[Solved] Tables within Table Only Appear in Web View

[Ironhorn]

My file has some tables inside a larger table. In "Print View" all these sub-tables - and the text in them - disappears. The pages collapse as if they weren't even there. The pictures remain but they are stacked on top of each other.

The problem persists in my exported PDF file.

I'm using OO4 on Win10. My file is in .odt.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/4rm2cz97k ... lebook2.od

THANKS IN ADVANCE

[robleyd]

G'day, and welcome to the community forum.

You could place it on a file sharing site such as Mediafire and post the link here.

[John_Ha]

I can't upload the file as the pictures make it too large

Remove the images or create a small test file showing the problem.

[Ironhorn]

Here's the link!

http://www.mediafire.com/file/4rm2cz97k ... ebook2.odt

[Hagar Delest]

What is the point putting all the content in a single table?
I agree that per the table settings, there should be no problem. However, the volume of content and the anchoring of the pics may cause some troubles.
Select all the content of the table, delete the table and paste. Then adjust the layout for each page.

Please add [Solved] at the beginning of the title in your first post (top of the topic) with the edit button if your issue has been fixed.

[John_Ha]

There is something horribly corrupted with the file but I have no idea what is causing it.

What is the file history? Was it ever saved as a .doc or as a .docx? Was it ever edited by MS Word? Where did the tables come from?

It looks like it started as an MS Word .doc or .docx file because it has List Styles WWNum1 ... WWNum7. It has only been edited (File > Properties ...) for 3h 45 min and 29 times so it should not be a "tangled" file.

When I open Navigator (F5) and double click on a "missing" table (eg Table 2) the cursor locates to the space between the pages and when I type the cursor moves though nothing appears. What I type can be seen in web layout.

Creating a PDF only shows the print view.

The normal solution is to create a new, empty text document with File > New > Text document ..., and go Insert > File ..., and pull in the file. Alternatively, copy the entire contents of the file and paste them into a new, empty document. Save this new file. When I do the former, the file gets badly mangled and is not fixed.

You have 86 paragraph styles and 31 text styles which is indicative of someone using manual formatting instead of using styles. Every time you make a change by, say, italicising or bolding text, you create new styles just for those characters. IT shouldn't be a problem at 86 and 31 but it is bad practice.

I think your best hope is to abandon this file. Create a new empty .odt file with the outer, containing table. Copy each inner table individually from the web view and paste it into the new file.

See [Tutorial] Differences between Writer and MS Word files for why you should always work in and save files as .odt.

See [Tutorial] Some useful hints on using images for a discussion on how best to handle images in Writer.

Let us know what happens.

[keme]

I suspect that the issue is caused by conflicting table sizes.
Outer table created first. Auto-adjusts to page width.
Inner table inserted in web view, and adjusted manually. Manual adjust made it fixed-width.
When you go to print view, the outer table adjusts down, and the inner one will no longer fit.

Change page size to A3, Legal, Ledger or similar size. The missing tables may reappear. Resize inner table before you change back to desired page size.

[John_Ha]

Keme

Good thinking. I resized the page to 3,000mm x 3,000mm and all the tables appeared. However I cannot see anywhere where the tables are sized wrongly.

Note also that Tables 1, 7, 9 and 10 are the only tables where a size can be specified and the others are greyed out.

Edit: That's because they are set to Automatic - when I set them to Manual they can be adjusted. When I set all inner tables to 200mm, which is well below the outer table, they still do not show in Print view.

It still therefore looks to me like some sort of file corruption - especially as it goes badly wrong when I Insert > File ..., into a new document.

The attached file has the images removed and the page size set to 3,000mm x 3,000mm.

[John_Ha]

Also further testing reveals it is increasing the page length which brings the tables into view - not increasing the page width!

[Ironhorn]

I appreciate the help! I'm very new to OpenOffice so a lot of your explanations helped me learn things for the first time