manual". Saving in Microsoft Word 97/200/XP format and
re-loading shows the column widths once again changed from what I specified.

Doing the same experiment with regular ODT format instead of MS Office format
works fine. The column widths are preserved and the alignment remains "Manual".

My small test file is attached.

BTW, keep up the good work! I am new to OOo and hoping to entirely abandon
MS Office. I'll be moving from Windows XP to Mac OS X Leopard shortly, and
hope to not buy MS Office ever again.

--Fred
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred Stluka -- mailto:fred@bristle.com -- http://bristle.com/~fred/
Bristle Software, Inc -- http://bristle.com -- Glad to be of service!
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[Dibbler]

I've had a similar (but much worse) problem than this!!!!

I tend to do a lot of work with tables, and as most of the work I do gets e-mailed to various people I've set OO Writer to automatically save documents in word format.

I upgraded to 3.0.1 and continued working on various documents, most containing tables. Now, when I've got back to one of the documents: the table in it is totally messed up, so much so that when I first opened the document I thought that I'd lost all data - as it's not showing the table! Further investigation on my part has shown me that the data is still saved in the document, but for some reason: rather than having a table with 3 Columns (widths were set as 2.25cm, 2.25cm & 12.5cm), there is only 1 Column, and the Table Width is set to 34cm, with the alignment set to "From Left". The same has occurred in all documents.

As a result of this, I've removed 3.0.1 from my PC and reverted back to 3.0.0 and would recommend that everyone else does the same.

My only problem is - this hasn't fixed the documents that I edited in 3.0.1 - so I'm going to have to spend hours reformatting these documents, which has pissed me off somewhat - as it's likely to take me a day to reformat all of the documents that I edited using 3.0.1.

[Hagar Delest]

I agree. Add your 2 votes to the bug report!

[markymark34]

I have same problem, MS Word file opened then edited in OO 3.0.1 then saved in .doc format has corrupted tables in MS Word which then crashes.

[bdk]

I too am experiencing a table problem with V 3.01. I have a complex table that I created for a basketball score sheet. I tried to fill in the names etc for a tournament and saved the resulting changes and lo and behold the table was all messed up. Fortunately I had a backup copy and didn't lose the original. I had to use my laptop which has an older version. I assume this is a bug. Has it been reported.

.....B

[bdk]

I did not explain my situation very well in the previous post. The complex table was created using 2.x on Linux. I did not try it on Windows to see if it crashed but version 3.01 on Linux makes a mess of the table and it is not usable.

...B

[Hagar Delest]

I assume this is a bug. Has it been reported.

Have you read my first post???

[bdk]

My issue is that under Linux if I modify my table created under V2 with V3.01 the table is messed up. Its a complex table and requires a lot of work to create.
I do not know if it crashes Windows.

.....B

[Hagar Delest]

I know but it may comes from the same root cause with different levels of criticality. But you can file a bug report if you want: [Tutorial] Reporting bugs or suggestions.

See also that one perhaps: [Solved] 3.0.1 Save as Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP not working.

[kimberg]

Hi all. I was wondering if anyone's figured out a workaround for this problem that can be applied to existing documents. I've downgraded to 3.0.0, but I have several documents that have been edited in 3.0.1 and no longer seem exportable to MS doc format without corruption. I'm currently in the process of downloading a 3.1 dev build to see if I can use it to repair these files, but it would be nice to know if there's some way to do it just within 3.0.0. Thanks for any help.

dan

[rmberger]

I seem to have found a related problem. Using OOO 3.0.1 on Win2K SP4.
If I create a text document, and then on the first page, create a 3 X 3 table, then insert a picture in the first cell of the table, the picture does not get placed in the cell, and the program hangs. I can insert a picture in the second cell (Row 1, Column 2), and all is well... the picture appears in the cell, and there is no hang-up,
I tired this on two Win2K machines. Then I tried to do the same thing under Linux (Xandros 4.0 Open Circulation Edition) with OOO 2.0. I had no problem creating the table and inserting the photos. After saving the file, I booted back into Win2K, and was able to continue editing the file in OOO 3.0.1, but......
If I deleted the picture from the first cell, and then replaced it, the computer would again hang up.
I hope someone else can try this and see if it can be duplicated. Also, if someone has OOO 2.0, (Windows version), see if you can duplicate this problem. Is it a Windows problem, or an OOO problem?
Dick B.

