[Solved] OpenOffice LMint 20 - Menu Ghosting &.. Corruption!

[riffbiker]

I have recently clean-installed (not upgraded to) Linux Mint 20 Ulyana! Previously was running Mint 18.3.

I prefer OpenOffice to LibreOffice, have used OO for some years and have many documents written in OO Writer and Calc with some complex formatting and macros, so I really don't want to change! I did test LibreOffice - my spreadsheets change formatting such that I would have to resize the columns so as not to loose entries - THAT is a big job! I do think OO seems more 'professional' than LO.

Therefore, as per previous versions of Linux Mint I have been using (since v16), I uninstalled the pre-packaged LibreOffice (and uninstalled system Uno) and installed OpenOffice 4.1.7. It installed fine on Mint 20 and I have been using it for a couple of weeks. However - I have noticed 'corruption' issues with OO on Mint 20 that are not present with Mint 18.x or earlier!

1. In the 'Properties' dialogue window > Description Tab, the Fields 'Title', 'Subject' and 'Keywords', in trying to edit previous entries the backspace / delete does not delete and text ghosting appears. They also completely highlight by backspace / delete. Oddly, the 'Comments' section is fine. The edits (if done 'blind' through the ghosting as one cannot see what one is typing) do save if closing the 'Properties' window when it is reopened.

2. In Writer, the text fields for 'Formatting', 'Font Name' and 'Font Size' have text ghosting and corruption and unintentional highlighting; the same in Calc - also including 'Cell' field.

Otherwise OO works fine, but in the long term this corruption is simply not acceptable. I have never seen this issue before in Mint 16.x through 18.x, (nb. I skipped v19).

I have uninstalled OO, reinstalled OO, checked dependencies, tried different 'Mint X' and 'Y Dark' window borders and Kernels 5.4.0-42 and original 5.4.0-26 - nothing has made a difference.

I REALLY do not want to have to change to LibreOffice ...

Does anyone have a solution, please?
Many thanks, RB

[Villeroy]

OpenOffice is no longer developed. No Linux distributor distributes unmaintained software. If you do not understand your Linux system, you should stay with what you find in the repositories and everything is supposed to work smoothly. Contrary to WIndows, Linux is not prepared to run any software downloaded from somewhere. Of course you can install and run anything you want -- if you are able to adjust the software to your needs as the distributor would do.

Let's assume that LibreOffice is a lot more "professional" than OpenOffice. Even when you look at it this way, there must be differences if the "better" software displays things correctly that used to be adjusted to the "worse" software. What you describe is a bagatelle and very easy to fix. The most likely cause of the problem has to do with missing fonts. If you could install and run OpenOffice the documents look exactly the same as in LibreOffice because your column sizes rely on the existance of fonts that are not installed on your current system. By the way: Contrary to OpenOffice, LibreOffice is able to embed fonts in documents.
The package named "ttf-mscorefonts-installer" installs a software that itself installs the proprietary MS TrueType fonts such as Arial, Times New Roman etc.

[riffbiker]

Hi Villeroy,

I appreciate your kind response, thank you. I am by no means unused to Linux and capable of resolving most problems. I have all the fonts installed used in my documents, including ttf-mscorefonts and 'fontconfig' for ttf-mscorefonts screen rendering. Something has changed in Linux Mint 20 (Ubuntu 20 base) that is apparently causing a problem that did not previously exist in Linux Mint 16x - 18x. If it is indeed 'easy to fix' - and IF someone has found the conflict - then I can surely resolve it. To date - I cannot find the conflict despite spending some time on it ...

The issue is NOT in displayed documents in OO - they render perfectly - it is in the drop-down menu items and 'Properties' fields and as detailed in my original post, and these use system fonts. Even if I switch off the Tools > Options > View - 'Use system fonts for user interface', it makes no difference.

LibreOffice does not appear to render the same document identically with the same installed fonts as OO. There are fractional differences in the rendering, enough to 'block out' a displayed field that is fractionally too small to accommodate the 'changed' rendering.

I was under the impression that OO was indeed still being developed and supported - if only slowly - I thought OO 4.2 was due this year? If not, I ultimately have no choice but to change to LibreOffice and reformat my many templates and macros. However, I suspect the conflict is trivial - IF someone (probably a developer) can take a look at the code!

