Bug#620137: openoffice.org-writer: Saving in docx format destroys the entire file content

March 30th, 2011 - 09:50 am ET by Wolfgang Schulze-Zachau | Report spam
Package: openoffice.org-writer
Version: 1:3.2.1-11+squeeze2
Severity: grave
Justification: causes non-serious data loss

A document originally created in MS Office in docx format can be opened in OpenOffice,
however when the document is then saved in docx format, something goes horribly wrong,
possibly with the TOC table. Subsequently MS Office refuses to open the document with
an error message and when the document is opened with OpenOffice, it only has page
and footers, and the basic structure of the original document, but the entire content is
lost.
I have tried to fix this by converting the document into a zip file and then manually
removing the offending parts (according to the vague error messages from MS Office), but
that just makes it worse. Since the docx output from OpenOffice is readically different
from the output generated by MS Office, cut and paste is not an option, either.

The relevant document is attached. To recreate the problem, follow these steps:
1) Open the document in OO
2) Save under a different name in docx format
3) Close all open documents
4) Open the saved docx document

Result: page structure is retained, TOC is retained, but on subsequent pages all content
has disappeared. The outline elements are still visible (bullet points, headers, table outlines)
but none of the text is there. The TOC is not recognized as a TOC any longer and cannot be
updated.

Debian Release: 6.0
APT prefers stable
APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages openoffice.org-writer depends on:
ii libc6 2.11.2-10 Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii libgcc1 1:4.4.5-8 GCC support library
ii libicu44 4.4.1-7 International Components for Unico
ii libstdc++6 4.4.5-8 The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii libstlport4.6 4.6.2-7 STLport C++ class library
ii libwpd8c2a 0.8.14-1 Library for handling WordPerfect d
ii libwps-0.1-1 0.1.2-1 Works text file format import filt
ii openoffice.or 1:3.2.1-11+squeeze2 office productivity suite -- share
ii openoffice.or 1:3.2.1-11+squeeze2 office productivity suite -- arch-
ii ure 1.6.1+OOo3.2.1-11+squeeze2 OpenOffice.org UNO runtime environ
ii zlib1g 1:1.2.3.4.dfsg-3 compression library - runtime

Versions of packages openoffice.org-writer recommends:
ii default-jre [java5 1:1.6-40 Standard Java or Java compatible R
ii openjdk-6-jre [jav 6b18-1.8.3-2+squeeze1 OpenJDK Java runtime, using Hotspo
ii openoffice.org-ema 1:3.2.1-11+squeeze2 office productivity suite -- email
ii openoffice.org-fil 1:3.2.1-11+squeeze2 office productivity suite -- legac
ii openoffice.org-jav 1:3.2.1-11+squeeze2 office productivity suite -- arch-
ii openoffice.org-mat 1:3.2.1-11+squeeze2 office productivity suite -- equat
ii sun-java6-jre [jav 6.22-1 Sun Java(TM) Runtime Environment (

Versions of packages openoffice.org-writer suggests:
ii openoffice.org-base 1:3.2.1-11+squeeze2 office productivity suite -- datab
pn openoffice.org-gcj <none> (no description available)

