Major formula error (formulas rewrite when editing)

[stufforwhatever]

Hope someone can help, basically I'm working on a rather lengthy document. Whenever I go to edit it a formula, the formula I'm editing automatically rewrites with formula data from somewhere else in the document. E.g. If "x=1" is a formula somewhere that I'm not working on, and I go to edit the formula "2x+5=7", "2x+5=7" will automatically get rewritten as "x=1" as the formula editor opens, and will stay that way.

[acknak]

Welcome to the community forum! Sorry you're having trouble with your formulas.

What document format are you saving to? Saving to any format other than OOo's native ODF format (.odt for text) carries some risk of developing problems. If you're not saving as ODF, try that and see if you still see the problem.

[stufforwhatever]

Nope, saving as an ODT. Formulas in a text document.

[acknak]

Not sure what else to suggest. I don't remember this problem coming up before.

If you can attach the document here, that might suggest some workaround, but I expect that's not likely.

[stufforwhatever]

Can't do that unfortunately, have a nondisclosure clause with a client. I think the file autosaved while it was shutting down and it puked all over my work. Ugh.

[acknak]

I've never had a problem myself, but the problems I've seen reported here--losing images or formulas--make me prefer to keep images and objects in separate files and link them into the main document. At least that way, if the document blows up, I don't have to re-create the objects, I just have to re-insert them.

Of course, regular backups in separate files is the best safety measure.

[stufforwhatever]

Have both, neither worked. Linking formulas isn't an option and having a separate doc for them is impractical for this project. (Really specific client requirements) It's a bizarre bug. At least it isn't affecting new formulas. The thing I'm working on isn't an intensive math text, at least, so I can power through it but still ugh

[acknak]

Of course you have to decide what's best, but I can't think how it wouldn't be practical. Linked or not, any pdf you make will include all the formulas. If you need to produce a complete ODF document, you can use Edit > Links ... to "break" the links and all the formulas or images then get embedded. I've never tested it on a complex document, so I can't say how robust it is in practice.

[stufforwhatever]

They need the full odt without links to other documents, and the file size runs over a hundred pages. It's a pain in the butt. (Obviously if I were doing this for myself I'd follow your advice.)

[keme]

Just a thought:
Could it be that the objects you are trying to edit were originally MS Office "equation" objects, or perhaps Mathtype (third party plugin). If so, it may be better to write new formulas from scratch, and delete the existing ones.

Teachers in our school use documents from the "National Digital-Learning Arena" (NDLA), where the maths documents all have formulas made in MathType. All the students are advised to install the free "lite" version of MathType, so they can edit those objects and solve given math problems within the document. All those formulas look perfectly fine as long as you don't touch them. When students try to edit, they are not so nice...

[stufforwhatever]

Nope. There are no quirks or frills on this problem. Straight up Add>Object>Formula in open office, edit formulas in open office, save as an .odt, random weird error while editing said formulas. It's a head scratcher.