A Writer Document Saved as RTF Opens Blank & Read Only

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Dangling Wrangler
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A Writer Document Saved as RTF Opens Blank & Read Only

Post by Dangling Wrangler »

I saved a writer document as an rtf file with images
When I open the document it is blank with only title showing at top of blank page
File properties show read-only which is not how it was saved and with 38 MB file size which should be about right as it was at least 11-14 pages with images :ucrazy:
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Zizi64
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Re: A Writer Document Saved as RTF Opens Blank & Read Only

Post by Zizi64 »

Can you upload the original .odt type document here?
We will try to export is into that foreign, obsolete poorly featured file format(.rtf) with various versions of the Apache OpenOffice and the LibreOffice - searching for the best result.

Why you need use that archaic-old file type?
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John_Ha
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Re: A Writer Document Saved as RTF Opens Blank & Read Only

Post by John_Ha »

See [Tutorial] Differences between Writer and MS Word files for a description of differences and for why you should always work in, and save Writer files as .odt, Calc files as .ods, Impress files as .odp etc.

.rtf files are truly horrible and much data is likely to be lost. Their handling of images is appalling and this is why the file size is an atrocious 38 MBytes.
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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RoryOF
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Re: A Writer Document Saved as RTF Opens Blank & Read Only

Post by RoryOF »

An RTF file is plain text, so you should be able, using /File /Open to open it in a plain text editor such as Notepad. Do not resave it. If it opens in Notepad, and the content is there, you need to find a program that will open and display it. OpenOffice is not such a program with any reliability.
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John_Ha
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Re: A Writer Document Saved as RTF Opens Blank & Read Only

Post by John_Ha »

Rory

It's 38 MBytes. Notepad will have an acute heart attack and die on the spot!
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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RoryOF
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Re: A Writer Document Saved as RTF Opens Blank & Read Only

Post by RoryOF »

WordPad, if available, might display it. My memory (ten/eleven years old) is that WordPad although Saving as .doc, often silently used .rtf.
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Bill
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Re: A Writer Document Saved as RTF Opens Blank & Read Only

Post by Bill »

Were the images linked or embedded? Links are lost when saving in RTF format.

Issue 78542 - RTF: linked pictures lost on export

The read-only problem is probably a separate unrelated problem.
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John_Ha
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Re: A Writer Document Saved as RTF Opens Blank & Read Only

Post by John_Ha »

Upload the 38 MByte file to a file share site so it can be analysed.
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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RoryOF
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Re: A Writer Document Saved as RTF Opens Blank & Read Only

Post by RoryOF »

Bill wrote:Were the images linked or embedded? Links are lost when saving in RTF format.

Issue 78542 - RTF: linked pictures lost on export

The read-only problem is probably a separate unrelated problem.
With a 38MB file, I guess that the size is due to the pictures being incorporated; from memory they would be inserted as large blocks of hex code.
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Bill
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Re: A Writer Document Saved as RTF Opens Blank & Read Only

Post by Bill »

RoryOF wrote:With a 38MB file, I guess that the size is due to the pictures being incorporated; from memory they would be inserted as large blocks of hex code.
The file size isn't a good indicator. My test RTF file saved with 3 linked images was 56.6MB. The same file with 3 embedded images was 132.4MB. When the files were opened, the one with linked images did display one of the images. The one with embedded images took a very long time to load but all 3 images were displayed.
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