Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 126383
columns width gets lost when changing page formatting
Last modified: 2016-12-02 15:15:00 UTC
Created attachment 84807 [details] 5 columns on landscape page After setting user defined width of p.e. 5 columns in page formatting these information gets lost when calling page format again and changing any setting in the dialogue, not even necessarily the columns. You have to reenter manually the values of the columns widths.
I am working with OpenOffice Writer version 4.1.1 on a Windows 7 machine. I have tried a number of tests and in some cases the column widths changed, although in those cases it seemed correct, and in other cases the column widths did not change. Also, the original write up indicates page formatting gets lost when calling format again. I am unsure what that means. I assume that means, given the ending statement, that the column widths get lost. If so, that is the behavior that I was trying to observe and was able to recreate. Setup ----- 1. After opening Writer, I clicked on Format-->Page to open the Page Dialog box. 2. On the Page tab, set the Orientation to Landscape. Format defaulted to Letter, with a width of 11" and a height of 8.50". Margins all around were 0.79". 3. Moved to the Columns tab and set the number of columns to 5. 4. Unchecked the "Auto Width" box. Set the each column to the following values (2.17, 1.69, 2.08, 1.69, 1.79). Spacing for each column was 0.00. Tests within Writer ------------------- 1. On Page tab, change Format to Legal, page width increases to 14". The column widths are now all increased to: 2.87, 2.23, 2.74, 2.23, 2.36. This change makes sense, as the paper size has increased. Although it deviates from behavior in MS Word 2010, detailed below. 2. On Header tab, select "Header on". Reviewing the column widths, none have changed. 3. On Footer tab, select "Footer on". Reviewing the column widths, none have changed. 4. On Page tab, changed Left and Right margins to 0.5". Except for column 5, the column widths are unchanged. The updated values are: 2.87, 2.23, 2.74, 2.23, 2.94. 5. On Page tab, changed Height to 8.00", column widths are not changed. 6. On Background tab, changed color to Gray 6. column widths did not change. 7. On Page tab, changed Format back to Letter. Width now set to 11". Column widths now updated to: 2.20, 1.71, 2.11, 1.71 and 2.26. 8. On Column tab, changed Spacing between each column from 0.00 to 0.10. Column widths updated to: 2.20, 1.61, 2.01, 1.61 and 2.16. From the test above, column widths expanded or contracted whenever an attribute that impacted the width of the work space was changed. Changing the width of the page, size of the margins or spacing between columns all impacted the size set for column widths. Tests within Word ----------------- I ran the same set of tests in MS Word 2010. Mostly to get a comparison to the behavior that I was seeing in Writer. Like in Writer, changing attributes that did not impact the width of the work space did not alter the column sizes. At the same time, whenever attributes were changed that did impact the width of the work space, I noticed the following: - Increasing Page Size from Letter to Legal, column widths are unchanged. - Modifying column spacing, changes column widths. - Decreasing Page Size from Legal to Letter, produces a warning message "Settings you chose for left and right margins, column spacing, or paragraph indents are too large for the page width in some sections." This error message seemed to depend on how large the columns are initially. - Shrinking Margin widths resulted in the first and fifth column having their widths modified. - Increasing Margin widths resulted in an error message: "Increasing left margin causes first column to become too narrow in some sections having unevenly spaced columns"
Okay, I'll try to explain it a bit more precisely: I'm running Open Office 4.1.1. We open a new text document. We divide the page in e.g. 5 columns by formatting the page. Everything will work fine as long as we - either leave the spacing at 0, - or keep the auto width checked. There even will be no problems at all while dealing with some small individual spacing. Now I'll show the issue in one possible scenario: We have our five columns on the page, we open the formatting dialogue. We keep the auto width checked and we screw up the spacing to at least a third of the column width (that's just to show the issue, I don't know which is the exact critical value). The columns get narrowed, that's fine. Now we uncheck the auto width. We confirm the formatting dialogue. Everything looks very well on our page, we can see five narrowed columns with four well visible spacings in between. And here is the issue: We reopen the page formatting dialogue. Doing nothing. Just confirming again. And what happens? We have lost one column and its spacing. The width of the remaining columns has increased. Remember, we did nothing, we just confirmed. That should be a problem. And it's only one possible scenario. Sorry for being so short in words on my first description of this issue. Thanks for your testing!
