This is a question for folks who use Openoffice Writer and, in paricular,
if you've used both Open and LibreOffice.

I have been experiencing some strange issues with Libreoffice Writer. If
you are typing text on a page and hit ENTER, or if you insert a page break using CTRL-ENTER, the text on at least the previous page will randomly lose
its formatting -- any intentional spacing or TABs that you've put in the
text can disappear but, as it is random, it doesn't always happen.

I read up some about it online and the LibreOffice support team blames it mostly on users who try to do things the "Microsoft Office way," import a document originally started in MS-Office, or importing a document saved as
a *.DOC file (regardless of source). However, they also admit that these
are not the only thing that causes such issues and that they cannot explain
why it happens in cases where you start off in LibreOffice and always save
the document as an *.ODT.

I was under the impression that LibreOffice is basically a fork of
OpenOffice (from back when Oracle took OO over) and assume that similar
issues could exist with its Writer product. Is it really a fork or are
they completely separate projects now? If you use OO Writer, do you also sometimes run into weird stuff like this?

Thanks!
Mike

P.S. I have tried Abiword but, as it often loses even the very basic
formating between saves and reopens (i.e. italics, bold text, etc.), I have determined that it is not the *nix word processing option for me. ;)


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Mike Powell wrote to ALL <=-

I have been experiencing some strange issues with Libreoffice Writer.
If you are typing text on a page and hit ENTER, or if you insert a page break using CTRL-ENTER, the text on at least the previous page will randomly lose its formatting -- any intentional spacing or TABs that you've put in the text can disappear but, as it is random, it doesn't always happen.

LibreOffice is crap. ONLYOFFICE is much better and much more compatible
with MS' Office. I dumped both OpenOffice and LO a long time ago.

https://www.onlyoffice.com/download-desktop

ONLYOFFICE works great and it's open-source.

-- Sean

... Khakis: what you need to start the car in Boston.
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Hello Sean!

21 Nov 25 10:25, you wrote to Mike Powell:

LibreOffice is crap. ONLYOFFICE is much better and much more
compatible with MS' Office. I dumped both OpenOffice and LO a long
time ago.

https://www.onlyoffice.com/download-desktop

I have Libre installed for 5 minutes. It was weird. Downloading Only now
Sean


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Sean Rima wrote to Sean Dennis:

I have Libre installed for 5 minutes. It was weird. Downloading Only now

I -really- like ONLYOFFICE. I use it on this Wondows machine and soon my Slack-powered laptop.

-- Sean



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Hello Sean!

21 Nov 25 19:13, you wrote to me:

I have Libre installed for 5 minutes. It was weird. Downloading
Only now

I -really- like ONLYOFFICE. I use it on this Wondows machine and soon
my Slack-powered laptop.

I had a quick look and it looks good so will play next week

Sean


... TCOB1: binkd only binkd.rima.ie
--- FMail-lnx 2.3.1.0
* Origin: TCOB1 A Mail Only System (86:553/20.95)

I have been experiencing some strange issues with Libreoffice Writer.
If you are typing text on a page and hit ENTER, or if you insert a page break using CTRL-ENTER, the text on at least the previous page will randomly lose its formatting -- any intentional spacing or TABs that you've put in the text can disappear but, as it is random, it doesn't always happen.

LibreOffice is crap.

That is my impression when it comes to the writer for sure. The
spreadsheet seems to work fine, although I use gnumeric for most of those.

ONLYOFFICE is much better and much more compatible
with MS' Office. I dumped both OpenOffice and LO a long time ago.

https://www.onlyoffice.com/download-desktop

ONLYOFFICE works great and it's open-source.

I have finished the document in question but may try ONLYOFFICE out the
next time I need to try out a word processor. Thanks!

Mike

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Re: Re: Open/LibreOffice ?
By: Mike Powell to SEAN DENNIS on Sat Nov 22 2025 10:27:08

Hi. I wasn't familiar with this app. It's pretty good now that I've started another year of university. LibreOffice and OpenOffice gave me a lot of problems with Arch.
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Hi. I wasn't familiar with this app. It's pretty good now that I've started another year of university. LibreOffice and OpenOffice gave me a lot of problems with Arch.

I have used OnlyOffice some for word processing since Sean suggested it. I
do think I can get used to it and maybe have fewer problems than with LibreOffice. One caveat... if you've already got a document created in LibreOffice, and it is all formated how you want it, you need to make any future changes to it using LibreOffice as however LibreOffice does things
is not 100% compatible.

Otherwise, from what I can tell, OnlyOffice is probably my new word
processor.

Mike

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Tanausu M. wrote to Mike Powell <=-

Hi. I wasn't familiar with this app. It's pretty good now that I've started another year of university. LibreOffice and OpenOffice gave me
a lot of problems with Arch.

I found it quite by accident through a Web search. It works quite well
under Linux and Windows for me.

-- Sean

... Hard work pays off later. Laziness pays off now.
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Hello Sean!

** On Friday 21.11.25 - 10:25, Sean.Dennis wrote to Mike Powell:

Mike Powell wrote to ALL <=-

I have been experiencing some strange issues with Libreoffice Writer.

