[Solved] MS Word document largely hidden

asr2 · Post by **asr2** » Sat Oct 02, 2021 9:48 am

Most of my Word document is displayed hidden in Writer, see Attachment.

How can I display the hidden text?

Post by **RoryOF** » Sat Oct 02, 2021 10:02 am

You should examine if a Character Style has been applied to the missing portions, and if so, change the font colour used for that Style (probably currently White)

If working with OpenOffice Write, you should use .odt format.

Post by **Zizi64** » Sat Oct 02, 2021 10:18 am

Please upload a sample document file here instead of the image. The we will able to examine the problem.

Post by **John_Ha** » Sat Oct 02, 2021 10:43 am

See [Tutorial] Differences between Microsoft and AOO/LO files for a description of differences and for why you should always work in, and save Writer files as .odt, Calc files as .ods, Impress files as .odp, etc.

asr2 · Post by **asr2** » Sun Oct 03, 2021 8:35 am

The problem seems only to concern the complete document (approx. 200 pages). When I make a small subset of the document (by deleting most of the original document), the display is correct; I wanted to prepare a small document that can analysed easier.
The result is better when I save the document from MS Word as .odt, but it still has isolated corruptions. MS Word displays this .oft format correctly.

The font color in Word is "automatic".

Post by **RoryOF** » Sun Oct 03, 2021 8:38 am

Experience on Forum tells us that any document that has been Saved in .doc or .docx format and is later Saved in ,odt will have peculiar problems.

Post by **RoryOF** » Sun Oct 03, 2021 10:19 am

Select any "blank" items and change Font Colour to the desired colour, or Black, rather than "automatic".

asr2 · Post by **asr2** » Sun Oct 03, 2021 10:36 am

Thanks, but this is not practicable for a large, highly formatted document. It also does not explain why the subset document with "Automatic" font color is displayed correctly.

Post by **RoryOF** » Sun Oct 03, 2021 10:37 am

After being in Word format, who can say why anything happens.

Post by **John_Ha** » Sun Oct 03, 2021 11:12 am

Please upload a small file - just a page will do - showing the problem so that it can be analysed.

Press POSTREPLY and click the Upload attachment tab below where you type (128 kB max).

Post by **Hagar Delest** » Sun Oct 03, 2021 11:19 am

MS Office support of ODF (.odt) is quite poor, claiming quite all the files are damaged and need to be repaired (maybe because I save in ODF 1.3 with LO).
Either work in .odt or .docx, depending on the requirements, but better avoid switching from one to another. Or just work in .odt and export in .docx at the end. But you still may experience some glitches. AOO cannot save in .docx but LibreOffice can.

Select the text and hit Ctrl+M to remove the formatting. If the words reappear, then it's a problem with the formatting.

asr2 · Post by **asr2** » Sun Oct 03, 2021 12:56 pm

I have attached a small file that exhibits the specified problem.

Post by **John_Ha** » Sun Oct 03, 2021 1:22 pm

Strange. It opens fine in LO but text is missing in AOO because it is set to white. Setting the text to red displays it.

Edit: Presumably because a change described by rsid tags is being ignored by AOO but is being displayed by LO

Stop saving as a .docx file. Always save all work as a .odt file after correcting any file conversion errors.

Why are you ignoring the warning LO gives when you save as a docx file?

Have you read the tutorial you were referred to or did I waste my time writing it and asking you to read it?

Your signature says AOO but AOO cannot save .docx files. So how did you create the .docx file? A quick check shows it uses rsid tags which AOO does not support so it was probably written by MS Word, or perhaps by LO.

Code: Select all

<w:p w14:paraId="7879658F" w14:textId="77777777" w:rsidR="000B2CD5" w:rsidRPr="0029667E" w:rsidRDefault="000B2CD5" w:rsidP="002D00ED">
			<w:pPr>
				<w:pStyle w:val="ItemList"/>
				<w:jc w:val="center"/>
				<w:rPr>
					<w:rStyle w:val="BookTitle"/>
				</w:rPr>
			</w:pPr>
		</w:p>

Post by **Zizi64** » Sun Oct 03, 2021 1:29 pm

Your sample file works better in my LibreOffice 6.1.6 than it work in my Apache OpenOffice 4.1.9 Portable version. Some hidden words are appered in LO.

Never multiedit your important documents in basicly different editor softwares, and never convert your native ODF format original documents into foreign file formats, like the MS file formats. (You can create - by Save as, or Export feature - one or more copy in the foreign file formats - if it is necessary, but always reedit the native file format one.

