[Solved] RTF Documents Losing Formatting!

[Mishi]

I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but I did a search on the board and didn't see anything matching my issue.

I'm having problems with my OpenOffice 3.3 on Windows XP Pro.

I always save documents in Rich Text Format (.rtf) so there won't be compatibility issues in case I have to edit the file on another computer and word processor, but every time I open my document in OpenOffice, all of my custom formatting is either gone or completely screwed up: if I use bold anywhere in the document, random blocks of text will be in bold that aren't supposed to be; centered and right-aligned text will be shifted to the left side of the page; font colours randomly revert back to black; inserted graphics disappear from the document; etc. I'll go through the document and change everything back to how I had it before, save the file, and when I open it back up later, everything's messed up again! This is a minor irritation when I'm working on something that's only a few pages, but I'm currently working on a document that's a couple of HUNDRED pages long, so I don't have the time to work on it all in one sitting in order to export it to a PDF or print a hard copy the way I want it formatted, let alone have to fix the formatting EVERY time I open the file.

Is this formatting issue from saving in Rich Text Format, or is it something to do with this particular version of OpenOffice? I never had this problem with the previous version of the programme that I was running (I wish I remembered what version number it was). Is there any way to fix the formatting problem? I can't be constantly fixing my documents, especially the novel-length ones, and I don't want to have to buy Microsoft Office.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Mishi

[Hagar Delest]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

The RTF support is very poor in OOo. Even .doc support is better.
If you use OOo, better stick to native format (ODF), which is a true standard (ISO).

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

[Mishi]

Thank you so much. I tried saving a four page document as an ODF, and all of the formatting stayed intact when I opened it again. I'll be sure to save all my documents with this extension in the future.

Original post edited to reflect problem solved.

Mishi.