[Solved] Tables not saved

Discuss the word processor
Post Reply
rdhr151
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Jun 03, 2018 4:42 am

[Solved] Tables not saved

Post by rdhr151 »

Are you kidding me?! I spend hours making charts/tables, save everything, come back from lunch, open the file and its just a scrambled mess?! The tables are gone but the info is still there. Is there any way to revert back to what it's supposed to be?

If I don't get an error message when I save a document, then how am I supposed to trust that its been saved? :crazy:
Last edited by Hagar Delest on Tue Jun 05, 2018 7:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: tagged solved
Erik - OpenOffice 4.1.3 on MacOS High Sierra 10.13.4
User avatar
robleyd
Moderator
Posts: 5055
Joined: Mon Aug 19, 2013 3:47 am
Location: Murbko, Australia

Re: Tables not saved

Post by robleyd »

What type of document are you speaking of - Writer, Calc, something else. And in what format did you save the document - native ODF format, or some other, e.g. MS whatever.

As you are using a Mac, you may find [Tutorial] Mac FAQ a useful resource for some AOO matters.
Cheers
David
OS - Slackware 15 64 bit
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15
LibreOffice 24.2.1.2; SlackBuild for 24.2.1 by Eric Hameleers
rdhr151
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Jun 03, 2018 4:42 am

Re: Tables not saved

Post by rdhr151 »

Thank you for the reply...It was a text document saved in .doc on a Mac.
Erik - OpenOffice 4.1.3 on MacOS High Sierra 10.13.4
User avatar
robleyd
Moderator
Posts: 5055
Joined: Mon Aug 19, 2013 3:47 am
Location: Murbko, Australia

Re: Tables not saved

Post by robleyd »

My first advice is - don't save your documents in a foreign format; see [Tutorial] Differences between Writer and MS Word files for reasons behind my suggestion. If for some reason you absolutely have to provide others with a document in a foreign format, complete the creation etc. of the document in ODF format, then save as to the required format. Note that MS Office versions from 2007 onwards can read ODF files. Note that when saving in a foreign format, unless you have disabled the feature, AOO will warn you that the document may contain formatting that cannot be saved in the file type you are using.

If you are using images in the document, [Tutorial] Some useful hints on using images is a useful resource.
Cheers
David
OS - Slackware 15 64 bit
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15
LibreOffice 24.2.1.2; SlackBuild for 24.2.1 by Eric Hameleers
User avatar
Zizi64
Volunteer
Posts: 11353
Joined: Wed May 26, 2010 7:55 am
Location: Budapest, Hungary

Re: Tables not saved

Post by Zizi64 »

The Open Document Format (ODF) is an International Standard for the long time compatibility of the documents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument

The native fileformat of the AOO and LO is the ODF (.odt, .ott; .ods, .ots; .odg, .otg ...). Always store your important documents in the native fileformats, and you can export a COPY of the documents into foreign file formats if it is necessary.

The old, obsolete binary .doc fileformat has a lot of different poorly documented versions: Word6, Word95, Word97-2000-XP, Word2002-2003, and more...

Note: There is not (never was and never will be) 100% compatibility with the foreign fileformats. It is not depends on the knowledge of the developers of the office suites. It is related to the anachronistic differences of the file format features and properties.
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.
User avatar
Villeroy
Volunteer
Posts: 31269
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 1:35 am
Location: Germany

Re: Tables not saved

Post by Villeroy »

Always work in the native format of the program you are using when you create documents, sounds, movies, photographs, drawings or computer programs.
In order to show your work to others, there are specific file formats for documents (PDF), sounds (mp3), movies (mp4), photographs (jpeg), drawings (PDF or 3D-models) and computer programs (executable binaries with libraries).
Export text documents to PDF and everybody will be able to read and print it on any type of compter device. Exporting doc or docx makes no sense unless you have to submit to someone who needs to co-edit the same document while beeing too lazy to install a free ODF suite on his computer. Even Microsoft claims to support ODF. However, that ODF support can not be perfect for the same reasons why no complex product can support the native format of another complex product perferctly.
Nevertheless, http://libreoffice.org/ is a more actively developed cousin of OpenOffice. The LO developers spent some time and effort to improve compatibility with MS Office. If I recall correctly, they could improve the import and export of text tables.
Please, edit this topic's initial post and add "[Solved]" to the subject line if your problem has been solved.
Ubuntu 18.04 with LibreOffice 6.0, latest OpenOffice and LibreOffice
jrkrideau
Volunteer
Posts: 3816
Joined: Sun Dec 30, 2007 10:00 pm
Location: Kingston Ontario Canada

Re: Tables not saved

Post by jrkrideau »

rdhr151 wrote: The tables are gone but the info is still there. Is there any way to revert back to what it's supposed to be?
Who knows?

Probably the best option is to upload the file to the forum or if it is over 128K, upload to a file sharing service such as Dropbox or MediaFire and post the link here.

