Shapes horribly misplaced after save/reopen

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Lucster
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Shapes horribly misplaced after save/reopen

Post by Lucster »

I'm using OpenOffice Draw 4.1.6 in a Windows 10 environment.

I'm not a graphics designer. Just a guy trying to create stuff using this tool.

I have a file that has probably hundreds of shapes, mostly rectangles, that I had placed into groups, and successfully created (after many, many long hours) the image I wanted. During this process, I often saved and reopened the file without issue. Then, a system restart occurred and I guess OO didn't like that and punished me by tossing all my shapes haphazardly all over my created image. Everything is out of whack. Shapes that were straight up and down are slanted in all directions ruining all the work I'd done.

Is there a way to recover a previous version that wasn't impacted by the system restart? I guess this tells me OO is unable to handle the system requests to shut down properly and I should simply get in the habit of closing everything every time I step away from my PC. Sadly, that doesn't help me now.

EDIT: I have since found the feature to "Save Versions" and, no, I did not have that turned on. Boy oh boy would that have been a life saver. Still, why/how does this happen?
OpenOffice 4.1.6
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Zizi64
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Re: Shapes horribly misplaced after save/reopen

Post by Zizi64 »

For the future working:

1.: Create many timestamped backup copies of your important documents when you edit them.

2.: Try the Libreoffice


Now: please upload or share the problematic file here.
Tibor Kovacs, Hungary; LO7.5.8 /Win7-10 x64Prof.
PortableApps/winPenPack: LO3.3.0-7.6.2;AOO4.1.14
Please, edit the initial post in the topic: add the word [Solved] at the beginning of the subject line - if your problem has been solved.
John_Ha
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Re: Shapes horribly misplaced after save/reopen

Post by John_Ha »

Lucster wrote:I guess this tells me OO is unable to handle the system requests to shut down properly
AOO has a known bug where there is a period during which a file is being saved when AOO does not prevent the PC from shutting down. That did not happen here as your file was not being saved when the shutdown occurred.
Lucster wrote:I should simply get in the habit of closing everything every time I step away from my PC
Correct though you don't need to close - you just need to Save. Never walk away from a PC with any file open and unsaved as you risk losing all work since your last save.
Lucster wrote:Is there a way to recover a previous version that wasn't impacted by the system restart?
No. But see [Tutorial] How to find and un-delete AOO temporary files for detailed instructions on how to

a) use Previous Versions (W7 and later) to recover previous versions of the file (is there something similar on MacOS and Linux?);

b) recover your file as it was when you last opened or saved it, or as it was when it was last saved with AutoRecovery;

c) find previous versions of the file in the folder it is located in, but which have since been deleted;

d) find any temporary files AOO wrote while you were editing the file but which have not yet been deleted;

e) un-delete the temporary files AOO wrote while you were editing the file, and then deleted. d) and e) will recover your file as it was when you last opened or you last saved it.

If you cannot follow the instructions ask someone with more PC skills to help you. Act quickly - the longer you wait the more likely any temporary files are to be deleted.
Lucster wrote:why/how does this happen?
What you describe has no known cause. Leaving a file open and allowing a system restart should only lose all changes made since you last opened or saved the file. It should not rearrange your drawing - that is effectively impossible because it requires multiple consistent changes to be made to multiple objects and the probability of that occurring is vanishingly small.

Upload the file showing the problem so that it can be analysed and possibly repaired. Press POSTREPLY and click the Upload attachment tab below where you type (128 kB max); or use a file share site, Dropbox or Google Drive for a larger file.
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
Lucster
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Re: Shapes horribly misplaced after save/reopen

Post by Lucster »

Thank you. I was able to locate a backup of the file and, it too, has the same issue. Obviously this was not caused by the restart but possibly by me trying to do too much with a simple tool.

I appreciate your responses.
OpenOffice 4.1.6
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RoryOF
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Re: Shapes horribly misplaced after save/reopen

Post by RoryOF »

In which format were you Saving?
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
John_Ha
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Re: Shapes horribly misplaced after save/reopen

Post by John_Ha »

Lucster wrote:Obviously this was not caused by the restart but possibly by me trying to do too much with a simple tool.
No. AOO Draw is more than adequate for what you are doing.

It was almost certainly (99.999%) user error ...
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
Lucster
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Re: Shapes horribly misplaced after save/reopen

Post by Lucster »

RoryOF wrote:In which format were you Saving?
The file was created and saved in the native AOO format. My AOO tools are all up to date.
John_Ha wrote:No. AOO Draw is more than adequate for what you are doing. It was almost certainly (99.999%) user error ...
You've let the fact that I only just joined fool you into thinking I am new. Your kind comment aside, I have been using OpenOffice since the Sun Microsystem days. As fabulous a tool (particularly the price) there are glitches that occur that are 99.999% not user error.
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Zizi64
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Re: Shapes horribly misplaced after save/reopen

Post by Zizi64 »

I was able to locate a backup of the file and, it too, has the same issue
I meant to create more than one (many) timestamped backups (manually) - but not the only one automatic backup file...
Tibor Kovacs, Hungary; LO7.5.8 /Win7-10 x64Prof.
PortableApps/winPenPack: LO3.3.0-7.6.2;AOO4.1.14
Please, edit the initial post in the topic: add the word [Solved] at the beginning of the subject line - if your problem has been solved.
John_Ha
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Re: Shapes horribly misplaced after save/reopen

Post by John_Ha »

Lucster wrote:...there are glitches that occur that are 99.999% not user error.
Correct - I have reported many a bug. But what you describe is very unlikely to be a bug in the program.

If you upload the file we will be able to analyse it and probably reach a conclusion as to what caused it.
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
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keme
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Re: Shapes horribly misplaced after save/reopen

Post by keme »

Was the file, by any chance, saved to a folder synchonized to Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage?

I have seen weird things happen to ODF format files (admittedly only odp and ods) after they are saved to OneDrive. All my observations are connected to MS apps previewing/opening a file created by non-MS-Office apps, and it seems to be connected to faults in timestamping of the synchronized instances of a file. It also seems to happen only in MS Windows. It seems that the open/close by MS Office app "seeds" the process, but the actual damage to content is inflicted by the OneDrive sync client.

In these cases, the unharmed file can be recovered from file history, which should be accessible from local as well as cloud side, but is sometimes only available when you log in to the web interface (cloud side).
John_Ha
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Re: Shapes horribly misplaced after save/reopen

Post by John_Ha »

keme wrote:All my observations are connected to MS apps previewing/opening a file created by non-MS-Office apps, and it seems to be connected to faults in timestamping of the synchronized instances of a file. It also seems to happen only in MS Windows.
Neither AOO nor LO have a Preview handler so, if a preview is visible, it is probably because
  • Microsoft Office is installed, and
  • the Microsoft Office Preview handler has opened the .odt file.
See Previews in Win 10
Bill wrote:The software that displays previews in the File Explorer preview pane for a specific file type is called a "preview handler". Neither AOO or LO has a preview handler for OpenDocument files, so there can not be a preview unless a preview handler from another source (possibly MS Office) has been installed on the computer.
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
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