[Dropped] Formating lost when doc sent to others

[notumbo]

I have v4.1.13 right now (latest) and when I send a doc - saved in .doc - to others as attachments via email, and they open the doc, they just see a block of text. Indents are lost, spacing is lost, and the margins are changed from 1" to 1/2". I have tried to Export to PDF, but all I see in the .pdf is what appears to be machine code - all my text is gone, but the doc is now hundreds of pages long, even if the original is one page in length.

I hope this isn't going to be another one of those "well, you can do ten pages of insane gobbledegook and that might fix it. I don't want to buy Word again, but I have to be able to send documents that look the same to the recipient as they do on my computer.

[RusselB]

Welcome to the Forums.
The .doc format is not standardized and even differs from one version of Microsoft Office to another, even though they all (to my knowledge) use the same extension.
What program are you using to look at the PDF file? If you aren't using a PDF reader (like Adobe Acrobat) then there's no telling what you would see.
As you have noticed, there are a lot of things in OpenOffice that don't convert to the .doc format. I'd like to say "blame Microsoft", but it's only partially their fault.
Is there a reason why you aren't sending the documents in .odt format? Microsoft Office, since the '95 version will open .odt files.
Another option is for you to try LibreOffice which is more up-to-date than OpenOffice and has a higher level of compatibility with Microsoft Office.

[FJCC]

If PDF is an acceptable format, then that is the best choice. All of the formatting will be preserved. As RusselB asked, what program are you using to open the PDF?

[notumbo]

I have tried exporting to PDF, but as I said above, it turns into what almost looks like machine code. I have used PDF format since it first came out years ago, never seen this sort of weirdness. As for the program, Adobe Acrobat, of course. I have also tried sending in other versions of .doc, but will try odt next.

[Bill]

..never seen this sort of weirdness.

Neither have I. Please upload sample documents so the problem can be analyzed. "Ten pages of insane gobbledegook" spread over two weeks is what often happens when sample documents are not provided.

[RoryOF]

If PDF files look "like machine code" it is almost certain that the PDF file is being opened by a program that doesn't understand the PDF format. Typically a PDF file should be opened with Adobe Reader or a similar dedicated application.

[John_Ha]

when I send a doc - saved in .doc - to others as attachments via email, and they open the doc, they just see a block of text. Indents are lost, spacing is lost, and the margins are changed from 1" to 1/2".

See [Tutorial] Differences between Microsoft and AOO/LO files for a description of differences and for some reasons; and for why you should always work in, and save Writer files as .odt, Calc files as .ods, Impress files as .odp, etc.

That being said, your case seems to be extreme and the PDF result inexplicable. As asked above, please upload a small file showing the problem so that it can be analysed. Press POSTREPLY and click the Upload attachment tab below where you type (128 kB max); or use a file share site such as mediafire, Dropbox or Google Drive for a larger file.

If the file has confidential material in it, you can obscure the contents without affecting the structure too much (lines will spill differently because different characters have different widths) by changing every lower case alphabetic character to an " x ". Select all the text (Ctrl+A) and:

Edit > Find and Replace
Find box [a-z]
Replace box x
Options: Match case: YES, Regular expressions: YES
click Replace all

Repeat the above using [A-Z] and X to scramble the upper case letters, and [0-9] and 0 to scramble numeric data.

[esperantisto]

they open the doc, they just see a block of text.

What program/version do they use?

Indents are lost, spacing is lost, and the margins are changed from 1" to 1/2".

In my experience, indents, spacing and other attributes are lost mainly when ad-hoc formatting is applied. Use styles.

[notumbo]

Some use Macs, some use PCs/Windows. All are having the same results. Something is altering the format from what I see on my own screen. This applies whether I save in odt or doc. It seems the only solution is to save as pdf. This really sucks. This only started about three weeks ago, before that there was no problems. And no, I didn't load a new program, I seldom do that anymore. The only upgrade has been Norton.

[Bill]

Maybe this isn't an OpenOffice problem but a Microsoft Outlook problem. Without sample files, this kind of speculation is all I can offer:

Recipient gets Word doc as .dat file

pdf turned into .dat file

[RoryOF]

PDF is the best distribution format for files that the recipients do not require to edit.

[Hagar Delest]

Can you upload here or somewhere else a sample file with both the original and PDF export versions?
It's quite hard to follow you.

[notumbo]

I gave up, downloaded Adobe, hate to pay for this crap year after year but whatev. I'm done here. Besides, sending a copy of both wouldn't reveal WHY it's doing what it is.

[RoryOF]

There are several free PDF readers if you search for them.

[Zizi64]

I gave up, downloaded Adobe, hate to pay for this crap year after year but whatever.

The Adobe Reader is a free software. You not need the Adobe editor.

You have not uploaded here any sample files. How we can guess what is the problem with your documents?

[Hagar Delest]

sending a copy of both wouldn't reveal WHY it's doing what it is.

It would have confirmed if the problem is with the files (if we are not able to open them) or with your configuration (either the export process, but I doubt it, or the "reading process").

I take for granted that any other PDF did open fine.

[John_Ha]

...sending a copy of both wouldn't reveal WHY it's doing what it is.

It would.

Following the thread it looks like user error to me, compounded by users' acceptance of Microsoft's default "Hide the file qualifiers". When a Windows update then changes the icons the user inevitably gets very confused.

Without the file no one can offer any useful help.