Versions of packages openoffice.org-core depends on:
ii fontconfig 2.8.0-2.1 generic font configuration library
ii libc6 2.11.2-10 Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii libcairo2 1.8.10-6 The Cairo 2D vector graphics libra
ii libcurl3-gnut 7.21.0-1 Multi-protocol file transfer libra
ii libdb4.8 4.8.30-2 Berkeley v4.8 Database Libraries [
ii libexpat1 2.0.1-7 XML parsing C library - runtime li
ii libfreetype6 2.4.2-2.1 FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii libgcc1 1:4.4.5-8 GCC support library
ii libglib2.0-0 2.24.2-1 The GLib library of C routines
ii libgraphite3 1:2.3.1-0.2 SILGraphite - a "smart font" rende
ii libgstreamer- 0.10.30-1 GStreamer libraries from the "base
ii libgstreamer0 0.10.30-1 Core GStreamer libraries and eleme
ii libgtk2.0-0 2.20.1-2 The GTK+ graphical user interface
ii libhunspell-1 1.2.11-1 spell checker and morphological an
ii libhyphen0 2.5-1 ALTLinux hyphenation library - sha
ii libice6 2:1.0.6-2 X11 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii libicu44 4.4.1-7 International Components for Unico
ii libjpeg62 6b1-1 The Independent JPEG Group's JPEG
ii libmythes-1.2 2:1.2.1-1 simple thesaurus library
ii libneon27-gnu 0.29.3-3 An HTTP and WebDAV client library
ii libnspr4-0d 4.8.6-1 NetScape Portable Runtime Library
ii libnss3-1d 3.12.8-1 Network Security Service libraries
ii librdf0 1.0.10-3 Redland Resource Description Frame
ii libsm6 2:1.1.1-1 X11 Session Management library
ii libssl0.9.8 0.9.8o-4squeeze1 SSL shared libraries
ii libstdc++6 4.4.5-8 The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii libstlport4.6 4.6.2-7 STLport C++ class library
ii libx11-6 2:1.3.3-4 X11 client-side library
ii libxaw7 2:1.0.7-1 X11 Athena Widget library
ii libxext6 2:1.1.2-1 X11 miscellaneous extension librar
ii libxinerama1 2:1.1-3 X11 Xinerama extension library
ii libxml2 2.7.8.dfsg-2 GNOME XML library
ii libxrandr2 2:1.3.0-3 X11 RandR extension library
ii libxrender1 1:0.9.6-1 X Rendering Extension client libra
ii libxslt1.1 1.1.26-6 XSLT 1.0 processing library - runt
ii libxt6 1:1.0.7-1 X11 toolkit intrinsics library
ii openoffice.or 1:3.2.1-11+squeeze2 office productivity suite -- arch-
ii ttf-opensymbo 1:3.2.1-11+squeeze2 OpenSymbol TrueType font
ii ure 1.6.1+OOo3.2.1-11+squeeze2 OpenOffice.org UNO runtime environ
ii zlib1g 1:1.2.3.4.dfsg-3 compression library - runtime




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#1 Rene Engelhard
March 30th, 2011 - 12:30 pm ET | Report spam
tag 620137 + moreinfo
found 620137 1:3.2.1-11
thanks

Hi,

On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 02:39:12PM +0100, Wolfgang Schulze-Zachau wrote:
Package: openoffice.org-writer
Version: 1:3.2.1-11+squeeze2
Severity: grave
Justification: causes non-serious data loss



Sure? I t hink this is only important. it only affects docx saving, which
as you might have guessed yourself - is not very good (yet). Using a proprietary
format like docx is your own fault.

A document originally created in MS Office in docx format can be opened in OpenOffice,
however when the document is then saved in docx format, something goes horribly wrong,
possibly with the TOC table. Subsequently MS Office refuses to open the document with
an error message and when the document is opened with OpenOffice, it only has page
and footers, and the basic structure of the original document, but the entire content is
lost.



Who said docx support is very good for *saving* in OOo 3.2.1? Try LibreOffice.
It has many improvements there. Squeeze will not get any intrsive changes like
filter updates.

Grüße/Regards,

René
.''`. René Engelhard -- Debian GNU/Linux Developer
: :' : http://www.debian.org | http://people.debian.org/~rene/
`. `' | GnuPG-Key ID: D03E3E70
`- Fingerprint: E12D EA46 7506 70CF A960 801D 0AA0 4571 D03E 3E70



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#2 Rene Engelhard
March 31st, 2011 - 07:10 am ET | Report spam
Hi,

On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 11:04:07AM +0100, Wolfgang Schulze-Zachau wrote:
thanks for the answer. For the sake of possibly others participating in
this thread I will keep my responses in English.



which threadf? you just replied to me only, not to the bgu. So far there's no
thread :P (Cc'ing the bug now))

I appreciate that docx is a proprietary format, but I hope you can also
appreciate that it is a very important one. We (as a company) have about



Unfortunately it is, yes...