[jimjams]

I have the same problem, saving a bunch of docs in .doc word format I lose all the table formatting and more...
Backing to 3.0 version solve the problem.

[Hagar Delest]

For the record, there is also that one: Issue 99024 - WW8: table with center alignment disappears when exported, fixed in 3.1.

[ndyer1]

Yet another user with big table problems. I had written a 150 page document in msword2003 over XPpro. I then abandoned that computer and moved everything over to a OO 2.4/Vista machine. I was cautious for about a month, with lots of back-ups, but things seemed to all straighten out once i'd learned the subtle differences between the menus. I upgraded to OO 3.0.1 two weeks ago, and have been having lots of problems since. First, i could not save the doc in any format! Lost that day's work entirely. Then crashes began. 2 or 3 per day. Finally i abandoned 3.0 and started using 2.4 again. At first, things seemed fine (saves OK and no crashes). But then i noticed, all the tables were blank. Lines and columns present but no data within them. I went back to my back-ups. No tables there either. Went back to 3.0, no tables there either.

W h e r e d i d t h e y g o ?

[Hagar Delest]

I've not read the entire bug report but if the display options of the tables don't get your data back to life (try the web layout as view mode), then I fear that the data are just lost. Have you checked your backup folder (see [Tutorial] The OOo user profile)?

[happywillo]

I am also having documents suddenly corrupt since the upgrade to 3.0.1
This happens when I save in either .doc or .rtf format. Th edocuments then become all but unreadable under open office, but will however still open in Wordpad (.rtf only)
some of these documents have tables, but not all -I will be reverting to 3.0.0 until this is sorted out

[Hagar Delest]

Beware, 3.1 has still that problem so no need to upgrade yet!

[Laxnkio]

3.1 fixed the table alignment problems for me, but I cannot get writer to save a background shadow on a table if saved as .doc. Saving as .odt works fine, but as soon as you attempt .doc the shadow disappears upon opening the document. Anyone else having this problem?

[Hagar Delest]

There are still bugs (regressions) with that 3.1, see: [Issue] Tables made with 2.x wrecked at .doc export. You should file a bug report for your problem: [Tutorial] Reporting bugs or suggestions.

[AlexDudko]

Never noticed the problem because I don't use .doc format much. Have to confirm that the problem with tables appears only if another client opens the file. It doesn't depend upon an OS - in Ubuntu's Abiword tables are messed up the same way as they would be in MS Office. Though an OO-3.0.1 file, saved in .doc format, opened in OO-3.0.1 is still fully readable and editable.

[stsuser]

I experienced similar problems after upgrading to 3.1 from 2.?, that is, when opening .doc files (saved by me in OO or by someone else in Word) I saw a big white space where a table should be.

I discovered that if I clicked in the space where the table should be, the text "Table1:B2" appeared in one of the info boxes along the bottom of the window and there were white blocks along the side rulers where the rows and columns should be. Then simply sliding the indent markers (not sure what the proper name is - the little grey triangles that together look like an egg-timer) along the horizontal ruler at the top of the page a bit made all the table text and borders magically appear.

Worth a try if you've lost a table!

[Oleg61]

My .doc files that I created with previous version of OpenOffice, now show up in OpenOffice 3.2 without any tables that I created. The tables are not seen.
Microsoft Viewer see the tables, so they are still there. I guess I have to buy Microsoft Office. Or install older version of OpenOffice.