Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 7928
Three Conversion errors to fix
Last modified: 2003-09-09 12:27:23 UTC
Hi All, I am an engineer and consultant. I have been install OO 1.0.1 (win32) on a mid size company. The idea was to migrate to OO instead of upgrading their mix of Word 97 & 2000 to Office XP. As OO will only correctly import "some" of their old Word files and no one is willing to hand clean up every file they import, they decided to drop OO and upgrade to XP instead. Regardless of how "S T U P I D" I think this is, this is the target audience that we are all dealing with: non-technical office workers. And, they do not hand touch up "anything". For OO to succeed, it must perfectly convert these file. 50% or even 75% is not acceptable. So, instead of accepting defeat easily, I have included a simple fax document that has three conversion errors in it. (Note: this document can be viewed with M$'s Word Viewer for test purposes.) 1) the underscore line in the footer at the bottom left is completely dropped in the conversion. Headers and footers must be correctly converted. 2) the tab spacing for the check boxes gets totally messed up. Tab spacing is a huge bug-a-boo with secretaries. 3) the square boxes (bullets?) in front of each of the check boxes got converted to an Arial "(". They should have been converted to a Wingdings small "o" . Number three is a special pain in the neck. All of the shapes, squares, checks, etc., need to be converted to their appropriate Wingdings equivalent. I do apologize for the soap box, but you really need to know what is happening in the field. I appreciate the work everyone is doing on this project greatly. I am not finding a way to append the sample document to this bug report. Would someone mind sending me an address to mail it to (it is only 24k long)? Many thanks, --Tony aewell@gbis.com
I'm sorry this took so long, but if you're still interested in this, could you upload the test file? You do that by clickingon the "create a new attachment" link.
Hi Andrew, I am not ignoring you on this on. I had thought that the bug was a "don't fix", so I erased the test document. Monday, I got a new copy from the customer, but forgot to "sanitize" it (it still contains her name, phone number, and Company name). Since I do not have Word at my office, I will have to go back to her office a create a sanitized copy. --Tony
> I am an engineer and consultant. I have been install OO 1.0.1 (win32) > on a mid size company. The idea was to migrate to OO instead of > upgrading their mix of Word 97 & 2000 to Office XP. As OO will only > correctly import "some" of their old Word files and no one is willing to > hand clean up every file they import, they decided to drop OO and upgrade > to [office] XP instead. Hi All, On a sadder note, every single user at this company has removed Open Office (now on 1.0.3) from their computers (about 40 users). They didn't even leave it installed concurrently with their older versions of M$ Office. Upon questioning a number of them, the overwhelming complaint was the conversion errors. It is far cheaper to pay M$ through the nose with upgrades, than to spend countless hours cleaning up poorly converted documents into OO. They were to upset with the conversion process that removing OO from their computer was an emotional event. One user was so upset by the conversion errors, that she actually purchased Office XP at her own expense. Yikes! This was not the result I would have expected. The only customers I have had use OO are the ones that are using Word Perfect. They use OO to convert the odd XLS and DOC attachments they receive in their eMail. Typically, they will buy one secretary a single copy of the official M$ office suite and install OO on every one else's computers. If the conversion errors get too bad with OO, then they will have the secretary with the official M$ office print it out. To summarize, if the user has been or has ever used M$ office, until the conversion is 100% (fixing the envelope printing would not hurt either), the user will summarily reject OO. Please do not rely on your download counters as to the success of this project. Thank you all for letting me vent, I have taken a lot of criticism over OO. --Tony aewell@gbis.com
Created attachment 6388 [details] word97 doc with OO conservion problem
jw: set platform to all set OS to all set priority to P5 reassign to MRU set status to confirmed -> new
1) The problem regarding the underscore line in the footer cannot be reproduced. When I open the attached sample, I can see the line in the lower right area of the page. Maybe you didn't notive it, because it is shown in line with the light grey shown boundary of the footer. 2) Also I cannot see any problem regarding the tab space between the chackboxes. The Tab marks are all in the same place as in M$ Word. 3) The "square boxes" are no bullets. These are Macro fields displaying a special character. This is currently not possible in Writer. I'll file a new issue and send it to the responsible developer, so that the capability of showing this in the field will be possible.
The remaining problem 3) is now handled in issue #19317.