why would my columns in LibreOffice separate as zoom out and overlap as zoom in

1sweetwater! · 01-23-2015, 05:36 PM

Mint 17.1 Cinn. current with updates L.O. Version: 4.2.7.2 Build ID: 420m0(Build:2)
Why would my between column space in LibreOffice separate as I zoom out and get smaller to the point of columns overlapping more as I zoom in. I was working on a table inside the columns. Some of the row lines also cross the between column space also... All of the text in the header is gone after the incident as well as Text enhancements such as bold, under lining, and strikethrough. Document had a header with 6 single row of 16 cell tables in it [separated by a .24 space]. The text part had 377 rows with 4 columns each and text in each. As before in a previous thread something went awry as I was trying to get table to fit borders as near as I can remember. Previous responder in previous thread urged me to mark the thread as solved and communicate with him via email cuz he said emotions had gotten into the thread and moderators didn't like to see that. Basically all I saw there that shouldn't have been there was Jehovah's whitness remarks. I did not close the thread rather started another approaching this from a different angle. I think Libre Office is either not up to do what I'm trying or it has some bad software effecting it. Sheeesh how do I communicate what is happening? So many variables? The email address that I communicated with him on also started having lots of phishing activity after I said I would not be contacting him anymore. I felt like I was being proselyted.

jlinkels · 01-24-2015, 11:51 AM

I don't quite understand the part about a thread being close because it contains smileys etc, so I think it is safe to ignore that and concentrate on LO.

It might be only a display problem because it appears when you zoom in and out. That doesn't influence the document. Did you try this in a print preview or either a printed copy?

Since you are running Mint 17.1 I assume LO is fairly up-to-date, meaning in a very unstable development state. I found that LO is bug ridden, and especially contains lot of regression errors in the most simple things. Yes, like tables.

If the errors are in print as well, try to downgrade to an older LO version. Maybe it is possible to install LO from Debian Wheezy, which is more or less usable. Ooops, only if you are running Mint Debian Edition you are Debian compatible, do you?

Did the document happen to originate from MSOffice? Then it is a lost case. Rewrite from scratch.

If all else fails, abandon LO and use MsOffice or Latex. It is not going to work.

jlinkels

1sweetwater! · 01-24-2015, 06:37 PM

I changed a setting that I remembered I might have changed earlier. That was changing to center from left in Alignment in Table properties. I then went to print document as zoom in and it printed fine as it showed on screen. Then I zoomed the document in. The between column space did not change this time and the header returned, big surprise. Yes I think L.O.'s latest is Hemorrhagic edge. {I'm getting more than one system update a day now.} As I was going through this procedure something weird happened on screen so fast I couldn't catch it but seemed out of ordinary from what I remember. I changed the center setting back to left and problem never reappeared then reversed back to center and it's still fine. Will keep watching it for something that can be reproduced! My suspect is memory or hard drive having little fits like there is a bad spot on either that effects whatever lands on it... Purdy sure I wiped the drive once by writing numbers & letters to it. Took nearly a week or more. Not a Debian edition nor M$ origin. I've redone the document 3 times up til now. The last is working presently as I did away with the header and used a frame with tables in it instead. This L.O. Doesn't seem as refined as what I've used before....
Anyway I'b suspicious that the hiccoughs that cause the data and settings losses are related to auto save as it seems that is when the hiccoughs occur. Do the Developers read any of this stuff to be able to know when to look for problems? anyway again I'm getting L.O. learning and practice redoing the pages and trying various combinations.Thanx again for the time and effort. I'm beginning to think it's possessed by WillHenryGatesIII.
The AMD Fusion processor may be at fault too. Something new and different and maybe not as supported.
I might try putting proprietary drivers with the Fusion and see how that works... Too many good Ideas and not enough gumption to get them checked in a hurry. Nice to have a board to bounce the ball off of!!!
Well must say L8R %;]]SW Afterthought awhile back I created a document that had a politically incorrect phrase in it and the computer acted similar. Do you suppose aUnt SamanthaA.I. is in there???

