Calc hang on cut / paste

[brofield]

I have been experiencing a regular problem with Calc in which it will hang for a long period of time, or completely when I do a cut or paste. This doesn't occur every time, but happens too often. It may have something to do with longer text - I haven't figured out what causes it yet.

When it hangs it will sometimes redraw (by right clicking on the start bar). It will rarely come back to normal. Usually I need to kill the task and start again. I am getting pretty frustrated by this as cut/paste is such a basic required task.

Has anyone else experienced problems like this?

OO v2.3.0 (currently downloading 2.3.1 to see if it has changed)

[kingfisher]

It could conceivably be a flaw in your settings folder. You could try renaming that folder (after closing all OO processes including the quick starter) to see whether that fixes the problem.

Otherwise, it might be a result of the volume of material you are trying to cut and paste at one time.

[pmlabrier]

Oddly enough I just registered here to investigate the exact same problem.

I am currently using 2.4 RC 4, but this problem has plagued CALC for a long time. I am using Win Vista, but the problem occurred in XP also.

The volume of data being pasted does not seem to matter. It just occurred when I had copied one cell and tried to past it into the next seven cells.

This is a VERY frustrating problem!

Paul LaBrier

[r4zoli]

You stores long texts in Calc tables cells?
You use Calc as texteditor?
Calc has 64kB limit for strings - if your inserted strings close to this size it can cause errors or takes longer time to inserting process.

[pmlabrier]

I was not talking about large texts.

I copied four digits, 4.79, and wanted it in the in the seven cells directly below it in the same column. This is a spreadsheet that has the following in each row:

Date, time, fuel type, Price, gallons, cost

The price does not change every day so I enter the fuel price from the top row once and the copy to all the cells in the column that need the the same price.

99% of the time this works like a champ, but the other 1% of the time in hangs and I have to kill the process to get out of it.

That said, I can routinely copy a table from a web page that is around 600 rows by 15 columns and paste it into a blank calc page and it works just fine. It takes it a few minutes but it always works. Its copy small amounts of data from cell to cell that usually hangs for me.

Paul

[kingfisher]

Does it help to copy and paste as two operations? Are you trying to copy by dragging?

[pmlabrier]

Does it help to copy and paste as two operations? Are you trying to copy by dragging?

No, I am using ctrl-c, then ctrl-v

Paul LaBrier

[brofield]

Ditto. This is not about large bits of text or misusing calc in any way. It is about normal spreadsheets, just a few small words or numbers. Copy using Ctrl-C and paste using Ctrl-V.

After a hang, sometimes with a bit of jiggery pokery I can get Calc to come back to me. i.e. right click on the window in the start bar, escape from the context menu. Alt-Tab a few times to try to get back to the window. Sometimes. Usually it is time to kill the task.

I have not yet figured out a way to reliably duplicate the problem.

Brodie

[marzipan]

I'm getting this all the time in both Calc and Write. Whenever I copy / cut / paste some text, I remember to save just before-hand otherwise I'm likely to lose the lot (like others here, recovery only recovers up to the last save I've made). I can't repeat it when I want but usually, after working with a document for long enough, something inevitably goes wrong when I copy / paste (it seems to be on the paste part that it dies).

It's only ever a line or two of data and I'm copying it from within Open Office and pasting it within Open Office (IE: Moving text / data around a document in either Word or Calc). Like brofield, I'm using Ctrl-C / Ctrl-X, Ctrl-V though none of the jiggery pokery works in getting it back. I have to end task. So far I've probably sent about 10 - 20 error messages through to Microsoft with their automated "this program crashed, would you like to report it?" thingy. I can have it happen 3 or 4 times within a couple of hours at times.

I'm on a Windows XP machine which literally has little more than Open Office installed on it (I only set it up a few weeks ago as essentially a glorified type-writer). Admittedly, the machine is 3 years old (Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz, 512 MB RAM) but it's been completely formatted and since then, OpenOffice is the only program I've had crash on me. It's happened so much that at times, I've had to resort to WordPad just to know I won't lose any data (and have seriously considered retreating back to the enemy and just forking out an arm and a leg for that other well-known Office program, just so I can type stuff reliably).

I'm using OpenOffice 2.4.0 which I only downloaded a few weeks ago, on Windows XP Pro which I only installed on a completely formatted machine about a day before that. I haven't changed any settings for Open Office either, they're all on the defaults.

[Hagar Delest]

Just an idea: if you go to Tools>Options>OOo>Paths and that you set another directory for the temporary files (create one in your documents folder), does it change something? It may be a problem with temporary files modified by another application (system maintenance for example).

[affinity]

I also get this problem.
P.S. As per another post, copy and paste to external applications takes about 10 seconds for OO to store the copy no matter what size and sometimes it hangs completely when I hit copy as per this post. I think there are some copy issues.
I am running Vista, haven't tried it on XP. I wont be surprised if its a Vista issue

Edit: After posting this, I had to kill the OO process to close it (soffice.bin) and on re-start of Open Office Calc it copys and pastes instantly now! Weird. I'v never had it instant, it always took about 10 seconds. I wonder if its anything to do with restarting the soffice.bin. Will keep monitoring.

[pmlabrier]

This problem is still bugging me. It occurs in both XP and vista. It does not happen every time and I have yet to find any thing in common when it does. When it does happen OpenOffice has to be shut down with the task manager. It is annoying enough that I now remember to ctrl-s before every paste just in case.