150 people, of which around 100 are Linux users (mostly engineers) and the
rest Windows users. As you may have guessed, the Windows users pretty much
impose on everybody else that docx be used for all documents. Therefore I
don't have much choice on that. If I were to follow your advice, I would
alienate all my managers, and ultimately would not be able to function.

We use debian on all our Linux machines, and as such would very much
appreciate if Debian could uphold its reputation of being rock solid
(that's why we chose it in the first place). As it stands at the moment I
can't roll out squeeze, or if I do, I have to tell all the Linux users
that they can't use docx format for anything else than reading a document.



That's what I would do, yes.

I would have thought that if a widely used package like OO0 3.2.1 offers
saving in docx format, that it is also supposed to work reasonably well. I
am even offering you a file that shows a particular case where it doesn't
work at all. If I were a developer on this team I would be grateful for
being given the opportunity to improve my product. From what I hear from



improving the product? You mean Debian or OOo? OOo is dead. Debian will not
contain OOo in the future. And we already iimproved the product by
switching to LibreOffice for wheezy.

Besides that, you expect Debian rock-solid and stable and then also expect
that we either remove docx support and/or update the whole filter stuff to
OOo 3.3/LibreOffices one? Eventually causing more bad bugs?
Sounds like a contradiction to me.

you, that is not going to happen. That's disappointing, to be honest.



Valid point, but I am not a OOo (nor LibO) se, and neeither do I (or am
even willing to do) upstream development there.

Grüße/Regards,

René



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#3 Wolfgang Schulze-Zachau
March 31st, 2011 - 07:40 am ET | Report spam
Hi,

<snip/>
I would have thought that if a widely used package like OO0 3.2.1 offers
saving in docx format, that it is also supposed to work reasonably well. I
am even offering you a file that shows a particular case where it doesn't
work at all. If I were a developer on this team I would be grateful for
being given the opportunity to improve my product. From what I hear from



improving the product? You mean Debian or OOo? OOo is dead. Debian will not
contain OOo in the future. And we already iimproved the product by
switching to LibreOffice for wheezy.



But whezzy isn't released yet and won't be for quite some time. I need
to work with the stable release.
Don't get me wrong. I understand the move to LibreOffice and I support
it. But I also have to support my 100 users.
Besides that, you expect Debian rock-solid and stable and then also expect
that we either remove docx support and/or update the whole filter stuff to
OOo 3.3/LibreOffices one? Eventually causing more bad bugs?
Sounds like a contradiction to me.




No, I expect released software to work. Otherwise don't release it.
Sorry if that sounds harsh, but the current situation is that
unsuspecting users stand to lose a lot of their work.
you, that is not going to happen. That's disappointing, to be honest.



Valid point, but I am not a OOo (nor LibO) se, and neeither do I (or am
even willing to do) upstream development there.



OK, understood. So what should I do? I can test this against LibreOffice
on wheezy, and raise a separate bug if the problem is there, too. Is
there anything I can do to ensure that this gets looked at for the OOo
package in squeeze?
Grüße/Regards,

René



best regards

Wolfgang




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#4 Rene Engelhard
March 31st, 2011 - 07:50 am ET | Report spam
Hi,

On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 12:30:21PM +0100, Wolfgang Schulze-Zachau wrote:
OK, understood. So what should I do? I can test this against
LibreOffice on wheezy,



I'd prefer with sid, it hasd 3.3.2 compares to 3.3.1, but ok, I can do that,
too. Just didn't get to it yesterday.

Is there anything I can do to ensure that this gets looked at for the
OOo package in squeeze?



Didn't I make it clear that noone in Debian would?
Maybe ask the go-oo guys (the upstream), but go-oo also is dead in favour of
LibreOffice and I doubt they'll care about 3.2.1. But you could try..

Grüße/Regards,

René



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