Kind Regards, RB

[RoryOF]

Version 4.1.8 of OpenOffice is in close preparation and version 4.2.0 is under discussion.

On Xubuntu 20.04.1 the problems you describe do not occur.

A "religious war", the cause of which I have never understood, was responsible for the split between AOO and LibreOffice;. I continue with AOO as it is stable and suits my requirements, without my continually having to adjust to various visual and organisational rearrangements.

[Villeroy]

No developers here. Unless you show us some example document demonstrating the difference, none of us users can further comment on this. If you found a valid bug in LibreOffice and you (or someone else) file a bug report to https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/index.cgi the issue may be fixed very quickly. Something that does not happen with OpenOffice anymore.
And just for the records: I can not use OpenOffice on Linux because it constantly freezes with my documents containing certain types of input forms.

[Bill]

...tried different 'Mint X' and 'Y Dark' window borders...

Try changing the "Controls" setting to Mint Y. There were some problems with the default Mint X theme in Mint 19. The default theme in Mint 18 was Mint Y.

Re: Text in "File Name" field doesn't disappear when erased

[riffbiker]

Hi Bill ... You, Sir, are a star!

Quote: "Try changing the "Controls" setting to Mint Y. There were some problems with the default Mint X theme in Mint 19. The default theme in Mint 18 was Mint Y."

Actually, forgive me, I think you made a 'typo' as I followed your link and also read your other threads where you phrased it the other way around. The default theme in Mint 18 and previous was Mint X, they began introducing Mint Y in Mint 18 (I think), just a light and dark version but I never used it. As you correctly understood, I did change between Mint Y and X 'Window Borders' and that made no difference, BUT following your suggestion and changing 'Controls' to Mint X immediately CURED my problems - all gone.

This behaviour is repeatable and therefore predictable:
'Controls' set to Mint Y: OpenOffice Drop-Down Menu and Properties text ghosting and corruption
'Controls' set to Mint X: OpenOffice works correctly

Thank you very much indeed! I do hope someone takes OpenOffice under their wing for maintenance, I just prefer it to LibreOffice aesthetically - perhaps because I used to use the earlier version of MS Office before the ribbon was introduced.

My thanks to everyone for your rapid and kind comments and held. I shall mark this thread as 'Solved'.

[Villeroy]

I just prefer it to LibreOffice aesthetically - perhaps because I used to use the earlier version of MS Office before the ribbon was introduced.

LibreOffice lets you choose between different flavours of ribbon layouts and the classic menu. The classic one differs from OO, though.

[riffbiker]

Thanks, Villeroy,
I prefer to stick with OO for as long as I can, as previously mentioned, my hundreds of OO documents and templates do not directly render correctly in LO - even with identical fonts and fontconfig < font.config > installed to correctly render earlier fonts. The difference is only perhaps a millimetre per field, but that is enough to prevent a Calc spreadsheet from showing its content instead replaced by 'xxxxxx' and my Writer headers similarly to not fully display content as text box fields have become too small. Basically - I don't like LibreOffice - even if it means I am swimming upstream!
Kind Regards and Thanks, RB

[NZ_LinuxStudent]

"

OpenOffice is no longer developed. No Linux distributor distributes unmaintained software. If you do not understand your Linux system, you should stay with what you find in the repositories and everything is supposed to work smoothly. Contrary to WIndows, Linux is not prepared to run any software downloaded from somewhere. Of course you can install and run anything you want -- if you are able to adjust the software to your needs as the distributor would do.

"

Dear Villeroy. Apache OpenOffice is still under current development. And I also believe there will be a newer version released to the public in the near future.

To remove LibreOffice from your system and replace it with OpenOffice please follow this comprehensive guide, https://websiteforstudents.com/lesson-1 ... ce-ubuntu/. Step 1, 4 and 5 are the most important steps. The link to the DEB (Ubuntu and Debian) package for AOO 4.1.9 (en-US) is https://sourceforge.net/projects/openof ... z/download.

AOO continues to be a very good option for an Office Suite. And remember, Apache OpenOffice can be downloaded and used entirely free of any license fees. Like all Apache Software Foundation software, Apache OpenOffice is free to use. Apache OpenOffice is released under the Apache 2.0 License. This means you may use it for any purpose - domestic, commercial, educational, public administration. You may install it on as many computers as you like. You may make copies and give them away to family, friends, students, employees - anyone you like.

