Images lost, Autosave stuck, Autorecovery fails

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armchairastronaut
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Images lost, Autosave stuck, Autorecovery fails

Post by armchairastronaut »

Dear Forum,
I started writing a book with Writer. It grew tremendously over time, and the current size is about 900 pages.
There's lots of images in that book, and at a certain pointin time, I noticed that Writer seemed to kick some images out of the document randomly.
So I thought it was probably because the document had grown too large, so I linked-in the images rather than inserting them.
That worked niecly for some time.
However, now I am facing three major issues:
- Although I had linked images to Frames, some of them do now appear somewhere in the document, oberlaying other text;
- The Autosave sometimes gets stuck, short of completion.
- Auto recovery sometimes stops with an error "bad allocation".
I'm thinking this is again caused by the size of the document, so I'm considering to split the document into sub-documents.
Or could it have a different reason?

The OpenOffice Wiki does only suggest one method of splitting an existing document. Here, each supposed sub-document should start with a Heading-1 style.
But that's not the case in my book. There is a title page, there are acknowledgements, a table of contents, the chapters (ohay, they start with Heading-1), a glossary, and other parts. Not all of them start with Heading-1. The page numbering is different in the first few parts.
I'm afraid I'll lose much of what's already there. And I'm also unsure what will happen to cross-links. Is there any safe way to save my book?

Thanks a lot in advance.
Armchair.
Open Office 4.1.5; Windows 10 Home v. 2004
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Zizi64
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Re: Multiple Issues, how to resolve

Post by Zizi64 »

current size is about 900 pages.
There's lots of images in that book,
I suppose and hope, that you

- use the ODF file formats for your important documents
- never insert images directly from a foreign source into your documents
- never insert .bmp type image into your document
- always optimize the images (with a third party image editor) before you insert them into the document.
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.
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Hagar Delest
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Re: Multiple Issues, how to resolve

Post by Hagar Delest »

Personally, I've disabled the autorecovery feature. Never seen any benefit for that feature.
Cross-links can work in master document depending on the kind of link used. Not sure about hyperlinks but cross-references do work (I use them in master docs).
Better anchor the pics As character, it's the most robust way of keeping them in place IMHO.
I've documents +1,200 pages with lots of pics with no issue. Resolution is optimized.
LibreOffice 7.6.2.1 on Xubuntu 23.10 and 7.6.4.1 portable on Windows 10
John_Ha
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Re: Multiple Issues, how to resolve

Post by John_Ha »

See [Tutorial] Some useful hints on using images for a discussion of using images, lost images and potential problems with large documents.
armchairastronaut wrote:I started writing a book with Writer. It grew tremendously over time, and the current size is about 900 pages.
Large files with images, tables or footnotes can take a long time - 30 minutes - to fully layout. See the discussion in the images tutorial.
armchairastronaut wrote:There's lots of images in that book, and at a certain point in time, I noticed that Writer seemed to kick some images out of the document randomly.
Known bug in AOO. LO is now better. See the discussion in the images tutorial.
armchairastronaut wrote:So I thought it was probably because the document had grown too large, so I linked-in the images rather than inserting them.
That is no better - see the discussion in the images tutorial.
armchairastronaut wrote: - Although I had linked images to Frames, some of them do now appear somewhere in the document, overlaying other text;
I'm thinking this is again caused by the size of the document, so I'm considering to split the document into sub-documents.
Or could it have a different reason?
Be sure to save as a .odt file. Apart from images getting lost, the rest of the document should be stable.

It's not size - your file isn't enormous. Splitting into master/sub-documents may make things easier for you and reduce risk of image loss as only those images in the edited sub-document are processed and are thus at risk of loss. Switch of displaying images while editing - they then won't be processed and won't risk being lost.
armchairastronaut wrote:The OpenOffice Wiki does only suggest one method of splitting an existing document. Here, each supposed sub-document should start with a Heading-1 style.
But that's not the case in my book. There is a title page, there are acknowledgements, a table of contents, the chapters (ohay, they start with Heading-1), a glossary, and other parts. Not all of them start with Heading-1. The page numbering is different in the first few parts.
I'm afraid I'll lose much of what's already there. And I'm also unsure what will happen to cross-links. Is there any safe way to save my book?
Read the manual on master documents (Chapter 13) at Writer User Guide. See Creating and Using Master Documents which says
Yes, master documents do work in OOoWriter. However, their use is full of traps for inexperienced users. Until you become familiar with the traps and how to avoid (or workaround) them, you may think that master documents are unreliable or difficult to use.

