Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 107906
Tables with 13 or more columns are corrupt when opening in Word
Last modified: 2010-01-02 15:45:55 UTC
Tables with 13 or more columns become corrupted when the document is saved in Microsoft Word 97/200/2003 format (*.doc). The corruption is only apparent when opening the document in Microsoft Word (I have tested it with Microsoft Word 97 and Microsoft Word Viewer 2003 running on WINE, and Microsoft Word 2000 running natively on Windows XP). It causes Microsoft Word to crash. The corruption is NOT apparent when opening the Word document in OpenOffice; in fact it behaves like a normal document and can be edited freely. Merging two columns to reduce the total number of columns from 13 to 12 removes the corruption, and allows the document to be opened normally in Microsoft Word. This problem occurs with both the Windows and Linux versions of OpenOffice. Steps to reproduce the error: 1. Create a new Writer document 2. Insert a table with 13 columns and any number of rows 3. Save it in Word format and close Writer 4. Open the document in Microsoft Word Viewer 2003 (or another version of Word) - IT WILL CRASH OR SAY THE DOCUMENT IS CORRUPT 5. Re-open the document in Writer - IT WILL OPEN NORMALLY 6. Merge two columns to reduce the total number of columns to 12 7. Re-save it in Word format 8. Re-open it in Word - IT WILL OPEN NORMALLY
Created attachment 66812 [details] Table with 13 columns; opens in Writer but not in Word
Created attachment 66813 [details] Table with 12 columns; opens normally in Writer and Word
Created attachment 66814 [details] 1 column table created in Word 97 with 12 extra columns added in Writer, which works in both Word and Writer
This error only occurs with tables that were CREATED in Writer. 13 column tables which were created in Word work in both Word and Writer. Tables with fewer columns (e.g. one) created in Word, with additional columns subsequently inserted in Writer to bring the total to 13, also work in both programs. Hope this helps to localise the bug.
This also occurs via saving as Word 2003 XML (see files in via_word_xml.zip) Steps taken to create this error: 1. Create a 13 column table in Word, and save it as doc1.doc 2. Open doc1.doc in Writer and save it as doc1.xml (Word 2003 XML format) 3. Open doc1.xml in Word and save it as doc2.doc (actually I did this by copying and pasting the table from Word 2003 viewer to Word 97) 4. Open doc2.doc in Writer and save it as doc3.doc 5. Open doc1.doc in Writer and save it as doc4.doc doc1.doc, doc4.doc and doc2.doc will open in Writer and Word. doc3.doc will only open in Writer.
Created attachment 66815 [details] test documents: via Word 2003 XML conversion
NOT reproducible with "Ooo 3.2.0 RC1 WIN XP DE-multilingual version German UI activated [OOo320m8 (Build 9472)]"! @anoopshah: Before you file further issues or post again here, please read our guidelines on <http://qa.openoffice.org/issue_handling/pre_submission.html> and <http://www.openoffice.org/bugs/bug_writing_guidelines.html>, then contribute a clear step by step instruction containing all observations (error messages ...), _every_key_press_and_every_mouse_click_ how to reproduce the problem, and explain why you believe that your results are unexpected. That means (for example): do not write something like „I am not able to ...“, but „6. left mouse click on … expected: …, color of … changes, … actual: no …., color remains white, no … Please always specify OS and Platform you used for your tests! Please attach a sample source document!
Forgot to say: I can reproduce the Viewer error message with trytable13.doc When I open "trytable13.doc" with 3.2.0RC1 and save again as WORD97.doc, I can open that document with MW WORD VIEWER without problems.
I found the error using OOO 3.1.1. I will download and try OOO 3.2 RC1 and see if the bug still exists.
If the problem still exists: OS? Platform? Step by step instruction as requested?
I tried these tests in OOO 3.2 RC1 and the errors are not reproducible. It also fixes all 'corrupted' documents and enables them to be opened in Word. I therefore consider that this bug has been fixed.
Because it seems we do not have a real fix (or we don't know about that) this issue is not FIXED.
I believe it's a DUP of Issue 103374 *** This issue has been marked as a duplicate of 103374 ***
Closed