[Solved] Display problems with OO4

[Ralphp]

Have been using OO for many years and all has been well. I save my spreadsheets as .xls so that they are easily opened and used by other more conventional souls with Microsoft Office.
With 004 update I have found that there are display problems with spreadsheets on screen. Some of the cells appear to contain a row of dashes when viewed on screen and others get their grid lines arbitrarily removed. Others again adopt the backgound colours or format of neighbouring cells. I have (lucklily) found a copy of the instal files for 3.4.1 and re-installed this and removed OO4 and for now and all is now well.
Not sure what is going on here, but if there is a fix or a correction that I need to make I would love to hear of it!

Ralphp

[Hagar Delest]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

If there is no sensitive data, can you upload it here so that we try (see: How to attach a document here)?

[Ralphp]

Will need to re-install OO4 - job for tomorrow ...........and then I'll post some screenshots.

[RoryOF]

Best also to post a sample file, as that allows us see just what is happening internally. Screenshots only show us what is happening, but do not allow us see the cause.

[jef212]

I've run into the same issue... couldn't have explained it any better. I don't have any example I can share, though. I'll keep watching this thread in hopes that a solution will be found, or, others will have further suggestions.

FYi - This issue makes version 4 unusable.

[Hagar Delest]

Can you upload a sample file?
NB: if you need to work in .xls, then better stick to MS Office anyway.

[Ralphp]

Here are some screen shots of the type of problems I have seen with my .xls files.

[jef212]

Actually, I can probably grab and post some screen shots myself tonight. I've got more coloring and the issues really jump out with that. If I get time I can try to create a test file and see if the same issues appear and then submit that so you can take a closer look, too. Only difference for me was that my file was created in .ods format and not .xls. Additionally, once it begins if you hightlight it some of the issues return to "normal", but sometimes it creates localized issues to where the selection occurs. Almost looks like a redraw/refresh issue of some sort.

[Hagar Delest]

A test file instead of screenshot would be more helpful indeed. So that we try on our systems.

[sevalav]

The same problem:
https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=122801

https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=122149

https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=122823

It is a big problem, besacuse i can not working with AOO 4.
Please, everyone who have this problem, please vote to this list of bugs.

[Ralphp]

Here is a cut down version of the file I used as an example with screen shots.

I have edited it to remove contentious material, but it still performs in the same way.
My starting point is to input data into columns R,S and T and then after entering this dashes appear in lower cells in the same columns, some of them interfering with existing text. If I then "plod around" in various cells then soon some of the cell grid lines start to disappear and this can then be increased very easily as you move the cursor from cell to cell.
Good luck with your analysis!
Ralphp

[Hagar Delest]

No problem on my Xubuntu system, whatever the zoom is:

[ken johnson]

It seemed OK until I selected R3 in the lower pane then went Tools|Detective|Trace Dependents then scrolled down to the data in Q47:T74. A lot of the horizontal grid lines break up and some of the cell contents are partially distorted by horizontal white streaks.
I don't think the Detective has anything to do with it since the behaviour was repeated after just selecting R3 and scrolling down.

Ken Johnson

[Hagar Delest]

Tried under Windows 7 and I see the same indeed. But hitting Ctrl+Shift+R to refresh the display works fine. Note that in Tools>Options>View, if Use hardware acceleration setting is checked, it works better.

[ken johnson]

It seems to be intermittent.
Right now it's not happening
Ctrl+Shift+R was only a temporary fix, the fault reappeared after scrolling down.
Also, Use hardware acceleration setting is (and was) checked.

Ken Johnson

[Hagar Delest]

Tried similar operations with Xubuntu and not glitch in the display.

[Ralphp]

OK - so at least you good techie guys are seeing what we poor users are seeing now. So, good luck in unraveling that one. Should I now feel confident that this is limited only to being an on-screen display issue or are there more creepy crawlies for me to worry about??
Thanks for your help.
Ralphp

[RoryOF]

Nobody can ever give a guarantee that software is bug free.

[Hagar Delest]

You can browse the Calc forum, it seems that there are some bugs. Depending on your use of it, it might be better to downgrade. Up to you.
Personally, I don't use Calc very much so I'm not impacted by those bugs.

