Issue 25794 - Support Mac screengrab/quicktime TIFF images embedded to documents
Summary: Support Mac screengrab/quicktime TIFF images embedded to documents
Status: CONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: Writer
Classification: Application
Component: code (show other issues)
Version: OOo 1.1
Hardware: All All
: P5 (lowest) Trivial with 9 votes (vote)
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: AOO issues mailing list
QA Contact:
URL:
Keywords: needmoreinfo, oooqa
: 65981 (view as issue list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2004-02-23 11:46 UTC by jonathanjansson
Modified: 2013-02-07 22:39 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Issue Type: ENHANCEMENT
Latest Confirmation in: ---
Developer Difficulty: ---


Attachments
Document containing a screenshot that need QuickTime to be seen. (113.50 KB, application/msword)
2004-02-29 11:50 UTC, jonathanjansson
no flags Details
A window screenshot from Mac OS X using the Grab application. (105.29 KB, image/tiff)
2004-02-29 20:35 UTC, jonathanjansson
no flags Details
PowerPoint test file with image conversion problems in OOO (1020.00 KB, application/vnd.ms-powerpoint)
2008-03-17 19:43 UTC, glawrie
no flags Details

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this issue.
Description jonathanjansson 2004-02-23 11:46:26 UTC
I opened a document that I had written in MS Word for Mac OS X. I had added some screenshots made 
with the screen grabber application. But the image in OpenOffice just appears black. When I opened the 
document on MS Works on a older PC it is written that a QuickTime TIFF component is needed.
Comment 1 lohmaier 2004-02-23 19:15:46 UTC
please attach one of the problematic tiff-images.
Comment 2 mci 2004-02-24 08:18:04 UTC
reassigned to mru
Comment 3 michael.ruess 2004-02-25 09:05:25 UTC
please attach the offending document to this issue, so that we can reproduce and
fix the problem here. You can also send the document directly
(mru@openoffice.org) for the case it contains confidential data. Feel free to
re-open the issue when you've done.
Thanks for supporting us!
Comment 4 jonathanjansson 2004-02-29 11:50:20 UTC
Created attachment 13507 [details]
Document containing a screenshot that need QuickTime to be seen.
Comment 5 lohmaier 2004-02-29 20:11:09 UTC
please also supply a "plain tiff" image, e.g. the tiff itself, not the image
embedded in a doc - Thank you. (don't forget to reopen the issue when you have
done so)
Comment 6 jonathanjansson 2004-02-29 20:35:54 UTC
Created attachment 13513 [details]
A window screenshot from Mac OS X using the Grab application.
Comment 7 jonathanjansson 2004-02-29 20:43:43 UTC
When I created the Word document (QuickTime.doc) I used copy-pase to get the picture from Grab (an 
application for taking screenshots included with Mac OS X) to Word (MS Office X). So it was never saved 
to disk. The TIFF-file (TIFF-example.tiff) shows another screenshot. Both screenshots are shots of a full 
window and therefore might be transparent because of the rounded corners.
Comment 8 michael.ruess 2004-03-03 10:56:09 UTC
The behaviour of our graphic filters must be changed AFAICS. A significant error
message must be implemented for this.
Comment 9 lohmaier 2006-08-04 23:02:18 UTC
The attached tiff is a "real" tiff and can be opened in OOo and other programs
without problems. Please try to attach something that is similar to what is
embedded to the document.
Comment 10 lohmaier 2006-08-04 23:03:01 UTC
*** Issue 65981 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
Comment 11 bctech 2006-08-07 18:28:04 UTC
There is a fundamental misunderstanding here on how this bug actually occurs. 
The original description is correct but may not be entirely clear, judging by 
later comments.

The source of the bug is the actual copy/paste or drag-and-drop process, not 
necessarily any saved-to-disk format. On a Mac OS X uses built-in Quicktime 
libraries to handle image-based clipboard data. It is this processing by 
Quicktime that causes the issue. There is *never* a saved format involved in the 
process of creating these files and that in itself is what causes the issue. 
This issue does not occur when you use Insert->Image from a file on disk.

Because of this it is difficult or impossible to actually attach an image with a 
similar problem. In fact it may be that no image has this problem, it is simply 
an issue of interpretation when a given image format is embedded in an Office 
format. The format of the image probably remains the same, it just gets marked 
as something proprietary to Quicktime and then OOo.org and Office don't know 
what format it is and do not attempt to read it. My guess is they both have the 
capability to read it, or if not then certainly libraries could be installed 
that would support reading it. I am told however that Quicktime on a Mac 
provides more image support than on a PC, so a Quicktime install on a PC may not 
in itself allow reading of this format. Still, there must be some solution.

I think the important things to keep in mind about this bug are the following:

1: It occurs *only* with copy/paste or drag-and-drop, *not* with Image->Insert 
or with simple loading of an image from disk. No image on disk is ever involved, 
the image is taken directly from another application, and so the issue is tied 
to the transfer of the image through the clipboard.