1sweetwater! · 01-24-2015, 10:55 PM

While in LO editing the document changing table atributes and using undo and redo the page hicchoghed and header disappeared again and as I continue using undo hoping that it will bring back the header [bam] up pops an export window. This thing acts like someone is in there responding to what I do. wish I could remember all the things that have heppened so far but that might be an overload.

jlinkels · 01-25-2015, 07:15 AM

I am not sure whether we should continue to take you seriously. Also for a native American speaker your spelling leaves a lot to desire.

I know LO often acts like an annoying hysterical wife -- lacking every logic and reacting is every way except the expected way. But it seems like you seriously think LO is reacting on your input, or that you have a computer hardware failure setting the bits just so as to cause this behaviour.

I hope you are joking.

jlinkels

RobJ · 01-25-2015, 09:15 AM

I don't recognise your description of the behaviour. I am using LibreOffice for as long as it exists on both MS-Win and Mac almost every day. I've almost never experienced any serious malfunction...
I am currently using Version: 4.3.5.2 (Build ID: 3a87456aaa6a95c63eea1c1b3201acedf0751bd5).

Also, if you really think LO is the culprit, why not entering something in a LO forum, and if the problem is reproduced enter a problem so that developers can take a look at it. Anyway, using negative language in a Linux platform will not get your issues resolved!

1sweetwater! · 01-25-2015, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlinkels

I am not sure whether we should continue to take you seriously. Also for a native American speaker your spelling leaves a lot to desire.

I know LO often acts like an annoying hysterical wife -- lacking every logic and reacting is every way except the expected way. But it seems like you seriously think LO is reacting on your input, or that you have a computer hardware failure setting the bits just so as to cause this behaviour.

I hope you are joking.

jlinkels

========================================================
Don't know what you mean by "Native American speaker". I'm second generation born in U.S.A. of likely Attacotti heritage. Purdy much joking {some of the time} and occasionally mispelling for effect but for other times I do blame the computer or software...or my brain damaged state;[really hard to draw a line here for me] but most time I'm just in hurry or not having a real good moment. Could be I never could type well beyond peck?hunt?peck. Shouldn't spend alot of time bringing it up here but have had several brain injuries and chemical injuries which can be related to my more imperfect nature of my being. yadayadayadaYADAYADA.....I only caught one mispelled word in previous and that was "hiccoughed'hicchoghed'". If your finding more you might have the same unexplained mishaps I'm having? Reading something on "TBI" might help give one some insight into being able to read,write,walk,and talk. Brains are never the same after scrambling.
I've had some what of a problem with spelling since my last head injury and chemical injury. Some days I don't catch
all of the mistakes before sending. Sorry! There are some days though that I blame the keyboad for not rising up to my finger or rising up too far & often. Didn't you mispell 'in' in your reply as 'is' "reacting is every way"? I really need a spell checker and don't see one working in this message box. That should be turned on auto Aye? By the way the erratic LO behavior improved some with the replacement of the old maybe flaky PS2 mouse with a new USB mouse. However, that one file keeps behaving strangely by losing the header and settings. I may have tried to use LO in ways she wan't designed for or use to. Please point out where I dropped the ball on spelling. I might have dyslexia too. Hard to tell what when where and why with scrambled? I have runaway brain too. sorry. Hard for me to keep up with it all at this breakneck pace but appreciate y'alls input. I'm not a programmer nor techie just a user that may not know all the rules yet...l8r%;]]SW Will try LO forums too.

DavidMcCann · 01-25-2015, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlinkels

Also for a native American speaker your spelling leaves a lot to desire.

If he were a "Native American speaker", that would make English his second language

Onen ki’ wahi!

jlinkels · 01-25-2015, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidMcCann

If he were a "Native American speaker", that would make English his second language

Onen ki’ wahi!

As far as I know American and English have different grammar rules, spelling and pronunciation, although it seems that the languages have so much in common both speakers understand each other.

