Text with certain unicode characters appears garbled

[Peter5004]

I first brought this up in a thread some months ago (now locked) but didn't get a full resolution. But now I have more information which may enable someone else to replicate the problem. I'm not seeking a solution urgently but I'd like to draw attention to this.

Appearance: justified text display corrupted and spills over margins:


Criteria:

• Text contains one or more 'unusual' characters. In this case one of the alternative asterisks ∗ (Unicode U+2217) which is seen surrounding the first "quick"; the problem also occurs with U+2216 but not with U+2215.
• Main body of text is 18 point or larger, but some text at different size. In the example the extra line feed between paragraphs 2 and 3 is 16 point.
• Occurs with both Times New Roman and Arial - but may happen with other font types.
• OO version 4.1.15 (I understand this is latest version). Windows 10 Home version 2009.

I should explain that I first saw the problem in text copied-and-pasted from elsewhere. I don't use that particular Unicode asterisk myself.
The file from which the above screen grab is taken may be found here.

Edit: Attached file to topic, since web link may break  -- MrProgrammer, forum moderator .

test text 03.odt

(11.7 KiB) Downloaded 2 times

[JeJe]

I can see the problems in OO, not fixed by updating, fixed by removing the asterisks and saving and reloading.

In LibreOffice the file seems to be okay,

[JeJe]

There looks to be a fiddly workaround in OO of putting the character in a drawing textbox.

[RoryOF]

File was OK for me using Xubuntu 22.04.5 LTS. and AOO 4.1.15. It might be a graphics driver problem.

[MrProgrammer]

Appearance: justified text display corrupted and spills over margins:

Displayed correctly with OpenOffice 4.1.7 on MacOS 13.7.6. Perhaps it is a Windows-only problem.

202507110815.gif (81.49 KiB) Viewed 343 times

[Zizi64]

Perhaps it is a Windows-only problem.

Win 10 prof, AOO 4.1.15 portable:

Win10_AOO4_1_15.png (65.86 KiB) Viewed 308 times

I suppose that is a graphics driver problem.

[cwolan]

Criteria:

• Text contains one or more 'unusual' characters. In this case one of the alternative asterisks ∗ (Unicode U+2217) which is seen surrounding the first "quick"; the problem also occurs with U+2216 but not with U+2215.
• Main body of text is 18 point or larger, but some text at different size. In the example the extra line feed between paragraphs 2 and 3 is 16 point.
• Occurs with both Times New Roman and Arial - but may happen with other font types.
• OO version 4.1.15 (I understand this is latest version). Windows 10 Home version 2009.

I see (sometimes) the problem with AOO 4.1.15 / AOO 4.1.15 portable on Windows 7, 10 and 11.

Windows Character Map utility does not show U+2216 and U+2217 for Times New Roman and Arial.
In AOO, U+2216 and U+2217 are not listed in Insert ⟶ Special Characters for these fonts. I have no idea it has a bearing on matter at hand.

Anyway, have you tried any other font that supports U+2217?

[Peter5004]

Thanks for the replies. I can see it's not just me with the problem, which is reassuring. And I can work around it by simply substituting alternative characters which don't cause this effect, like the 'normal' asterisk (U+002A). The problem doesn't occur in LibreOffice, as mentioned above.

Nevertheless it would be good to get the Apache wizards to look into this matter - if there were a way of notifying them. I found a site called "AOO bugzilla" but can't access it since I don't appear to be an 'authenticated' user. Perhaps someone else can?

[LastUnicorn]

If you managed at all to file a bug report you likely would still be waiting at the death end of the universe for a fix. Best switch to LibreOffice. There are several good reasons for making the switch anyway, some of which are mentioned here: [Tutorial] Considering a Switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice? Some Useful Information