Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

I could not find a solution to this problem: Saved very large text document (no illustrations) but when I re-opened it, it appeared as a black blank page. The only reference I could find for this problem was a Apr 5, 2015 post. In that post, the complaint, a writer, was told he accidentally deleted his work using a string of shortcuts. That is not plausible in my case (nor his either) as I can open that file, intact, using Word 365. I have many files using OpenOffice and I can still open all of them using OpenOffice. This very large document is the only file that will not open but it was opened, edited, saved repeatedly before this problem happened. I'm hoping to continue using OpenOffice if I can solve this problem. I prefer OpenOffice over Word 365. Is there help out there?

Do you work in native ODF (.odt)?
Documents saved in external formats like .doc may cause some glitches.

A link to the "Apr 5, 2015 post" might be useful. My searching didn't find anything on that date. What is the file format?

Thanks for your responses. I just got a new computer and am busy setting it up so I'm not able to answer the two questions now. I have concluded that OpenOffice cannot handle very large files (like book-length files) and when I can, I intend to split my book in half and see if OpenOffice can handle each half. As mentioned, it was able to handle the entire file (book) for a period of a couple of weeks or so until suddenly it couldn't anymore more.

EldoE wrote:Thanks for your responses. I just got a new computer and am busy setting it up so I'm not able to answer the two questions now. I have concluded that OpenOffice cannot handle very large files (like book-length files) and when I can, I intend to split my book in half and see if OpenOffice can handle each half. As mentioned, it was able to handle the entire file (book) for a period of a couple of weeks or so until suddenly it couldn't anymore more.

You are mistaken - I regularly handle one million word files in OpenOffice Writer with no problems. Work and Save in .odt format, do not allow computer to sleep with an OpenOffice file open, and after you close the file and OpenOffice wait a few seconds before initiating the computer shut down procedure. Wait a few seconds after that finishes before cutting power or snapping a laptop lid shut. I have files of formatted book text, 200 thousand words and more, which have had 4 or 5 thousand edits over several years.

A blank page (lost text) can be caused by careless typing - an inadvertent Ctrl A will select all text, and the next keystroke will delete it.

As I have mentioned before, the file had not been inadvertently deleted because I can open the same file in Word and all the book is there. I'm not aware I've ever let the computer sleep as I generally, when finished writing or editing, save to two backup hard drives and close down. I do appreciate your comments but you have crushed my theory of a file being too big for OpenOffice.
I'm lost to explain what's happening. I wanted to finish this book with OpenOffice as I find Word is not as user friendly. Any other ideas as to why I'm getting a blank instead of text. It's evident to me that this is not a case of inadvertently deleting the text.

Save your file in .odt format.

RoryOF, I just tried to save in .odt, first using the blank OpenOffice file (didn't work) then saving the Word file to OpenOffice .odt. After saving the Word file in .odt, I closed the file then reopened it. It opened as a Word file. One thing I've not yet mentioned: when I click on (but not open) the OpenOffice file, the normal text appears in the sidebar on the right of the screen, indicating that the nothing was deleted. But still, if you open the file, it opens as a blank page. So far, other text files I have that are associated with the book still open up fine in OpenOffice .odt. Only the file, which is my book and is very large, will not open except as a blank page.

How large?

EldoE wrote:RoryOF, I just tried to save in .odt, first using the blank OpenOffice file (didn't work) then saving the Word file to OpenOffice .odt. After saving the Word file in .odt, I closed the file then reopened it. It opened as a Word file. One thing I've not yet mentioned: when I click on (but not open) the OpenOffice file, the normal text appears in the sidebar on the right of the screen, indicating that the nothing was deleted. But still, if you open the file, it opens as a blank page. So far, other text files I have that are associated with the book still open up fine in OpenOffice .odt. Only the file, which is my book and is very large, will not open except as a blank page.

If it is not confidential, you may want to post it to something like Mediafire or Dropbox and post a download link here. It would be interesting to see what happens when another forum member tries to open it.

It's a draft of a book so I'm reluctant to do that. Since I have Word and have customized it to my liking, I think spending any more time on trying to get OpenOffice to work, my time is better spent converting all my files to Word. Anyway, thanks to everyone who tried to help.

EldoE wrote:It's a draft of a book so I'm reluctant to do that. Since I have Word and have customized it to my liking, I think spending any more time on trying to get OpenOffice to work, my time is better spent converting all my files to Word. Anyway, thanks to everyone who tried to help.

Hello,
I dont know what you are doing but I have used OO for years with massive files. You MUST save in ODT format. If you are saving it in ODT format, you cannot open it in MSOffice, as they are by nature incompatible file formats, which means that you have to save from ODT format to a DOC or RTF format before you can open it MSOffice. I have just completed a massive project with over two and half million words in it and a ton of graphics. The only problem in the past I have come up against is lack of memory to hold such, where the program locked up and froze, and another time also swap space had to be increased. Try that first.

Skyhighnemo

I agree about OO being able to use large files quite safely. For test purposes I have actually generated and edited large files of over 60,000 pages (formatted text only). Admittedly editing was slo-o-ow! Because of the slowness one would not choose to edit such a file on a regular basis, but OO was quite stable. (on linux machines)