Note: never was és never will be 100% compatibility between the different file formats and the different office suites. You always will lose some formatting properties or even some content during the conversion.

asr2 · Post by **asr2** » Sun Oct 03, 2021 1:32 pm

Yes. I read the tutorial. I do not want to edit the document in Writer, but rather use its regex support facilities to analyse the document. I am aware of the need to edit a document in its native environment: I have a similar situation with Computer Aided Translation systems that claim inter-compatibility.
I am not using LO, but based on your comment, it would seem to be the better choice.

Post by **Zizi64** » Sun Oct 03, 2021 1:39 pm

I do not want to edit the document in Writer, but rather use its regex support facilities to analyse the document.

When you open and save a foreign format document in a specific editor, it will be converted twice: at the opening and at the saving procedure.

Post by **John_Ha** » Sun Oct 03, 2021 1:44 pm

Hagar Delest wrote:MS Office support of ODF (.odt) is quite poor, claiming quite all the files are damaged and need to be repaired (maybe because I save in ODF 1.3 with LO).

Hagar

I don't think MS support of ODF is quite that bad

though they only support v1.1, and then only partially.

See Differences between the OpenDocument Text (.odt) format and the Word (.docx) format for what is, and is not, supported by MS.

I think your AOO error messages are because you are saving LO files as 1.3 Extended (the LO default) and AOO only supports 1.2 Extended and earlier. You won't miss much function setting LO to save as 1.2 Extended.

I recently updated the tutorial with

Difference between AOO and LO files as of LO V7

AOO uses Version 1.2 Extended of the ODF Format - check by Tools > Options > Load/Save > General.
By default, LibreOffice V7 and later use Version 1.3 Extended of the ODF Format though they can be set to write 1.2.

1.3 has added function compared with 1.2 and, when AOO opens a version 1.3 file, AOO shows an error message asking for an upgrade but no upgrade is possible (v4.1.10). The file opens but only those items complying to 1.2 Extended are available.

ODF 1.3 is an OASIS Standard says

The most important new features of ODF 1.3 are digital signatures for documents and OpenPGP-based encryption of XML documents, with improvements in areas such as change tracking and document security, additional details in the description of elements in first pages, text, numbers and charts, and other timely improvements. The development of ODF 1.3 features has been funded by donations to The Document Foundation.
See Comparison of ODF software for a comparison of several different file formats.

Post by **John_Ha** » Sun Oct 03, 2021 3:13 pm

Further investigation shows the default text has been set to white which is why it does not appear.

As an indication of how MS Word butchers .docx files this is how it codes the first sentence