Created attachment 84999 [details] Screenshots of Replication Steps Configuration: Computer: Lenovo T410 OS: Windows 7, 64-bit Open Office 4.2.0 AOO420m1(Build:9800) - Rev. 1692551 Rev.1692551 Replication Steps: 1. Create new document 2. Select Page in Format Menu 3. Select Page tab 4. Select Landscape 5. Verify Margins are all at 0.79” 6. Select OK 7. Select Columns in Format Menu 8. Verify AutoWidth box is checked 9. Increment number of Columns to 5 10. Increment Spacing to at least 0.47” (With 0.79” margins in Landscape when AutoWidth is selected the critical point to cause error is a spacing of 0.47”, at 0.46” and below error will not occur) 11. Click into number of Columns box, don't change from 5 (this will update column widths they should be at 1.51” each) 12. Select OK 13. Verify 5 columns on document 14. Select Columns in Format Menu 15. Uncheck AutoWidth box 16. Check number of Columns box it has been updated to 4 17. Check picture in corner still shows 5 columns 18. Widths should all still be 1.51” 19. Select OK 20. Verify 5 columns on document 21. Select Columns in Format Menu 22. Verify everything looks still like steps 15-17 23. Verify widths have been updated to 2.0” 24. Select OK 25. Verify there are now 4 columns on document (this is the error) Attachments: 1. Format_Menu_Page_Tab_Steps_3-6.PNG 2. AutoWidth_Columns_5_Spacing_47_Steps_7-11.PNG 3. Uncheck_AutoWidth_Columns_4_Spacing_47_Steps_14-19.PNG 4. Second_Check_Of_columns_Steps_21-24.PNG 5. Now_4_columns_Step_25.PNG Follow up Tests: Following the same basic process as above I checked in both Landscape and Portrait mode and each with different margin settings. Both exhibited the same behavior, once spacing was set beyond a certain point, like the 0.47”. This was also true for any number of columns above one. If you set the spacing high enough and do not have AutoWidth checked it will auto adjust the number of columns allowed. For example at 1. 5 columns in landscape 2. a spacing of 0.87” 3. it will auto adjust to 2 columns if AutoWidth is not checked Observations: Originally I believed this might have something to do with the overall dimensions of the columns, spacing and margins going beyond the allowed 11” in Landscape and 8.5” in Portrait. However, after doing the math for the page in Landscape, at the breaking point of 0.46” to 0.47” spacing with 0.79” margins all around the math works as the following: 0.46 stays at 5 columns (1.52*5) + (.46*4) + (.79*2) = 11.02 0.47 5 columns (1.51*5) + (.47*4) + (.79*2) = 11.01 1. Adjusts to 4 columns (2.0*4) + (.47*3) + (.79*2) = 10.99 At a spacing of 0.46” it is actually at 0.02 past the 11” and at a spacing of 0.47” is only at 0.01 past 11” and then adjusts to 0.01 below the 11”. So it does not appear to be an issue with exceeding the 11” or it would break at 0.46”. I still believe it might have to do with the program's math for auto adjusting values to keep it within the limits of the page, because if you attempt to change any individual width value or spacing value it will update other values automatically to keep the values balanced. However, you will not see that it has updated these values until you have clicked into a different box or selected OK and return to the page. Related Bugs: I searched as far back as 2005 in the database using the terms “column, autowidth” I found a couple bugs that appear to be related to this one. They each have something to do with the columns having issues when changing certain settings, specifically to do with setting values that are likely to break the autowidth function and go beyond the accepted bounds. Issue125875 - Page columns' default after invalid input varies. Issue87652 - column width modified in page style with border when changing tab in dialog Issue46037 - Column width becomes large than the page width in columns dialog (Confirmed bug from 2005, did quick replication and is still an issue)