I wish the Dev team could find this bug and fix it.


Paul

[Hagar Delest]

You can try with the 3.0 RC1: OpenOffice 3.0 schedule?

[al_foto]

I have exactly the same problem and have tried almost all:
- Installed 2.4.1 in Spanish and English
- Installed 3.0
- Changed Java runtimes
- Changed almost all settings for Open Office including temp paths.

I can easily reproduce it by:
- Open Calc
- Open Base
- Open Windows mail
- Copy some lines from mail to Calc, copy inside Calc, copy to Base and in around 1 minute the application hangs ( Base and Calc). The lines to copy are small ones, not big load of data.

The worst part is that Base seems to really save only after closing, so when I hit Save in a record but later I have to close Calc or Base with the Task Manager the data is not saved.

My system is Windows Vista 64 bit

Please, I will appreciate any help.

[cedardoc]

I'm having the same problem. It happens when I'm cutting and pasting between two windows, both Calc. Calc hangs only when I paste quickly into the new cell after selecting it, but not if I count to 2 additional seconds. Has there been any headway on fixing this since the last post? I'm doing alot of cutting and pasting and would love it if I could go faster.

[mriosv]

Try with OOo 3.1.1, I think is solved.

[cedardoc]

Yes, you're right, that solved it

Thanks very much

[cedardoc]

Yes, you're right, that solved it

Thanks very much

Woops, I spoke too soon, it's still happening, but less frequently (at least I think its less frequent)

Could it be a vista thing? It doesn't seem to happen on windows 7.

[rdstitt]

I too have the same problem. This is very frustrating.

Why can't this problem be fixed?

I've had this problem through numerous versions and operating systems both Windows & Linux.

Why isn't this problem being addressed?

[pwnb0t]

This is happening to me on OO 3.2 on MacOS 10.6

The formula to make it happen is very simple, just select some cells and cmd+c

Obviously this bug isn't happening to everyone, so I don't know how to make it start happening for anyone.

Is there a settings file that I could try removing to see if that helps?
Is there anything else related to copy/cut/paste in any settings or anything that might have an effect?

[radeksz]

I managed to solve the problem, it was a clipboard history tracker (Launchbar in my case). With clipboard history disabled, copying or cutting no longer freezes or crashes openoffice.

[MrProgrammer]

I see that there are several of these topics about performance problems using Cut/Copy/Paste.

Topic 3679
Topic 12981
Topic 20419

I'm not experiencing the problem so I'll admit that I have not studied these topics in detail, however I can offer a general suggestion to the people who are having trouble. I think the user community should attempt to determine if the problem is (A) limited to Calc, (B) affects other OpenOffice components such as Writer, or (C) affects other applications on the operating system that you're using. In the later case, there may be little that the OpenOffice development team can do about the problem. Based on the last post today from radeksz the problem would likely affect other O/S applications. Of course it would be most helpful if the user community could determine whether the problem is type A, B, C, or gone on the most recent level of OpenOffice (3.2.1) with any clipboard management tools disabled.

[Hagar Delest]

Since you've subscribed the forum, you're part of the user community now...
You should have a look at [Tutorial] Reporting bugs or suggestions.

[jlampe]

This still happens in Open Office 3.3 and if anything, I think it's getting worse. There's a twenty-line, seven-column spreadsheet I make an entry to about once a month. If I try to Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V simple text entries from one cell to another, it hangs between 30-40% of the time.

Yeesh.

[nonamed]

I confirm problem on ubuntu 10.04, OO 3.2. The problem exists many years, I remember it from 8.4. Almost EVERY pressing on ctrl-c reveals this problem. It looks like drawing a black animated dotted border is too diffucult for cpu with 4 cores . It's very funny, but it's not a joke.
One very short experiment. Xorg loads 12% of one cpu core.
One copied cell (default size) with animated border gives 40% load of one core by Xorg. Two cells - 65%. 50 cells - 90%!. ONE single cell with size equals to 50 default sized cells gives the same 90% load on one CPU core...
It After fast ctrl-c, ctrl-v, I repeatedly click on any cell, for openng editing textfield and cancelling this fu..g animated border.
Unfortunately, I don't know english very well to describe and list all sentences i'm pronouncing loudly on every ctrl-c .

[Hagar Delest]

Ubuntu doesn't use the vanilla version of OOo so it may be something else. Try to install the debs from the website. I've never had any problem with the few spreadsheets I've worked on: [Ubuntu] Installing OOo on Debian and Co.

[RoryOF]

A now closed bug on Mandriva linux (57359), closed because on old nonsupported version of Mandriva, lists this as due to the animated border. As a workaround, cut/copy without animation, and apply animation afterwards.

[twpreato]

Does anybody know what the status with this issue is? I am running OpenOffice 3.3.0 and I still see that issue. It is not debilitating, but it is frustrating. I've had the issue 3 times so far today. Each resulting in an 'End process' and subsequent loss of data. Naturally, saving frequently limits the loss, but this is bothersome none the less.

[Hagar Delest]

From what application do you paste?
Have you tried to paste as unformatted text or something else (in the paste options)?

[twpreato]

I am cutting and pasting in Calc. Usually 3-10 cells of less than 50 characters, which does not seem to me like an excessive amount of data. Most of the time, it is simply moving the data that causes it.