Obviously and rightfully you are referring to the Indians as native Americans. But it goes to far for me to say that the native American language is [an] Indian [language]. We do talk about native English speakers if we mean British. No one will raise the point that native English should be called Gaelic or whatever they spoke in the Middle ages.

jlinkels

1sweetwater! · 01-25-2015, 01:49 PM

I was born in a mountainous State of Northern mid west USA 50+ years ago, Caucasian, Scotch/Irish descent.Me speakum & writem plenty good English!!!KnowhatImeanVern?FonzieizKewl,WuutuupDewd!!!Wuz talking and walking at 10 months.
Me attended public school grades 1-12|went 3 yrs to Jr. College=A.A.S.egree|went 5yrs to Doctor college=D.C.degree.
How come this getting so difficult and twisted? Native American means American Indian in my book. at least that was the trend recently whereas most of them object to Indian and prefer Native. Maybe I don't speak forum English well enough. I bess juss move along now to Libre Office forum, aye? I may not have enough computer background or brainy memory to keep up with yous guys here. And in reality, the Black man predates all other races for inhabiting the American continent. They were the forerunners to the Olmecs of Southern Mexico many thousands of years ago according to Carbon 14. So they be the Natives Aye? Their history is written all over the eastern U.S.A and maybe more.

rtmistler · 01-29-2015, 12:42 PM

On this question as with numerous of your other questions, you seem to ask with a lot of information, IMHO maybe too much, thus making it difficult to discern what the problem exactly is, except what people see to be operator error, or operator misunderstanding, or even operator mis/over-use.

Before getting defensive or dismissive please understand a couple of things as well as consider a couple of historical references with regards to your questions on Libre/Open-Office and tables.

These problems are categorical. You've posted many times with problems about formating issues related to tables.

Some tactics to consider are:

Restrict the problem in scope
Take very small, incremental steps and save interim results in unique form to make progress without losing all data
Scale into larger scope once you've proven that you can reliably attain your goals with smaller data tables

Restrict the problem in scope

You have large, screen sized, or more data, you were once trying to encompass a monthly table for recalling important things for you which also involved multiple things repeated a different frequencies at periodic times during each day.

Perhaps dealing with a one-day table. Format just one day, the way you want it. Save that file. Print it out. Or use it each day, use a new copy each day, or at the end of each day, save the working one as an archive and make yourself a clean copy for your next day's use. Start small in other words.

Take very small, incremental steps and save interim results in unique form to make progress without losing all data

Well I already proposed this in that last paragraph. But once you've refined the one-day table. Then maybe work at just one week, Sunday through Saturday. Make it regardless of the calendar date, just make a file with a 7-day table where it all works the way you want it and you can then save it each day as you use the table. Saving each day in a different number or unique name which makes sense to you, so that if on day #5 you suddenly find that your table is all formatted wrong, you can go back one day and say, "OK, I'll start again with a clean one-day old copy" and then try to figure out what happened.

Scale into larger scope once you've proven that you can reliably attain your goals with smaller data tables

Similar to the last paragraph yet again, the point here is take small, baby steps with it. Save your last "good" efforts somewhere safe where you can always go back a revision or two. Figure some way to organize those backup copies so you understand what they have in them.

Libre and Open Office as well as Microsoft Word and Excel have been around for a while. The concepts of tables have been around for a while.

The issues you're facing may be any of mis-typing or a point where resources are finally exceeded on a system or program. For instance in the "new" and improved Microsoft Excel, if you try to chart, there's like a limitation of 32,768 or some number (I truly forget) of data points you can use for the chart. The horrendously stupid thing is that pre-Office latest versions (a'la where they went to something-ML extensions, they did not have that data point limitation problem.

Right now, with the very lengthy, and sorry, but "run-on" descriptions as well as repetition of a lot of information isn't helping to zero in on exactly what the problems are.

If you read some of your former questions, there were cases I recall where people (myself included) attempted exact duplication of your problems, and illustrated in responses that these problems were not seen and suggestions were made to limit things and try "one cell", "one row", "one column" versus the whole table.

