Re: Libre Office SOLVED

roylond · Post by **roylond** » Fri Dec 11, 2015 3:49 pm

I have successfully installed Mint 17.3 and so far am impressed.
I want to have a system which will enable me to get away from M$ but the problem I have is that using Libre Write none of my documents are rendered correctly. They have been written by Corel Word Perfect. Some have parts of lines cut off Any document with a table has the table split and part on one page and part on another.
Is there another office suite available I could try. I have not found one as yet.
Any offers or advise
Thanks in advance.

George99 · Post by **George99** » Fri Dec 11, 2015 4:13 pm

Try the free version of Softmaker Office:

http://www.freeoffice.com/

Softmaker Office is said to be more compatible with MS Office documents maybe with Corel too...

Cosmo. · Post by **Cosmo.** » Fri Dec 11, 2015 4:22 pm

Mh, I don't find any information, that Softmaker can handle WordPerfect files.

Perhaps you can export them with WP in another format.

George99 · Post by **George99** » Fri Dec 11, 2015 4:34 pm

Sorry my fault - the import of WP documents in Softmaker/Freeoffice is a Windows-only feature

Radish · Post by **Radish** » Sat Dec 12, 2015 7:39 am

You might find a solution to your problem in this thread on OpenOffice forums: https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/v ... =7&t=61838 It's an old thread but the information may still be relevant. And there are two suggested ways of getting your Word Perfect files converted to odt format for your future use.

You could also try starting a new thread at OpenOffice forums (LibreOffice so called forum is close to unusable in my opinion). They don't mind if you post a question there regarding LibreOffice, just be aware that they may not know the answer.

EDIT: If you find a solution please post back here and let others know how you solved it.

roylond · Post by **roylond** » Sat Dec 12, 2015 10:04 am

Thanks everyone for your suggestions I'll have a look at some of the options suggested. If I can find a solution I post again and let you know how I solved it.

gibbs1984 · Post by **gibbs1984** » Sat Dec 12, 2015 11:15 am

Have you tried WPS Office?

Cosmo. · Post by **Cosmo.** » Sat Dec 12, 2015 2:18 pm

They don't tell anything about WordPerfect compatibility.

Bolle1961 · Post by **Bolle1961** » Sat Dec 12, 2015 2:52 pm

Abiword can import / export WordPerfect files (with a plugin)
http://abiword.org
http://abiword.org/wiki/PluginMatrix

roylond · Post by **roylond** » Sat Dec 19, 2015 4:50 am

So far I have converted all my documents to .doc files so that they can be read and converted by Libre write. This is ok to a small extent. The documents are displayed ok on screen but the print problem still exists. When I require a printed document it is only the right half of the document is printed and not the whole document.
I have downloaded and install the correct drivers for the correct model and am at a loss as why this is happening. Any suggestions.?
Thanks again in advance.

Website · Post by **Moem** » Sat Dec 19, 2015 6:48 am

You could try saving the documents as PDF files before printing and see if that improves things.

Radish · Post by **Radish** » Sat Dec 19, 2015 8:36 am

I think you might be running into the same kinds of problems I ran into in converting MS Word documents to odt. It worked fine for simple things like letters and so on. However, when it came to *.doc files that contained tables they didn't really convert with any consistency. Often the table would be split - the kinds of problems you are suggesting you are having. What I took from that is that despite the often quoted line that LibreOffice (or OpenOffice for that matter) can handle *.doc files it just isn't true when it comes to docs with tables or any complexity in the format. Personally I am now gradually just manually replicating my old complex Word docs straight into LibreOffice. It's a pain but I'll only have to do it once and I am learning how to deal with tables in LibreOffice.

As to your printer problems. You might be able to check if it is a printer problem or a problem stemming from LibreOffice (and the *.doc conversion problem) by installing Boomaga and printing to that: http://www.boomaga.org/

Boomaga is a virtual printer that, among other things, allows you to see exactly how a document will look before you send it to your physical printer for printing. It's a really handy tool to have on the system in my opinion and should really be in Mint's official repository. As it's not in the repository you have to install it by creating a PPA (Personal Package Archive). For instructions on how to install Boomaga download the document here and read through it: https://www.dropbox.com/s/76ped8h8nyt57 ... dt.7z?dl=0 (You do not need to register with Dropbox to download the file.) The document contains crucial information on setting up your physical printer to work with Boomaga if your physical printer has automatic duplex (automatic double-sided) printing.

Once you have Boomaga installed take one of the documents that you know is causing problems at printout and print it to Boomaga. If it shows in Boomaga as garbled (again) then that would suggest the problem lies with something LibreOffice, and/or the conversion process for your documents, is doing and not with your physical printer. If it doesn't come out as garbled in Boomaga then that would suggest that the problem lies with your physical printer and/or its drivers.