Some of the local gurus may be able to help.
LibreOffice 7.3.7. 2; Ubuntu 22.04
rdhr151
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Jun 03, 2018 4:42 am

Re: Tables not saved

Post by rdhr151 »

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8wdhxnmhejsgj ... r.url?dl=0

Not sure if this will work but would be nice! Thank you.
Erik - OpenOffice 4.1.3 on MacOS High Sierra 10.13.4
User avatar
keme
Volunteer
Posts: 3699
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:27 am
Location: Egersund, Norway

Re: Tables not saved

Post by keme »

rdhr151 wrote:https://www.dropbox.com/s/8wdhxnmhejsgj ... r.url?dl=0

Not sure if this will work but would be nice! Thank you.
Link does not take me to a document, but an introduction to "Dropbox Paper" (which on first look appears to be dropbox' take on Microsoft's "Sway", btw). Can't find any shared document to work on. Sorry!
rdhr151
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Jun 03, 2018 4:42 am

Re: Tables not saved

Post by rdhr151 »

Erik - OpenOffice 4.1.3 on MacOS High Sierra 10.13.4
User avatar
Zizi64
Volunteer
Posts: 11353
Joined: Wed May 26, 2010 7:55 am
Location: Budapest, Hungary

Re: Tables not saved

Post by Zizi64 »

I just converted the first part of your text to table format.

How to do it manually:
- Save your .doc document into .odt format. Never save the only one document into foreign fileformats, but always create more than one Backup copy about your important documents. I can propose the "timeStampBackup" extension for this task: viewtopic.php?f=47&t=86742&p=442486
- You must separate the data values by inserting TAB characters into the text.
- Then select the text of a table.
- Apply the function Text-To-Table by the menu item: Table - Convert - Text to Table. Adjust the desired properties, and then click on the button OK.
- The table is done.
- Maybe you need adjust the column widths (and/or other properties). Select a column, and the adjust the widths by using of the function Table - Properties - Columns (TAB).


Note: I needed optimize the picture in the sample document, because it had a huge bit size (relative to the physical size): I have reduced the color depth to 256. Now I can upload the file directly here. Always optimize your pictures with a third party image editor/manager software (You can use a lightweight software like the IrfanView or more others)
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.
User avatar
Zizi64
Volunteer
Posts: 11353
Joined: Wed May 26, 2010 7:55 am
Location: Budapest, Hungary

Re: Tables not saved

Post by Zizi64 »

I do not know what "table" function and what fileformat sub-version had you used before (which version of the office suite with), but I can save the converted .odt document into MsWord 97-2003 .doc format, and the table will be appeared fine when I reopen the re-converted .doc document in my AOO 4.1.5 and LO 5.4.7:
But use it in every way the native file formats.
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.
User avatar
keme
Volunteer
Posts: 3699
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:27 am
Location: Egersund, Norway

Re: Tables not saved

Post by keme »

rdhr151 wrote:Are you kidding me?! I spend hours making charts/tables, save everything, come back from lunch, open the file and its just a scrambled mess?! The tables are gone but the info is still there. Is there any way to revert back to what it's supposed to be?
Yes. Manual effort. First "save as" odt, then recreate your tables and charts.
Save and reload after first edit, to confirm that the layout is saved as intended.

As far as I can tell, the document was saved in the "Word 6" flavor of .doc. This is probably the worst choice of them all (Cf. comment by Zizi64 above). I recall using that format in an other century, with MS Word, WordPad and MS Publisher, getting consistently inconsistent results. Note that this was with MS-only applications using a MS file format "standard". With that as background, expecting other vendors to reliably support a file format the creator can't reliably support, is much like believing in miracles...

When I insert multiple spaces, tabs and tables, most of the layout elements are stripped off when I save as Word 6. Instant mess.
Using the "Word 97/2000/XP" output format yields better result, but given time it will also create a formatting mess if you use any formatting tools at all.
OpenOffice's native "odt" is what you should use when you are working in Writer, unless you know for certain that you must use a different format (for collaboration, post-processing by other software, etc.)
rdhr151 wrote:If I don't get an error message when I save a document, then how am I supposed to trust that its been saved? :crazy:
When you save as Word format (any variety) from Writer, there is a warning message (not an error message) stating that components of the document (formatting, content) may be lost if you proceed. You can specifically request that this warning not be shown again (check box in the message window). If not you or someone else have disabled this message, there should have been a warning. If you haven't and there wasn't, something is probably wrong with your install. Download a new installer and reinstall!

Either way, don't trust that your file has been saved until you have checked it. Make backup copies of your important work.
rdhr151
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Jun 03, 2018 4:42 am

Re: Tables not saved

Post by rdhr151 »

Thank you all for your insights into this topic, this forum came out and highlighted the solutions quickly and without delay. I will apply said advice in the future in order to avoid complications. -Cheers
Erik - OpenOffice 4.1.3 on MacOS High Sierra 10.13.4
Post Reply