1sweetwater! · 01-31-2015, 08:49 AM

There's too much going on for me to separate behavior and piece by piece remember to go after it. So I tried starting with hardware and did some settings changes in mouse settings. I increased drag and drop Cinnamon and GTK threshold to +36 and slowed pointer speed and reduced sensitivity. That helped a bit with reducing frequency of erratic behavior. I quit using protect the cells and tables as I suspected it was causing LO to trip over itself and this seemed to be true in reducing the occurance of errata.
Then changed the physical mouse several times ending up with a new MK360 wireless kit from Logitec. That reduce problem greatly. No more wild stuff happening of course I finished the document and not pushing it so hard. So yes mistakes, hardware, and settings seemed to play a major part in the theme of this saga. I'm yet having trouble controlling the text highlighter for copying/cutting and pasting. Just not able to control this with any predictability & it is frustrating. If I desire to select one word or letter out of a sentence it seems to want to include more like part or the whole sentence or paragraph. Other times trying to select a sentence of paragraph I only get a part of each. One out of 6 tries it works. Lots of finger exercise especially the middle. Ya know I do not have this problem in any other program only Libre Office. The same with all the mice. All The mice worked well elsewhere excepting with Libre office. Select copy cut paste all work flawless here in this post message. Perhaps there are settings in LO that control highlighting sensitivity that I have not found yet. Another problem that I've encountered is default font. I change it to Noto Sans and LO puts it back to Liberation Serif. Sorry I can't manage to break this up for you. If you care to reply please just select what you think you can deal with and quote it in your reply. I'm in no big hurry and do forgive if I do seem impatient, as, I'm just more confused than I need to be. Tho thangz are getting better. Thanx agin %;]]SW
after thought: do programs have memory management which clears cache before it writes to it again and could this cause errata if user is too fast for the cache clears and things are getting jumbled in the cache memory?

rtmistler · 02-03-2015, 07:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1sweetwater!

Ya know I do not have this problem in any other program only Libre Office.

Are there examples of precise mouse actions in these other programs which relate to this problem with LibreOffice? What it seems to be that you're saying is that you tried different mice, tried altering the hardware settings, tried a variety of tactics, but still have these difficulties.

What would help is if you were to be able to take a screen shot of an example problem and illustrate what specifically is wrong, illustrate what specifically you want to format or change, but could not.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1sweetwater!

The same with all the mice. All The mice worked well elsewhere excepting with Libre office. Select copy cut paste all work flawless here in this post message.

To be clear, what you are saying is that you feel you've disqualified hardware as your problem, and while you may feel that if there were a better/more precise or more stable mouse out there that this might work better for you; however you've not been successful in finding anything better than what you do have now. Correct or incorrect?

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1sweetwater!

Perhaps there are settings in LO that control highlighting sensitivity that I have not found yet.

I am unaware of anything beyond the mouse settings from the system settings menu and nothing specific in LibreOffice.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1sweetwater!

Another problem that I've encountered is default font. I change it to Noto Sans and LO puts it back to Liberation Serif.

This is a small problem which I'd deal with separately. You're not saying that you can't change the font, correct? You're just saying that the default font is not as you'd like it to be, correct? For now, starting with an empty sheet, I would select all cells, format them, and set the font type, style, and size to what I wanted, and if that doesn't work, then I'd classify it as a problem.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1sweetwater!

after thought: do programs have memory management which clears cache before it writes to it again and could this cause errata if user is too fast for the cache clears and things are getting jumbled in the cache memory?

No, or rather you're over-thinking that too much. Yes, programs cache information in memory until you request it to be saved. However they don't discard or screw up information intentionally. What could happen is if you stress the whole computer so much without saving, you have a ton of data, make a ton of changes and when you go to save, it is too much for the system and as a result LibreOffice crashes, or brings the system down so badly that it stops performing at all and you have to kill the task or kill the whole machine just to get it back. But this does not sound like your exact problem.