[...]

LibreOffice is crap. ONLYOFFICE is much better and much more compatible
with MS' Office. I dumped both OpenOffice and LO a long time ago.

https://www.onlyoffice.com/download-desktop

ONLYOFFICE works great and it's open-source.

Never heard of it. Sounds interesting. I have a friend who
moved from a Win10 machine to a Win11 machine. He doesn't seem
to have viable wordprocessor with it. He has a selection of
.ODT and .DOC files. Not sure what he used on the Win10 for
those.
--
../|ug
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Hello Mike!

** On Thursday 20.11.25 - 13:54, Mike.Powell wrote to ALL:

I have been experiencing some strange issues with Libreoffice
Writer. If you are typing text on a page and hit ENTER, or
if you insert a page break using CTRL-ENTER, the text on at
least the previous page will randomly lose its formatting --
any intentional spacing or TABs that you've put in the text
can disappear but, as it is random, it doesn't always happen.

I suppose that's the *nix version (since this a linux network)?
--
../|ug
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Hello Mike!

** On Thursday 20.11.25 - 13:54, Mike.Powell wrote to ALL:

I have been experiencing some strange issues with Libreoffice
Writer. If you are typing text on a page and hit ENTER, or
if you insert a page break using CTRL-ENTER, the text on at
least the previous page will randomly lose its formatting --
any intentional spacing or TABs that you've put in the text
can disappear but, as it is random, it doesn't always happen.

I suppose that's the *nix version (since this a linux network)?
--

Hi, I'm impressed by its compatibility with MS Office and how well
it performs compared to LibreOffice or OpenOffice. I don't know how
it runs under Windows, but I imagine it'll be fine.


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Tanausu Martin wrote to Ogg <=-

Hi, I'm impressed by its compatibility with MS Office and how well
it performs compared to LibreOffice or OpenOffice. I don't know how
it runs under Windows, but I imagine it'll be fine.

It's run very nicely under Win11 for me. No issues. No issues under Slackware Linux either.

-- Sean


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Hello Sean!

Tanausu Martin wrote to Ogg <=-

It's run very nicely under Win11 for me. No issues. No issues under Slackware Linux either.

-- Sean

I'd been asked about it, but I wasn't sure how well it worked on Windows. It's useful for students who can't afford a license and whose universities don't always offer them.


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** On Thursday 20.11.25 - 13:54, Mike.Powell wrote to ALL:

I have been experiencing some strange issues with Libreoffice
Writer. If you are typing text on a page and hit ENTER, or
if you insert a page break using CTRL-ENTER, the text on at
least the previous page will randomly lose its formatting --
any intentional spacing or TABs that you've put in the text
can disappear but, as it is random, it doesn't always happen.

I suppose that's the *nix version (since this a linux network)?

Yes, that is correct. LO Writer was acting goofy on a *nix machine,
running Debian Trixie to be exact.

Older versions of LO Writer used to have a disclaimer message, when you
tried saving things in any format but ODT, that claimed there might be "compatability issues" with formats like DOC or RTF. However, I *never* encountered said issues... the documents always reopened fine in LO Writer,
as well as MS-Office (on a Win machine).

It appears that newer versions (1) no longer display the disclaimer, and
(2) do indeed have issues. Not only do they have issues with DOC, for
example, but if you realize it and change the DOC document to save as an ODT instead, the problems can persist.

The LO folks (in their online forums) suggest copying the text out of the document and restarting a brand-new ODT file, rather than resaving the
original as ODT, but even they seem baffled that this doesn't always fix
the problems -- and that you can still sometimes have problems even if you started the document off as an ODT.

ONLYOFFICE seems to prefer that documents be saved as DOCX but, once you
are working with one, the formatting seems to remain consistent. I have switched to it as a result. I cannot speak to portability between it and MS-Office as I no longer have access to a current Windows machine.

Mike

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ONLYOFFICE works great and it's open-source.

Never heard of it. Sounds interesting. I have a friend who
moved from a Win10 machine to a Win11 machine. He doesn't seem
to have viable wordprocessor with it. He has a selection of
.ODT and .DOC files. Not sure what he used on the Win10 for
those.

I cannot speak to performance on a Windows machine, but I can confirm that
it seems to have no issues manipulating .ODT and .DOCX files.

Mike

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Tanausu M. wrote to Sean Dennis <=-

I'd been asked about it, but I wasn't sure how well it worked on
Windows. It's useful for students who can't afford a license and whose universities don't always offer them.

From my experience, OnlyOffice works great. I'd recommend it to anyone who needs to use it for the usual functions it provides.

-- Sean

... What do mermaids use to wash their fins? Tide.
--- MultiMail/Linux
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Johnson City, TN (86:100/1)

I'd been asked about it, but I wasn't sure how well it worked on
Windows. It's useful for students who can't afford a license and whose universities don't always offer them.

From my experience, OnlyOffice works great. I'd recommend it to anyone who needs to use it for the usual functions it provides.

Hello. For the usual ones, yes, although sometimes between patches there
are some problems, at least in my case, since I work with very long
engineering documents.

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