[sierra325]

I am also having the same display problems, although it seems to happen on the larger ss with many pages some of which refer to each other. I tried turning off the autocalc, but nothing improved. I tried CTRL-SHIFT-R to repaint but I have to do that each and every time I input something (pain). I uninstalled OO4, and tried to reinstall OO 3.4.1; I got redirected to SourceForge and although I went through the initial downloading, the packed files never appeared on my desktop. So I reinstalled OO4 again and I am stuck with corrupted displays. I am not tech savvy enough to understand how to fix this.

Later on today.... managed to uninstall OO4 and get 3.4.1 installed properly. The display problem in OO4 is by no means solved, but at least I can work with my files now. I'll keep an eye out in case a solution or fix is found.

[Ritter]

I have to confirm this nasty bug: it usually appears when I use (=edit cells etc. and then scroll in) a Calc file with Openoffice v4.00 on Windows 7 64bit.
The very same Calc files work well with Openoffice v3.41 however.

Graphics card is an ATI/AMD one which uses the current Catalyst driver. I mention this because Mozilla's Firefox up to a certain version, including the current v17 ESR, is known to have occasional display problems including corrupted symbols (and download status bars in my case) with several ATI cards using the current Catalyst.


Unfortunately this display problem in Calc nearly renders Openoffice v4.00 unusable for me, since I often use Calc files.
This is a pitty, since I started to like the new v4 version with its many subtle improvements...

I'd be happy to help in encircling this problem. In case the developers need further informations or tests, please just tell us here in this thread, and so we maby can help.

[Hagar Delest]

Thanks for the proposal!
There are no devs here. You can propose your help on their mailing list: http://openoffice.apache.org/mailing-li ... ist-public

[LBendig]

I have the same problem and re-installed version 3.4.1, which runs fine.
Lothar Bendig

[Hagar Delest]

For the record, the dev mailing list is just starting a discussion about 4.0.1, I hope it will fix this bug.

[HowardJ]

I have just come across something similar. My financial records are kept on a spreadsheet with a month for each page. When updating today I was switching back and forth between Aug and Jul, but the display did not always update properly - it seemed as though the old display was being overwritten, but without clearing it first. On other occasions lines were repeated.

The display could sometimes be corrected by scrolling down to a blank area and scrolling back up again, but none of this was reliably reproducible. It does seem like a display problem, but it does give one pause about the reliability of the program for sensitive matters

I am also finding it very slow to open files as well as save them - which is mentioned in another thread.

For obvious reasons I cannot upload my spreadsheet!

I should have mentioned I am using 4.0.0 on PCLinuxOS (LXDE desktop)

[BasicGuy]

I have the same broken GUI problems on my MPB OSX 10.8.4. I only use Calc and the problems go beyond the dashes and mis configured cells. I have an order form with multiple sheets. The first sheet is the columns of Qty/Descritption/price/extension with summation at the bottom. The second sheet is a Quote sheet that echos the selected Qty/Descritption/price/extension columns from sheet 1 with their contents.

I just reference the sheet 1 cells into sheet 2. The problem is I get spuriors entries in some cells. For example, one cell in the middle had a completely random entry, like "community 1945". In addition, a cell on the same row about 5 columns over had the identical nonsense entry in it. If I deleted one, the other went with it.

If I tried to re reference the sheet 1 cell into sheet 2, it would not take it. It would show some other corrupted value or text.

I switched back to LO 4.1. It has problems too, which is why I switched to AOO 4.0.

I can't run a business with software that breaks with every version and has long term bugs that don't get fixed. I hate Excel, but AOO and LO are just unusable with these problems.

[HowardJ]

I agree, calc 4.0 is unusable. I've just reinstalled 3.4.1.

[m7pilot]

I reinstalled 3.4.1. Would appreciate it when and if the problem with 4.0 is solved someone would post it in this thread. I've subscribed to the tread.

[acknak]

Has anyone experiencing these problems checked the graphics acceleration setting?

Turning that off has sometimes cured odd display problems. It's worth a try, perhaps.

Tools > Options > OO > View > Graphics output > Use hardware acceleration: OFF

[Hagar Delest]

I did and it's worse when that setting is unchecked (on my Windows 7 system).