1sweetwater! · 02-03-2015, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rtmistler

Are there examples of precise mouse actions in these other programs which relate to this problem with LibreOffice? What it seems to be that you're saying is that you tried different mice, tried altering the hardware settings, tried a variety of tactics, but still have these difficulties.
=.=
I Sure appreciate the extra mile effort you are putting in here...If there are no adjustable controls over highlighting go ahead and mark this a credit to you and let me know to mark it solved?
Basically the things that I've tried, including everyones suggestions, plus not pushing the program so hard or to it's or my limits, has gotten it to be a liveable situation with exception to the following. The only yet disturbing happenings are with the highlighting system which is used to select content for copying and cutting content for removal or pasting elsewhere is near impossible to control predictably. Examples are if I try to highlight one word; more than one that gets highlighted. Opposed to this is just the opposite when only a word or several words get highlighted when I'm trying to get the whole paragraph.
Also included in this scenario is the highlight color or intensity or opaqueness is way too weak or washed out for me to easily see. Is there any way of adjusting the sensitivity of the controls to this operation and increasing of highlight visability?
=.=
What would help is if you were to be able to take a screen shot of an example problem and illustrate what specifically is wrong, illustrate what specifically you want to format or change, but could not.To be clear, what you are saying is that you feel you've disqualified hardware as your problem, and while you may feel that if there were a better/more precise or more stable mouse out there that this might work better for you; however you've not been successful in finding anything better than what you do have now.
=.=
I feel that Hardware is no longer a perceived problem! I'm looking for further settings for highlighting tho.
=.=
Correct or incorrect?I am unaware of anything beyond the mouse settings from the system settings menu and nothing specific in LibreOffice.This is a small problem which I'd deal with separately. You're not saying that you can't change the font, correct? You're just saying that the default font is not as you'd like it to be, correct?
=.=
I can change font but something has changed them back at times.
I found the place in LO menus to set default font and that is working well...so far this has eliminated font mixups IMHO.
Tho there might have been a problem with using other fonts in a table other than the default font and program might have been switching things there. But this is so abstract it drives me nuts.
My suspicion is that once the table is saved with various fonts used throughout it, if anything is done to change table properties either moving borders, cell size, cutting or copying and pasting content between cells, there may be some kind of overload or cross ove in content which changed the font or size or attribute. Wish I had a thorough handle on it. Everything except highlighting is functional enough for now. Maybe someone could recommend to LO people a module for adjusting highlighter. I tried to sign up for LO support/forums/etc. and such and couldn't get it done. It just wouldn't take my application. Which seems to be the status quo for most Linux sites.
=.=
For now, starting with an empty sheet, I would select all cells, format them, and set the font type, style, and size to what I wanted, and if that doesn't work, then I'd classify it as a problem.No, or rather you're over-thinking that too much. Yes, programs cache information in memory until you request it to be saved. However they don't discard or screw up information intentionally. What could happen is if you stress the whole computer so much without saving, you have a ton of data, make a ton of changes and when you go to save, it is too much for the system and as a result LibreOffice crashes, or brings the system down so badly that it stops performing at all and you have to kill the task or kill the whole machine just to get it back.
=.=
It sounds pretty close...all but the intentional saving part. It could overload on auto save and if I inadvertanly hit a mouse button as I was moving the pointer across the page. Sorry I can't remember how to use this quote process. My thoughts are that whatever is in cache gets jumbled or fills up and reacts like an overload... I'm still a newbie what do I know
=.=
But this does not sound like your exact problem.

Read reply in text between =.= and =.=. yeah I'm all messed up...

rtmistler · 02-05-2015, 06:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1sweetwater!

The only yet disturbing happenings are with the highlighting system which is used to select content for copying and cutting content for removal or pasting elsewhere is near impossible to control predictably. Examples are if I try to highlight one word; more than one that gets highlighted. Opposed to this is just the opposite when only a word or several words get highlighted when I'm trying to get the whole paragraph.

I would suggest here that you consider instead of using the mouse, to try using the keyboard.

For instance, I can highlight a word or phrase by getting the cursor before the word or phrase, holding down the shift key, and then causing the cursor to navigate to the right using the right arrow key.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1sweetwater!

Also included in this scenario is the highlight color or intensity or opaqueness is way too weak or washed out for me to easily see. Is there any way of adjusting the sensitivity of the controls to this operation and increasing of highlight visability?

I think that's desktop settings. Maybe Libre/Open-Office has some customized settings, but probably the first level controlling this comes from your desktop settings.