Document different on linux and windows

Simon_v · Newbie Joined: 02 Jun 2003 Posts: 3

I have a dual-boot windows/linux system with openoffice on both of them. I have a +- 20-page document with a table of contents. There are two problems between linux and windows.
1) The table of contents fits on 1 page under windows, but under linux, it spills over into a second page. Why is there any difference between the two OS'es? My guess is it has something to do with fonts. I am using Times New Roman, which is installed on both systems, I just don't know about the table of contents font. Is this a known problem?
2) In this document, I have a full-page image which is anchored to a (landscape-style) page. Under windows, no problem, under linux it moves the image a few page back!! Why?
It is very annoying, because I use openoffice for cross-platform compatibility!

Cheers, Simon

frederik · General User Joined: 28 Jun 2003 Posts: 14

Hi

I experienced the same, too. I am using Windows, my collegue Linux. Unfortunately we have problems sometimes when exchanging documents Confused

.

Still, for me OO is one of the best word processing applications.

With best regards
Frederik

lucabu · General User Joined: 16 May 2003 Posts: 39 Location: Italy

Hello,

It's a problem that seems common to all WYSIWYG applications. I heard about similar (infrequent) problems with M$ Word too. (yes using the same version and the same OS...)

I think the only thing you can chek is to have the same version installed, maybe problems like this will be less frequent in the future.

ftack · Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2003 11:43 am Post subject:

This problem is mostly related to the printer. Different printer drivers under Windows and Linux will produce differences in layout.

You are probably using some deskjet or laserprinter. Under Windows, the driver directly translates to the deskjet or laserjet printer language. Under Linux, printing is based on postscript, which then is rasterized using ghostscript. I guess that such changes would be less frequent if you would use postscript based drivers on both systems, provided also that fonts on both systems are identical.

Practically speaking, your best bet is to do the final tweaking right before printing, on the system where it will be printed. Otherwise, producing a PDF file on one system for printing on an other system should also be a safe solution. The third option is to use a postscript based driver on the Windows system and use Ghostscript if you need to print the doc on a Win system (with the help of REDMON, you can automatically print postscript to a raster printer, just as it works standard under Linux).

This "problem" of changes in layout with different printer drivers also exists under MS Word and was there under good old Word Perfect 4.2 also. You have to live with it, because it is the way things work.

mpaulvalois · General User Joined: 25 Jun 2003 Posts: 24

I have found that OO documents can mysteriously change when they are saved.

I created a fairly complicated document, using nested frames and containing many inserted pictures and other graphics on my laptop running Mandrake 9.1 and OO 1.0.3.

I emailed this document to my home computer for printing, running Mandrake 9.0 and OO 1.0.3, and the formating was ALL messed up!.. Some layers were buried and the positions of some of the inserted objects were altered a little, which makes a BIG mess in a complicated document.. It took some time to straighten it out!

My home machine is dual-boot, so I tried OO 1.0.3 under Win Me, but also found the formatting messed up. Same thing on my wife's XP machine.

Perhaps this problem is related to fonts, although in my case, since I have the same fonts installed on both systems, I suspect there must be something else going on.

Still, the "Frames" insertion is one of the things I like the most about OO Writer... It was REAL easy to put together a professional looking postcard. I am rapidly becoming a believer, and I really appreciate the help I get from the volunteers here! I think it is worth a little tinkering to help this project move along.
_________________
Paul Valois

JZA · Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2003 11:40 pm Post subject:

I have a similar problem using images, using OpenOffice 1.1Beta, (also experienced on 1.0.2) when I got a picture inserted in a document, when I open it somewhere else. The picture is not there anymore, the frame is there (even though not on the exact layout) but the picture is gone. Like some kind of HTML document which only save the html and no jpg or gif with it.

And NO I didnt haved it linked, but embedded in the file.
_________________
Alexandro Colorado
PPMC Apache OpenOffice
http://es.openoffice.org

ftack · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2003 7:40 am Post subject:

As yet, I did not have any serious trouble although I am using OOo on three different systems (two, that is, but one is a dual boot between Win ME and Linux Mandrake 9). This may be because my documents are to simple Wink

but anyway, as soon as i have some more spare time, I'll do some testing with freaky layouts. Indeed, mpaulvalois, frames is one of the features that I find superior to these of Office 97.