2: It appears to be specific to documents originally created in MS Office, 
although I do not think the same functionality has been tested in OOo.org. In 
fact I'm not even sure such functionality (cut/paste image) would work in OOo.
org for Mac, but it should be tested.

3: The attached documents here and at "duplicate" Issue 65981 are the best 
examples that exist of this problem and these should be used to diagnose and 
correct it.

4: No fix exists for this from Microsoft. MS's own Powerpoint and MS Word are 
also unable to deal with images formatted this way and this is the case with all 
PC versions of Office. This means there are a lot of unhappy Mac Office users 
trying to make presentations to view on PC's and there is a significant 
opportunity here for OOo.org to gain a notable advantage over even Office 2007.

I suggest this bug be given a fairly high priority given the opportunity to 
develop a significant feature that MS Office does not yet have and the potential 
positive marketing that could bring.
Comment 12 lohmaier 2006-08-11 20:00:20 UTC
No, there's no misunderstanding. But having the actual representation, the
actual thing that is embedded would greatly facilate the task of adding support
for that.

Many clipboard applications support dumping the contents of the clipboard to a
file. Maybe there is a similar functionality in MacOS clipboard manager or an
external program.
Comment 13 lohmaier 2006-08-11 20:02:41 UTC
*** Issue 65981 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
Comment 14 bctech 2006-08-17 18:44:33 UTC
Unfortunately in many cases there is no real source file. In the case of my 
files what is being done is the following:

1: User creates a presentation slide
2: User browses web to find image to include
3: User clicks image in browser and drags to Powerpoint to embed in presentation

If there is a "source file" it is the file on the web page, either a .jpg or a
 .gif. So that is clearly not the problem as Powerpoint and OOo.org support 
both of those formats. If you saved the same image to disk and loaded it with 
"Insert Image->From File" it would work. So there is some kind of odd 
conversion that happens in the drag-and-drop process, apparently due to the use 
of Quicktime for processing clipboard images on Macs. Why a conversion is even 
necessary I don't know.

I also don't know of a method to save the "converted" graphic, unless it could 
be saved directly out of Powerpoint after embedding. I'm not sure that would 
help either, but it may be worth a shot, so I'll look into this as soon as I 
can. Mind you I don't have consistent and direct access to a Mac so if someone 
else is more easily able to test this that would be great. The problem should 
be easy to reproduce.


In the case of the original bug described here it's unclear whether saving the 
contents of the screen grabber application would provide any relevant files 
either. It's highly possible that the file "format" in question is a "live"-
only format - that its characteristics do not directly translate to any saved 
document format, hence the problem with embedding.

In other words if you go to save in screen grabber it probably offers you a 
choice of formats. Which do you choose to maintain the characteristics of this 
problem so that the file is of any help? I can all but guarantee you that any 
file format you chose could be embedded into Powerpoint properly (as long as 
the format was supported).

Essentially it appears that using this clipboard method side-steps the format 
check to see whether Powerpoint supports the format in question. Since 
Quicktime does, Powerpoint on the Mac can display it. But that same 
functionality is not available on the PC side.

Bottom line I am not sure what is being asked for is possible - i.e. an 
"example file" that would be embedded and would show this problem. The problem 
exists not in the file or an on-disk file with a given format, but rather in 
whatever format conversion goes on in the Mac's clipboard. Or at least that's 
what I've determined from my tests here.
Comment 15 bctech 2006-10-04 18:26:54 UTC
Here is the MS knowledgebase article on this issue. It may contain more info 
useful in solving it. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-
us;198204

Again note that MS has not solved this, even in Office 2007 beta 2. This would 
be a major coup for OpenOffice.org!
Comment 16 glawrie 2008-03-17 19:43:46 UTC
Created attachment 52165 [details]
PowerPoint test file with image conversion problems in OOO
Comment 17 glawrie 2008-03-17 19:49:27 UTC
Problem occurs with Powerpoint as well as Word documents.  Test document attached to this is issue.

Not sure how helpful it is, but images in this document were created by grabbing image with copy and 
then using the 'paste as image' option from the paste-special menu in PPT.  On Mac OOO they render 
as black boxes (with some line info showing).  Not sure how they render on PC (don't have one).  This 
using 2.2.1.

Also, might be helpful to know that these documents import just fine into Keynote - suggests strongly 
that there is a way to fix this issue.  Not sure how to work out how Keynote does this (presumably it 
calls on the necessary Quicktime features) but this suggests that it is something that can be fixed in 
the OOO version for Mac.  Presumably if this can be done, the correctly rendering version in OOO Mac 
can then be used to save in (say) ODP format for opening on PC...?

Just an idea... 

Fingers crossed that a solution materialises.  Real pain in interim.
Comment 18 bettina.haberer 2010-05-21 14:50:20 UTC
To grep the issues easier via "requirements" I put the issues currently lying on
my owner to the owner "requirements". 
Comment 19 thrunaxos 2011-01-26 04:55:26 UTC
has this issue been resolved yet, I have the same problem