Code: Select all

<w:t xml:space="preserve">Wikipedia defines a </w:t>
</w:r>
<w:r w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
	<w:rPr>
		<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
		<w:b/>
		<w:color w:val="222222"/>
		<w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="auto" w:fill="FFFFFF"/>
	</w:rPr>
	<w:t>regular expression</w:t>
</w:r>
<w:r w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
	<w:rPr>
		<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
		<w:b/>
		<w:color w:val="222222"/>
		<w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="auto" w:fill="FFFFFF"/>
	</w:rPr>
	<w:fldChar w:fldCharType="begin"/>
</w:r>
<w:r w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
	<w:rPr>
		<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
	</w:rPr>
	<w:instrText xml:space="preserve"> XE "</w:instrText>
</w:r>
<w:r w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
	<w:rPr>
		<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
		<w:b/>
		<w:color w:val="222222"/>
		<w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="auto" w:fill="FFFFFF"/>
	</w:rPr>
	<w:instrText>regular expression</w:instrText>
</w:r>
<w:r w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
	<w:rPr>
		<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
	</w:rPr>
	<w:instrText xml:space="preserve">" </w:instrText>
</w:r>
<w:r w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
	<w:rPr>
		<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
		<w:b/>
		<w:color w:val="222222"/>
		<w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="auto" w:fill="FFFFFF"/>
	</w:rPr>
	<w:fldChar w:fldCharType="end"/>
</w:r>
<w:r w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
	<w:rPr>
		<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
		<w:color w:val="222222"/>
		<w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="auto" w:fill="FFFFFF"/>
	</w:rPr>
	<w:t xml:space="preserve"> (subsequently called </w:t>
</w:r>
<w:r w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
	<w:rPr>
		<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
		<w:b/>
	</w:rPr>
	<w:t>regex</w:t>
</w:r>
<w:r w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
	<w:rPr>
		<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
		<w:color w:val="222222"/>
		<w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="auto" w:fill="FFFFFF"/>
	</w:rPr>
	<w:t>, although the term</w:t>
</w:r>
<w:r w:rsidR="009F55D5" w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
	<w:rPr>
		<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
		<w:color w:val="222222"/>
		<w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="auto" w:fill="FFFFFF"/>
	</w:rPr>
	<w:t>s</w:t>
</w:r>
<w:r w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
	<w:rPr>
		<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
		<w:color w:val="222222"/>
		<w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="auto" w:fill="FFFFFF"/>
	</w:rPr>
	<w:t xml:space="preserve"> </w:t>
</w:r>
<w:r w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
	<w:rPr>
		<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
		<w:b/>
	</w:rPr>
	<w:t>regexp</w:t>
</w:r>
<w:r w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
	<w:rPr>
		<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
		<w:color w:val="222222"/>
		<w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="auto" w:fill="FFFFFF"/>
	</w:rPr>
	<w:t xml:space="preserve"> </w:t>
</w:r>
<w:r w:rsidR="009F55D5" w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
	<w:rPr>
		<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
		<w:color w:val="222222"/>
		<w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="auto" w:fill="FFFFFF"/>
	</w:rPr>
	<w:t xml:space="preserve">and </w:t>
</w:r>
<w:r w:rsidR="009F55D5" w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
	<w:rPr>
		<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
		<w:b/>
	</w:rPr>
	<w:t>RegEx</w:t>
</w:r>
<w:r w:rsidR="009F55D5" w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
	<w:rPr>
		<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
		<w:color w:val="222222"/>
		<w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="auto" w:fill="FFFFFF"/>
	</w:rPr>
	<w:t xml:space="preserve"> are </w:t>
</w:r>
<w:r w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
	<w:rPr>
		<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
		<w:color w:val="222222"/>
		<w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="auto" w:fill="FFFFFF"/>
	</w:rPr>
	<w:t>also used</w:t>
</w:r>
<w:r w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
	<w:rPr>
		<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
	</w:rPr>
	<w:t xml:space="preserve">) </w:t>
</w:r>
<w:r w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
	<w:rPr>
		<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
		<w:color w:val="222222"/>
		<w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="auto" w:fill="FFFFFF"/>
	</w:rPr>
	<w:t xml:space="preserve">as a </w:t>
</w:r>
<w:r w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
	<w:rPr>
		<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
	</w:rPr>
	<w:t>“</w:t>
</w:r>
<w:r w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
	<w:rPr>
		<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
		<w:color w:val="222222"/>
		<w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="auto" w:fill="FFFFFF"/>
	</w:rPr>
	<w:t xml:space="preserve">sequence of </w:t>
</w:r>
<w:hyperlink r:id="rId17" w:tooltip="Character (computing)" w:history="1">
	<w:r w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
		<w:rPr>
<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
<w:color w:val="222222"/>
<w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="auto" w:fill="FFFFFF"/>
		</w:rPr>
		<w:t>characters</w:t>
	</w:r>
</w:hyperlink>
<w:r w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
	<w:rPr>
		<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
		<w:color w:val="222222"/>
		<w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="auto" w:fill="FFFFFF"/>
	</w:rPr>
	<w:t xml:space="preserve"> that define a search </w:t>
</w:r>
<w:hyperlink r:id="rId18" w:tooltip="Pattern matching" w:history="1">
	<w:r w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
		<w:rPr>
<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
<w:color w:val="222222"/>
<w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="auto" w:fill="FFFFFF"/>
		</w:rPr>
		<w:t>pattern</w:t>
	</w:r>
</w:hyperlink>
<w:r w:rsidRPr="0029667E">
	<w:rPr>
		<w:rFonts w:ascii="Arial" w:hAnsi="Arial" w:cs="Arial"/>
	</w:rPr>
	<w:t>”.</w:t>
</w:r>

asr2 · Post by **asr2** » Sun Oct 03, 2021 3:30 pm

Problem solved.

Thanks all for your help. I have no installed LibreOffice Writer that displays my documents correctly and I have been able to do my analytical work. So it seems to be some OpenOffice Writer "feature" that turns the font color to white. I do not deny that the Word document is highly formatted.

Post by **Hagar Delest** » Sun Oct 03, 2021 6:02 pm

John_Ha wrote:I don't think MS support of ODF is quite that bad though they only support v1.1, and then only partially. See Differences between the OpenDocument Text (.odt) format and the Word (.docx) format for what is, and is not, supported by MS.

What I don't like is that I get 2 error messages when I try to open a .odt: first that the document cannot be opened because there is a problem with its content, no error really specified. But actually it gets opened and then the second message says there is non-readable content and that the document needs to be recovered.
Then header/footer are a bit messed up, formatting also (especially bulleted lists).

I just tried with a .docx opened with LO and it does a much better job for importing the content.

Post by **RoryOF** » Sun Oct 03, 2021 6:49 pm

I get only the "newer version" message when I try to open a LibreOffice .odt; no document of that sort has failed to open for me. I'm running on Xubuntu.

Post by **John_Ha** » Mon Oct 04, 2021 10:07 am

test.odt is a version 1.3 Extended file saved by LO.

When I open with AOO I get this error message. Clicking Later opens the document. Clicking Update opens the document and then checks for an update and finds there isn't one available.