[Zizi64]

...Apache OpenOffice is still under current development.
...
_________________________________________________________
OpenOffice 4.5.0 on LMDE 4 Debbie

There is not 4.5.0 version of the AOO today. The latest version is 4.1.9. If you are useing the 4.5.0 version of SOMETHING, that is not Apache OpenOffice.

The newest LO version is 7.1.0. The LO was forked at the 3.3.0 version. The LO has a much more active developer team.
The Linux distributions contain/prefer/support the LibreOffice instead of the AOO since the forking date.

...But it is your decision.

[Zizi64]

And remember, Apache OpenOffice can be downloaded and used entirely free of any license fees. Like all Apache Software Foundation software, Apache OpenOffice is free to use. Apache OpenOffice is released under the Apache 2.0 License. This means you may use it for any purpose - domestic, commercial, educational, public administration. You may install it on as many computers as you like. You may make copies and give them away to family, friends, students, employees - anyone you like.

And the LO is free and open source too. Yes, there is a SUPPORTED version of the LO for companies today, but only the support is paid. Either the AOO nor the community version of the LO has not official support.

[Hagar Delest]

Dear Villeroy. Apache OpenOffice is still under current development.

This is a forum, we all have our language style. Even if it's slightly exaggerated, let's face the reality: what new features have been added during all these Apache years? Even the sidebar comes from elsewhere. The only point is that AOO was rock solid because no major change whereas LO was a bit too fast in their releases (IMHO). But at least they warned the user that there was a more stable version and latest versions should not be used for production.
Thus, I've closed your report. Like anything you find on the Net, just double check the source.

To remove LibreOffice from your system and replace it with OpenOffice please follow this comprehensive guide...

We also have a tutorial, that is made to be release independent (not the case of yours): [Tutorial] Installing Apache OpenOffice on GNU/Linux.

Apache OpenOffice can be downloaded and used entirely free of any license fees...

So is LibreOffice.

For the record, all of the power users in this forum come from OOo (see the registration dates). Some of us embraced LO rather soon, some quite lately (last year in my case). We try to give the best advice to users and today, LO seems the soundest application. Most of us can compare them by having used them extensively.

[NZ_LinuxStudent]

(above image will be deleted on 23/03/21)

I can assure you all that OpenOffice is still under active development.

[RoryOF]

You will notice that the OpenOffice 4.5.0 screen you show is very clearly marked "Not for release" and you have blanked out that it is an automatic build ("buildbot"); its code and automatic build is changed every two days and it may suddenly become unusable with changes in the code: one uses it at one's own risk.

From my own knowledge I can also say that it is at present only available in a limited range of languages, not in the full range of a release OpenOffice.

[Hagar Delest]

Moreover, there are talks on the 4.2.0 on the dev mailing list IIRC, 4.5.0 is far far away!

Edit: Version numbers corrected.

[riffbiker]

The latest version of Apache OpenOffice is 4.1.9, announced February 2021. I have installed this on a Linux Mint 20.1 (latest version) base and can confirm the menu ghosting as I originally described (top of this thread) still exists if using Controls > Mint Y. Using Mint X everything continues to be fine.

For those that do not know, Controls Mint X & Y are Linux Mint Themes which affect the appearance and colours of window buttons and controls - they are purely aesthetic.

Whether this Mint Y incompatibility comes from the OO side or Linux Mint side, I wouldn't know - and in reality is of no great importance as I do not need to use Mint Y Controls BUT do need to use AOO! If the AOO team (such as it may be) could possibly find a permanent solution, it would be useful - however thanks for continuing to make the bug fixes on AOO which continues to be a very stable and professional suite.

[Hagar Delest]

If the AOO team (such as it may be) could possibly find a permanent solution, it would be useful

No developers here. You need to file a bug report: [Tutorial] Reporting bugs or suggestions.

[Villeroy]

There is no need to use OpenOffice on Linux. Every desktop distribution comes with a more or less recent version of LibreOffice which is under active development (more active than OpenOffice ever was). OpenOffice lies in coma. 2 or 3 people struggling with a yearly bugfix release so the project is not thrown off the Apache foundation. No 64 bit version for Windows, no adjustments to modern environments, no adjusment to dark schemes, massive problems with iOS releases, a complete lack of new features.