Lastly you don't say if your physical printer is garbling all documents that it tries to printout. If you send it a straightforward letter to printout from LibreOffice, does it still get garbled (or is it only converted documents that get garbled)? If it's only converted documents that get garbled then that would very much suggest that the problem lies with the converted documents and how LibreOffice is handling them (not with your printer).

roylond · Post by **roylond** » Sun Dec 20, 2015 11:42 am

Thanks Radish for your explanation. It seems it is Libre office which is not handling the documents correctly. .doc documents are printed ok it is just those which were written by Word Perfect which are junk. It is a pain but I might well have to do the same as you and write them again directly into Libre office. I have about 7 years of documents to go through.

Radish · Post by **Radish** » Sun Dec 20, 2015 1:24 pm

You may not have to type in everything - try copy and paste for the textual content, or what of it you can access. I'm finding that I need to recreate the tables themselves anew in LibreOffice but a lot of the textual content I can just copy and paste from the document that is giving problems. Only typing I'm having to do is if the text in some of the tables is completely missing from the doc opened in LibreOffice - which has happened with a fair number of the tables.

I would look on the bright side, roylond. At least with LibreOffice you will be creating files that adhere to ODF (Open Document Format) standards. This means that your newly created files using LibreOffice should be future-proof - you shouldn't get trapped in this bind of having your document formats tied into a single provider of software. For this reason I am converting all of my *.doc documents to odt format (even if the *.doc files do open okay in LibreOffice). In that way I can get rid of the *.doc documents once and for all, I don't need to bother with them again.

Also, reading this - OpenDocument Adoption - it looks like the future is gradually shaping up to be ODF. Hasta la vista, Microsoft.

roylond · Post by **roylond** » Wed Dec 23, 2015 2:03 pm

I can't open PDF files in Libre office satisfactorily. There is no content just the border of the document. And I don't have much success rewriting the table. The main table I must have is 9 columns and 30 rows, it must be on one page in landscape. Although I tick the box not to split table over two pages it still does split the table over three pages with only a few lines on each page. It is does it ok in Word Perfect and MS Word but not in Libre office.

Radish · Post by **Radish** » Wed Dec 23, 2015 3:27 pm

I can't comment on working with a pdf file in LibreOffice, never tried that.

However, I managed to get a table 9 columns and 30 rows on a single page without difficulty in Writer. Maybe you're going about it the wrong way. Try this:

Menu Format > Page and then select Landscape. (Make a note of the margin sizes you might want to adjust them later.) Once you have that set click OK.
Now Menu Table > Insert Table... or press [ctrl]+F12. Enter in the columns and rows you want for the table. Then click Insert button.
When I first did this a number of rows were showing on a second page - not what we want. So, click inside the first cell of the table, so that your text cursor is in that cell, and then press [ctrl]+a This will select the entire table. Now make adjustments to the point size of the font you are using in the table. It will start out with whatever point size of font you have set as the default size for your documents. But let's try point size 9 and you should see your table on one page now - or very close to that.
Okay, don't want to use a font size smaller than 9 (small enough as it is - though at a push I've done it in the past). Now go back to Menu Format > Page and adjust the margin sizes.

In all it took me about two minutes to get a 9 x 30 table on a single page. Your choice of font - not just the point size of the font - can have a significant impact on this. Using, say, Noto Sans font will work against you. By default it has quite a large space between lines of text (relative to some other fonts). I've found Microsoft's Times New Roman is a good font to use when space is tight. But in Mint you need to open the Software Manager, search for "mscorefonts" and then install if you want access to Times New Roman. In any case do experiment with the font you are using as well as the point size - the font being used can be the difference between success or failure for this.

You might get help on using pdf files in LibreOffice at the OpenOffice Forums. Someone there might have an idea of how to do that.

Radish · Post by **Radish** » Wed Dec 23, 2015 4:38 pm

After doing a small amount of research on the internet it turns out that to open pdf files in LibreOffice they need to opened in LibreOffice Draw. If you try opening a pdf from within Writer the file will just get redirected to open in Draw.

I tied some test editing of a pdf in Draw and it works though it's a bit on the awkward side. If you do edit a pdf there and want to save it again as a pdf then you need to select Menu File > Export as PDF...

Maybe for what you are trying to do you would be better off with a dedicated pdf editor - but what is available in the Linux world for that I do not know.

Reorx · Post by **Reorx** » Wed Dec 23, 2015 9:02 pm

Screenshot1.png

Screenshot2.png

Radish · Post by **Radish** » Thu Dec 24, 2015 7:53 am

Good tip - thanks very much, Reorx.

Roylond, I was looking around and two very good webpages that provide some detail on working with tables in OpenOffice (LibreOffice is based on OpenOffice so the information should be mostly relevant to LibreOffice as well):

http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/tables/
http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2008/05/

Maybe you will find them of help.

cwsnyder · Post by **cwsnyder** » Thu Dec 24, 2015 8:32 am

Something I may have missed, or perhaps it is so basic that it has been overlooked. Especially in tables and presentation slides you should be very, very careful when importing into LibreOffice/OpenOffice to make sure you have the correct fonts installed in LO/OO to match the original. The default fonts in LO/OO are libre/CC fonts which are designed to somewhat closely match the Microsoft font metrics, but are not exactly the same, which has tripped me up badly at times.