[Solved] Accented Letters Getting Changed

[ppmendonca]

Recently my wife and I have been having problems with accented letters (specially the É and Ê - upper and lower case) being changed to different characters in different fonts after the file is saved, closed and re-opened.
I've scanned the computer for viruses and malware without a single hit.
I suspect it is related to version 2.4.1 which I upgraded to this recently because it was working fine before.
We use Microsoft XP and we've only tested this in Writer so far.
My wife is working from home and this is really hindering her performance.
Thank you very much.

[Phil]

Hi,

this is a strange behavior, I cannot reproduce it with OpenOffice 2.4.1 on WinXP Pro SP2. I don't think it is due to a virus or other malware.

Do you save the documents in native ODF format (.odt files) or in MS Word format (.doc)?
What font are you using and to which font is it changing after reopening the document?
Are the files you are working with newly generated files or are they files from some other source that are being edited?

Maybe you can upload a sample file (if you agree to disclose it) or a screenshot illustrating the problem.

Regards, phil

[ppmendonca]

Phil,
Attached are the files "Questionario.doc" without the problem and "Questionario_old.doc" with the problem.
The one without the problem was a new file that I pasted unformated text from the old one and reformated, saved and opened ok.
The old one was corrected and saved and the letters changed.
On the image you will see 4 screen shots:
1-File as originally typed.
2-File as opened after being saved and closed with changed letters.
3-Changin only one letter.
4-File as opened after being saved and closed with letters changed again to question marks.
This last effect only happens when we changed a letter. Only saving, closing and opening would not change the letters to question marks.
This happened first to another file that was copied from another source and I fixed with the unformated text pasting technic. This one was typed from scratch.
My system is Windows XP Tablet PC Edition SP2, OO2.4.1.
The files were saved as MS Word 95, but the same issue occured while saving as OO and as MS Word 97.
Thank you for your help.
Regards, Paulo

Screen Shots of the process.

[Phil]

Quite weird...

First thing I noticed: When using MS Word Viewer to open the files, the characters are correct in both files!
This is quite interesting, as it shows that it is rather a problem of loading the file than of saving...

Another question: Have you marked the characters in red yourself or has this also happen by saving and loading?

Anyway, saving under the older MS Word file formats causes problems with special characters as e.g. discussed in this thread.
So you should in any case use the Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP format.

If I open Questionario_old.doc, add the characters "É" and "Ê" to the headline, I can reproduce the error when saving to either the Microsoft Word 95 or the Microsoft Word 6.0 format. However, when using Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP format, the characters are shown correctly after reopening the file. Same applies when saving to the native format (.odt files).

I'm using OOo 2.4.1 on WinXP - what about you?

Regards, phil

[Hagar Delest]

If I open Questionario_old.doc, add the characters "É" and "Ê" to the headline, I can reproduce the error when saving to either the Microsoft Word 95 or the Microsoft Word 6.0 format. However, when using Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP format, the characters are shown correctly after reopening the file. Same applies when saving to the native format (.odt files).

+1.
Note that when cursor is in the special characters (in the initial file), the font (in the toolbar) changes from Comic to Times New Roman
So there is indeed a bug in the encoding with former .doc filters or a limitation like in the thread linked above.

Thanks to add '[Solved]' at beginning of your first post title (edit button) if your issue has been fixed.

[ppmendonca]

Phil,
I had noticed the font change also.
My system is Windows XP Tablet PC Edition SP2.
I won't be able to do further testing like you did today but will try to do so tomorrow and give feedback.
The other post does seem related. Too bad I didn't find it before.
Regards, Paulo

[foxcole]

Often the cause of cases like this is a corrupted font file on the system exhibiting the problem... especially because others can't reproduce the issue.

Try a repair with Fix Fonts Folder. Does that help?

[Hagar Delest]

Often the cause of cases like this is a corrupted font file on the system exhibiting the problem... especially because others can't reproduce the issue.

But we can reproduce the problem here. It seems to be related to the W95 and MSWord 6.0 export filters.

[ppmendonca]

Quick question: could it be related to the spelling checker?

[foxcole]

Quick question: could it be related to the spelling checker?

Honestly, I don't see how it could be. The spelling checker just compares text to plain-text lists of words and flags those it can't match. It doesn't render text.

It looks instead like Win95 can't find certain font characters when it's trying to display a Word 6 formatted document, as Hagar is saying. I wonder if the export filter breaks the font encoding somehow.

[Hagar Delest]

I wonder if the export filter breaks the font encoding somehow.

I think so because when I open the document with MS Word saved (with OOo) in an old .doc format, the font is broken.

[Phil]

I think so because when I open the document with MS Word saved (with OOo) in an old .doc format, the font is broken.

Hmmmm.
Opening the provided sample file Questionário_old.doc with MS Word Viewer however results in a correct display of the font!
So it's really weird, apparently after exporting from OOo to the old .doc format only OOo cannot read the file correctly anymore.
So it seems that some character encoding is used in the export filter that the import filter does not support?

[Hagar Delest]

Right. Had forgotten the first file had been created with OOo (I thought it was coming from MS Word).

I've made a quick test:
- Create a new blank document in OOo, insert the same special characters Ê with Comic Sans MS font
- Save in .doc (Windows 95) and close.
- Open it with OOo -> looks fine!
- Copy & Paste the special character from the Questionário_old.doc opened in MS Word (2003 for me), save, close
- Open it with OOo -> all the special characters are wrong!

Now do the same but insert the first special character in Times New Roman font (then copy paste from MS word keeping the Comic Sans MS font), save as .doc (W95), close and open -> all characters are fine

[Phil]

Interesting, so it seems to be linked to the fonts somehow.
But anyway, I think the straightforward way is to use the newer .doc format when saving in OOo - it then seems to work in any case, doesn't it?

[Hagar Delest]

Of course. I guess that very few users still work with the older file formats now.