Computer Specs: OS: Windows 10 Home 64-Bit Processor: i7-45100 Memory: 8 GB Steps Followed to replicate the bug 1. Create a new document 2. Change the orientation to landscape 3. Go to Format / Columns 4. Increase the number of columns to 5 5. Set spacing to 0.5" 6. Click into the columns box and verify that the width has updated 7. Click on OK 8.Verify that 5 columns have been created 9. Go to Format / Columns 10. Uncheck AutoWidth 11. Click OK 12. Go to Format / Columns 13. Click OK The bug was replicated successfully with the 5 columns transformed into 4 columns Follow-Up Test #1 - Add Text to the columns I replicated this test using 2 different methods and obtaining two different results Method 1 - Sequential series of the same character 1. Create a new document 2. Change the orientation to landscape 3. Go to Format / Columns 4. Increase the number of columns to 5 5. Set spacing to 0.5" 6. Click into the columns box and verify that the width has updated 7. Click on OK 8.Verify that 5 columns have been created 9. Press and hold the key "d" until the 5 columns are filled with text 10. Go to Format / Columns 11. Uncheck AutoWidth 12. Click OK 13. Go to Format / Columns 14. Click OK The result obtained was that the 5 columns transformed into 4 columns. Also, one piece of the text was lost. This can be observed in the picture text_sequence Method 2 - Nonsequential text 1. Create a new document 2. Change the orientation to landscape 3. Go to Format / Columns 4. Increase the number of columns to 5 5. Set spacing to 0.5" 6. Click into the columns box and verify that the width has updated 7. Click on OK 8.Verify that 5 columns have been created 9. Fill every column with text, including spaces and new lines 10. Go to Format / Columns 11. Uncheck AutoWidth 12. Click OK 13. Go to Format / Columns 14. Click OK The result obtained was a new page created but no text was lost this time. This can be observed in the text_added picture Follow-Up Test # 2 - Increasing the number of original columns. 1. Create a new document 2. Change the orientation to landscape 3. Go to Format / Columns 4. Increase the number of columns to 20 5. Set spacing to 0.26" 6. Click into the columns box and verify that the width has updated 7. Click on OK 8.Verify that 20 columns have been created 9. Go to Format / Columns 10. Uncheck AutoWidth 11. Click OK 12. Go to Format / Columns 13. Click OK This time, the 20 columns were transformed into 2 columns only. Unlike the previous test, the number of columns has been decreased from 4 to 2. I also tried this with 10 columns instead of 20, obtaining the same result. The results can be seen in the pictures 20Columns and 20Columns_bug. Follow-Up Test # 3 - Inserting pictures in every column 1. Create a new document 2. Change the orientation to landscape 3. Go to Format / Columns 4. Increase the number of columns to 5 5. Set spacing to 0.5" 6. Click into the columns box and verify that the width has updated 7. Click on OK 8.Verify that 5 columns have been created 9. Add one picture in every column, each one in a different position 10. Go to Format / Columns 11. Uncheck AutoWidth 12. Click OK 13. Go to Format / Columns 14. Click OK The result obtained was similar as the one obtained in test # 2 method 2. The number of columns was reduces to 4, a new page was created, and all the pictures switched positions. The results can be seen in the pictures picture_afterBug and picture_original.
Created attachment 85793 [details] 20Columns.png
Created attachment 85794 [details] 20Colums_bug.png
Created attachment 85795 [details] pictures_original.png
Created attachment 85796 [details] pictures_afterBug.png
Created attachment 85797 [details] textadded.png
Created attachment 85798 [details] text_sequence.png
Simplified steps to reproduce: Preconditions: 1. Go to OpenOffice/Preferences/OpenOffice Writer/General and set Measurement unit to Centimeter 2. Go to Format/Page and set Format to "Letter" 1. Create new document 2. Go to Format/Columns 3. Set Columns = 5 4. Set Spacing = 0.87 5. Uncheck AutoWidth Actual behavior: Number of columns is set to 4 Expected behavior: Number of columns is set to 5 System: macbook pro with macOS Sierra 10.12.1 Apache OpenOffice 4.1.3 AOO413m1(Build:9783) - Rev. 1761381