Converting .rtf file to .pdf fails

[Likithak]

Hi,

I have installed Openoffice 4.1.7 on our new RHEL 8. When I try to test the conversion process it works for all the files example it converts a .txt, .doc etc files but when I try to convert a .rtf file it fails with a java.io.IOException Caused by: java.net.SocketTimeoutException: connect timed out. It doesn't give more information about the error. I'm not sure what we are doing wrong that it fails on .rtf files. We were previously on a RHEL 6 host and installing openoffice 4.1.7 on that host works fine without any issues. On the new RHEL 8 hosts we are seeing this problem. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Likitha

[FJCC]

Can you post a small file that causes a problem during PDF export? To upload a file, click Post Reply and look for the Upload Attachment tab just below the box where you type a response.

[Likithak]

Hi,

Thank you for responding. I have attached the .rtf file that I'm trying to convert.

Thanks,
Likitha

[FJCC]

Thanks for providing the document. It exports to PDF without any problem on my system. I cannot think of a reason why only rtf documents would have a problem during PDF export. When the document is open for editing, it is not handled differently than an odt document, as far as I know.

Since there is not an inherent problem with this document, since I can export it, the easiest solution is probably to save it as an odt document. The rtf format is not well supported by OpenOffice and I don't think there is any reason not to store it as an odt. MS Word can read and save in the odt format.

If you must keep the rtf format, you could try resetting your user profile. That is a common fix for strange problems. Your profile is the folder /home/<user name>/.openoffice/4/user. You should shutdown OpenOffice and rename that folder to user_old. When you restart OpenOffice, you should get the registration screen. After filling that out, you can test whether the PDF export now works. There is a tutorial about the user profile here.

[thomasjk]

I too had no problem exporting this to PDF using Libreoffice 6.4.6.2.