Libre Office crashes saving large file in XP format

[mimosa]

I'm posting this as a separate topic. The problem proved definitive; I had to do the conversion using OpenOffice in 13.1. When I tested the conversion in LibreOffice with a tiny file with no tables, pictures etc, the conversion worked fine.

This is presumably a problem with LibreOffice, and also something that isn't going to happen with every file. Nonetheless, I can't recall anything of the sort occurring with OpenOffice.

It's potentially a very important issue. My clients aren't likely to listen to me if I ask them to install an open source office suite. In practice, the ability to convert to proprietary file formats is essential.

This was a file containing around 15,000 words, with one small image file, and a massive table in the middle.

[gapan]

Please file a bug with libreoffice upstream.

[mimosa]

I'll do that. But if such problems are at all common, isn't that an issue for Salix? Will OpenOffice continue to be supported in the repos?

[thenktor]

Usually Salix/Slackware does not include major patches. Bugs should be fixed upstream.

[mimosa]

What I meant was, if such problems are at all common, maybe Salix should consider sticking with OpenOffice for the time being. That's why I reported it here as well as to LibreOffice.

Maybe it was just that one file, of course.

[gapan]

The libreoffice package in salix is just a repackaging of the official libreoffice binaries distributed by the document foundation. So, if there are any problems with our packages, they are also with all official libreoffice binaries. There is nothing anyone here can do to fix bugs like this. If you report this bug (if it is a bug) to the libreoffice developers and they fix it, then the packages provided by salix will be fixed too.

[mimosa]

I understand that the place to fix the bug is upstream. But if a lot of people are getting trouble with LibreOffice that OpenOffice doesn't give, that might speak against Salix making the switch to LibreOffice for 13.2. That's why I thought it was worth reporting here.

Has anyone else seen similar problems?

One such incident isn't much to go on, but it seemed noteworthy to me, not ever having had any trouble like this with OpenOffice as far as I remember.

I also get the clear impression that LibreOffice is where the future lies, and it already has more features and so on, so maybe we just have to accept a few transition problems. However, reliable file conversion is in my view central to the viability of any Linux distro for office productivity. If I hadn't had OpenOffice to fall back on, I would have had to use Windows (and redo days of work, and miss my deadline). I'd love to convert my clients to open source, but the relationship tends not to be conducive to such discussions!

[mimosa]

Postscript: as I have continued using LO Writer for work purposes, I have found it to be buggy enough (no point going into detail; I'll report it to them) that I would stick with 13.1 for the time being because it has OO. I had a complaint from a client because the formatting was messed up. That happened even in the bad old days when I was using Microsoft products, now and then. But I've scarcely had any trouble with Open Office. In a word, I haven't found LO to be as reliable - not just when working with Word files, but in general. I'm sure it will improve in time.

On the plus side, sound works in powerpoint presentations. As anyone who lives in Brazil might agree though, that isn't an unalloyed benefit

[gapan]

I haven't seen any major problems with LibreOffice so far and I have used it extensively. Well, there was one case with a hugely complex .doc file that would crash when saving, but OOo was not any better. LibreOffice 3.3.1 has been uploaded to the current repositories btw, maybe that's better for you.

[mimosa]

I'll update and see. My impression is that most problems are with large Microsoft files. In many cases, my clients would probably be better off using DTP apps, but the customer is always right.