You can use several methods to create master documents. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages. Which method you choose depends on what you are trying to accomplish.The different methods are described in this document, along with suggestions on when to use each one.
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.
armchairastronaut
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Re: Multiple Issues, how to resolve

Post by armchairastronaut »

Wow, what a wealth of responses. I'll try them out. Thanks a lot.
Armchair.
Open Office 4.1.5; Windows 10 Home v. 2004
John_Ha
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Re: Images lost, Autosave stick, Autorecovery fails

Post by John_Ha »

armchairastronaut wrote:The OpenOffice Wiki does only suggest one method of splitting an existing document. Here, each supposed sub-document should start with a Heading-1 style.
But that's not the case in my book.
Be creative. Let it start with a Heading-1 if it really must have it. Direct format the heading to be 2 point text and don't type any text. You now have the required Heading-1 in the document but it is invisible apart from taking up 2/72" of white space on that page ...

However, try Method 3 in the Guide which says:
Method 3. Complete control

This method gives you complete control over complex documents with several page styles or restarted page numbering. It’s a bit more work to set up, but works reliably.

How to do it: Follow these steps, in the order given.

Step 1. Plan the project

Step 2. Create a template containing the required styles, fields, and other elements

Step 3. Create the master document and subdocuments from the same template

Step 4. Insert the subdocuments into the master document

Step 5. Add a table of contents, bibliography, or index
I think Step 3 is probably the critical one. Also, remember that when you have almost finished you can convert the master and sub documents back into a single .odt file (File > Export as .odt) for final tweaking. This is irreversible.
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.
armchairastronaut
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Re: Images lost, Autosave stick, Autorecovery fails

Post by armchairastronaut »

One more thing tends to happen. My document includes many formulae. After the last crash and relosding from the latest saved version, they're all gone. All I can see ist the following: (1) in some cases the formula has been replaced with a kind of icon called "Object 9" or any other number you csn think of. (2) In most cases I see something that looks like an image with some very tiny text in it. Clicking on that image opens up the image in a larger size, plus the formula editor at the bottom ofcthe screen. However, the formula editor always shows the same formula text, no matter which of the formulae I'm opening.
Either I'm making stupid mistakes, or there's something wrong with the tool. I mean, it's a serious text, I've spent a significant amount of time, and it's not nice to be surprised every time you open your document. Is there snything I could do in order to prevent this from happening?

Thankd a lot in advance.
Armchair.
Open Office 4.1.5; Windows 10 Home v. 2004
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MrProgrammer
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Re: Images lost, Autosave stick, Autorecovery fails

Post by MrProgrammer »

armchairastronaut wrote:… or there's something wrong with the tool
Perhaps this: OpenOffice issue 118725 - Pictures replaced by "read error" message and dropped

Try disabling option; Load/Save → General → Save AutoRecovery Information Every …
Options are set with OpenOffice → Preferences on a Mac, Tools → Options on other platforms. LibreOffice may have corrected the issue, or not. I do not use LibreOffice.
armchairastronaut wrote:My document includes many formulae.
As protection against this problem I save formulas as standalone files, then insert links to them in my Writer documents, however this may be impractical for you with the case of a large existing document. To insert the link: Insert → Object → OLE Object → Create from file → Link to file → Search → select formula document → OK.

If this solved your problem please go to your first post use the Edit button and add [Solved] to the start of the subject field. Select the green checkmark icon at the same time.
Mr. Programmer
AOO 4.1.7 Build 9800, MacOS 13.6.3, iMac Intel.   The locale for any menus or Calc formulas in my posts is English (USA).
John_Ha
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Re: Images lost, Autosave stick, Autorecovery fails

Post by John_Ha »

MrProgrammer wrote: Sat Jul 31, 2021 11:08 pmAs protection against this problem I save formulas as standalone files, then insert links to them in my Writer documents
I don't think that using linked images gives any protection from "the images disappearing from the document" as, when the bug happens, the links are deleted from the document.

It does mean that the actual image files themselves are not lost as they are still in the folder where you stored them.
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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