OO 2.3.1 writer crashes after opening big .doc in Vista

[dnbreuer]

Hello,

Since a few weeks I have a notebook with vista home premium. I installed OO 2.3.1. Every time I want to open a word-doc bigger then, let's say, 200kb, the writer doesn't open it but loops instead at the first screen. As if it's waiting to open the file.

Tried the search but this specific problem was not mentioned...or I missed. Tried a full re-install but it didn't work.

Can anyone help me?

Thnx!

[Phil]

Hi and welcome to the community!

This is pretty strange. I never had problems to open MS Word .doc files, even huge ones (150 pages with many images and charts, size 35 MBytes).

So does this happen to all documents larger than 200kb? Are there maybe some images embedded in the documents that have some unusual format that could cause problems?
Do you also have MS Word available? If yes, you can try to save one of the documents as .rtf file and see if that can be opened by OpenOffice.

And finally, you could post one of the documents here so that we can analyze it (if this is possible from the point of view of personal information that may be in the document).

KR, phil

[dnbreuer]

Hi Phil,

Thank you for your reply.

I happens to me with a specific document. This file has some table's in it and some textboxes, but nothing really unique's.
It is indeed a strange error, because:
- I have had opened it, only once. I added some text (in OO) and saved it as a word 97 etc document.
- This newly saved document cannot be opened anymore by OO
- Instead of OO, it can be opened in Word (xp).
- When I save this document with a different name with Word (as a .doc).. it can be opened by OO again..then the whole procedure starts over again.
- once a document (with a specific name) was opened bij OO, Writer will not open it again, but hangs at the loading screen.

When saved as .rtf in word, the document opens in OO but scrambles the layout..

[James]

Hi dnbreuer,

Could you try this...

save this document with a different name with Word (as a .doc).. it can be opened by OO again..

• At this point save the file in .odt format (OOo's native - OpenDocument - format).
• Then use OOo to save the file in .doc format
• See if you can open it in Word and OOo

Let us know how you get on.

[dnbreuer]

Hi James,


Like you advised, I :
- Opened the .doc in OO -> saved it as .odt -> opened the odt -> saved it as .doc again -> couldn't open it in OO, not even under a different name

Due to copyright reasons I cannot upload the document..

Dnbreuer

[Phil]

This behavior is really strange.
I thibk

Due to copyright reasons I cannot upload the document.

What if you replace all the text using regular expressions - could you post it then?

Use Find & Replace with Regular expressions ON in More Options.

Search for "([:alnum:])"
Replace with X
Replace all

You'll need to check through to make sure it's caught everything confidential - it won't touch fields, and maybe more.

BR, phil

[dnbreuer]

Hi,

I took the following steps to resolve the problem, at least temporarily:
- Chapter by chapter I cutted the document and pasted it chapter by chapter in a new one, but deleted the texstboxes.
- I continuesly save this new document as .odt AND .doc
- this seems to work, but kept me busy for quite a period and it is no guarantee that it keeps working.

Fact of the matter is that the document must be kept secret for at least a couple of weeks. The 'old' document stil malfunctions. When the official version is released, I can (if u will) upload this malfunctioning document to be examined. I think the use of texstboxes rumbled up the writer vs word compatibility.
Maybe my new document will malfcuntion in the future, i will report that in this thread.


Thank you for the attention.

Dnbreuer

[Phil]

When the official version is released, I can (if u will) upload this malfunctioning document to be examined.

Yes, I think that would be a good idea!

Anyway, your workaround is interesting.
Maybe it is really somehow connected to the text boxes. Although I just tested a document with text boxes where the export to .doc works.
So it could be in combination with something else or simply your special case.

KR, phil

[dnbreuer]

A new problem with my new document appeared..

Every now or then OO just hangs. At first glance for no particular reason. VERY annoying. Just working in my document.. add text and footnote's and just being an author... then suddenly the screen turns half white and Vista says 'this program does not respond'. And OO's recovery is not functioning. I just lost about an hour of work.

It is about the newly made document which I already had to create after problems with word / OO compatibility.

Maybe this problem is more familiar..?

[Phil]

It's really annoying to loose one hours work.
I would suggest that you enable the option Save Autorecovery information and set it to e.g. 10 minutes. You find this in Tools - Options - Load/Save.
That would at least mitigate the effects of a crash.

If you did already have this option enabled, then there might still exist a backup file of the lost document.
You will find the backup files in the folder
C:\Documents and settings\phil\Application data\OpenOffice.org2\user\backup
(supposing your windows user name (login name) being "phil" and your system drive being C:)

The backup files all have the extension .bak. Just copy the file, if it's there, to some document folder using Windows Explorer, and then rename the extension to the original name, e.g. to .odt. Then you should be able to normally open the file.
NB: It is no problem if you use the wrong extension, e.g. .odp instead of .odt - OOo recognizes the correct file format.


But of course this does not solve your problem, which is not familiar to me.
OOo 2.3.1 is generally recognized as being quite stable. I experience crashes very seldom.

Did you do any special action shortly before the program hung up? Did it crash itself or did you end the program manually?

Maybe the document is somehow corrupted. Is this hanging reproducible? If yes, maybe try to save the document as .rtf and reload it - that may reorganize the document to some extend any maybe help.

Another idea is that your user profile is corrupt.
So you could try to create a new one. This is automatically done by OOo if you rename the profile folder.

This is done as follows:
At first, close OpenOffice altogether (also end the quickstarter in the system tray if active).
If your windows user name (login name) is "phil" and your system drive is C:, then your OOo user profile folder is
C:\Documents and settings\phil\Application data\OpenOffice.org2
Now rename the profile folder to e.g.
C:\Documents and settings\phil\Application data\OpenOffice.org2.old
and start one of the OpenOffice applications again. Then a new folder is created.

You could also delete the folder, but renaming it allows you to rename it back in case this does not help (bringing you back your old settings which are lost when a new folder is created!).

Good luck!
phil

[James]

You will find the backup files in the folder
C:\Documents and settings\phil\Application data\OpenOffice.org2\user\backup
(supposing your windows user name (login name) being "phil" and your system drive being C:)

You also need to have Tools > Options > Load/Save > General > Always create backup copy to be enabled for this to work

[Phil]

Absolutely correct. Sorry I missed that.
Thanks, James!