[Solved+Issue] Document won't open

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JHA
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[Solved+Issue] Document won't open

Post by JHA »

I have one document, size of which is 65KB, which doesn't open.

I have clicked on it in the Windows listings, but nothing happens
there.

I noticed this doc. was shown as a blank square alongside other docs
which do open properly.

Is there a document recovery way available to recover this doc., please?
Last edited by Hagar Delest on Thu Apr 22, 2021 4:43 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: tagged issue.
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FJCC
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Re: Document won't open

Post by FJCC »

Can you upload the document here? To do that, click PostReply and look for the Upload Attachment tab just below the box where you type a response.
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JHA
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Re: Document won't open

Post by JHA »

Thanks ... I've attached the document as suggested, I think.
Attachments
Famhist.odt
(64.21 KiB) Downloaded 154 times
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RoryOF
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Re: Document won't open

Post by RoryOF »

It opened immediately for me - 81 A4 pages. I made a trivial change - adding/removing a space and Saved it. Try the attached. The change in file size would suggest something has been lost.

There are a number of hyperlinks. It is possible that a hyperlink to a remote site is not responding, causing it to hang on opening for you.
Attachments
Famhist_changed.odt
(59.47 KiB) Downloaded 151 times
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
JHA
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Re: Document won't open

Post by JHA »

Thanks for your help; it is working now, I don't know what changed.

I downloaded your file, and they both appear to be the same size.

Nothing lose, good news. :bravo:
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RoryOF
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Re: Document won't open

Post by RoryOF »

There is a 5MB difference in size; it arises from a difference in a thumbnail stored within the file. Both new and old thumbnails look similar to me, but I haven't compared them critically.
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JHA
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Re: [Solved] Document won't open

Post by JHA »

According to Windows Explorer, there is no difference; they are both 65KB.

Oddly enough, the one which wouldn't open now does, so I compared them
line by line and they are identical.
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RoryOF
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Re: [Solved] Document won't open

Post by RoryOF »

When I opened both on my Xubunbtu machine there was a 5KB difference in size, the new one having a thumbnail of about 2KB, the old file's thumbnail being 7KB (figures from memory). The sizes of the files awaiting downloading on the forum also show a similar 5KB difference.
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Re: [Solved] Document won't open

Post by JHA »

I defer to your knowledge, and I don't know what the thumbnail is.

That was a big file containing all my research in family history so
I am glad to have retained it in one piece!

Thanks ...
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Bill
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Re: [Solved] Document won't open

Post by Bill »

I'm noticing another problem with the file. If I open the Navigator and double-click a Bookmark to go to the bookmark, then close the Navigator, OpenOffice crashes. I've tried it at least a dozen times and it crashed every time, even after resetting the user profile. Make sure that you have more than one backup copy of the file just in case it does crash and the recovery fails.
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RoryOF
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Re: [Solved] Document won't open

Post by RoryOF »

After reading Bill's post (above) I found that Navigator - Bookmark - Double click caused the original file to crash, but not my Saved file (with the smaller thumbnail.png in it.
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JHA
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Re: [Solved] Document won't open

Post by JHA »

As you are using Ubuntu, the terms navigator and bookmark don't mean much
to me. I assume you don't mean the internal bookmarks in the document?

I have backed up the document, which contains all my family history research,
so it would be frustrating to lose it.

I use Windows 10.

(Do you use an anti-virus in your Ubuntu? Is one needed?)
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Re: [Solved] Document won't open

Post by RoryOF »

I'm using Xubuntu, which is a different desktop but using much of the underlying Ubuntu code. The Navigator and bookmarks are part of OpenOffice Writer across all platforms, including Windows. To turn on Navigator use /View /Navigator or press F5 key; it offers a list of the structures used in a file, and gives a speedy way to move about the file.

You may find this document offers a useful overview of using Writer:
Writer for students (several languages)
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robleyd
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Re: [Solved] Document won't open

Post by robleyd »

Navigator is a feature of OpenOffice and can be opened using View | Navigator or via the keyboard using F5. Among other things you can see and go to bookmarks, that you have inserted using Insert | Bookmark, from within the navigator.

Search the HELP - F1 for bookmark and navigator for more information.
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JHA
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Re: [Solved] Document won't open

Post by JHA »

Thank you ... I have much to learn!
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Bill
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Re: [Solved] Document won't open

Post by Bill »

RoryOF wrote:There is a 5MB difference in size; it arises from a difference in a thumbnail stored within the file. Both new and old thumbnails look similar to me, but I haven't compared them critically.
Irfanview reports that the thumbnail from the original file has 193 unique colors while the thumbnail from the modified file has 5 unique colors. That could account for the difference in file size, but I don't know why it would cause AOO to crash.
RoryOF wrote:After reading Bill's post (above) I found that Navigator - Bookmark - Double click caused the original file to crash, but not my Saved file (with the smaller thumbnail.png in it.
I'm testing now with Debian 10 and both the original file and your modified file crash using versions of AOO back to 4.1.0. No crashes occur with AOO 4.0.0 or 4.0.1, so it looks like some change introducee in 4.1.0 is causing the problem for me.
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Re: Document won't open

Post by John_Ha »

RoryOF wrote:There is a 5MB difference in size; it arises from a difference in a thumbnail stored within the file. Both new and old thumbnails look similar to me, but I haven't compared them critically.
Checking shows that AOO creates a new thumbnail of page 1 on each save. Your apparently trivial edit allowed the thumbnail PNG file to be compressed far better than before.

I therefore think you must have added a lot of white space, either by spaces or multiple carriage returns.
Rory's thumbnail image is very different from the original and, as Bill reports, uses fewer colours. It is much coarser so compresses far better.

I wonder if it is because the default settings for PNG compression are different on Linux compared with Windows?
Clipboard02.gif
Last edited by John_Ha on Sun Apr 18, 2021 4:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: [Solved] Document won't open

Post by RoryOF »

I inserted one space and removed it, so that the file was marked as changed and could now be Saved once again.
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Re: [Solved] Document won't open

Post by John_Ha »

Our posts crossed while I was editing it.
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Re: [Solved] Document won't open

Post by Bill »

I've now tried testing the original and modified files on Xubuntu 20.04.2 and Ubuntu Budgie 21.04 Beta. Both files opened with no problem and didn't crash when trying my Navigator experiment on Xubuntu. Ubuntu Budgie 21.04 was a different story. I couldn't even install AOO until LO was completely purged, and the crash problem returned for both files.

Regarding the thumbnail, the new thumbnails produced by AOO and LO are different, so they aren't using the same settings. While the AOO thumbnail had fewer colors then the originsl, the LO thumbnail had more colors than the original but was changed from 24 BPP to 8 BPP.
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Re: [Solved] Document won't open

Post by Bill »

I have submitted a bug report for the crashes on some Linux distributions:

Issue 128449 - Document with more than 40 bookmarks crashes after closing Navigator
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