AOO suddenly crashing when opening large/long docs

[Chet 7]

Hi, thanks for any help!!
I've been using OO constantly for months with no problems, but the other day its suddenly crashing when opening large/long documents. It seems to be trying really hard to load it. It will freeze, then un-freeze for a moment as it loads some more, then freeze, etc, and finally crash completely. It can open small documents perfectly fine. It's only some documents. Other large files I can open perfectly fine.

I tried re-installing, and tried deleting all custom user settings. No difference. Is there anywhere else OO stores temp files that would affect this, other than the following dir (which I tried deleting/resetting)??:
users / user / AppData / Roaming / OpenOffice / 4

Would installing a different version of OO fix this?
Thanks!!!

[FJCC]

I sounds like a problem with specific documents rather than with OpenOffice. Can you post one of these documents here or, if it is more than 128 KB, on some publicly available location?

[Hagar Delest]

Else, try LibreOffice. Under much more active development. See [Tutorial] Considering a Switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice? Some Useful Information.

[Chet 7]

Firstly, LibreOffice won't install. It won't even let me create an account to ask for help on https://ask.libreoffice.org. It sends a confirmation email but when I click it, it says "Invalid token" and asks me to create an account anew, which I can't do because my email is already in the system and it says "email already exists."
The error Windows 10 gives me when I download the LibreOffice file LibreOffice_7.5.9_Win_x86-64, is:
This installation packet could not be opened. Verify that the package exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows installer package.

I'd kind of like to solve this problem with OO if possible, I'm really used to OO...
Upon the first reply, I checked many older files, and they all open, so perhaps it is something with the files, but that makes no sense to me, because three totally different files all started crashing at the exact same moment.
I'm attaching one of the files. I even tried converting the original ODT to RTF, then re-opening the new RTF file with OO, and it still acts similarly (stalling/crashing). So even the text content alone seems to crash it, but why three files at the same time? This is so bizarre. I want to solve it so I don't keep doing the same thing wrong, whatever the heck I did... Thanks for any more help!!

[FJCC]

The document does open for me but takes about 40s to fully load. I changed from Web Layout to Print Layout, deleted and replaced one letter and saved the file with a new name. That file opens in about 2s. What to you get with this file?

Document-1_fjcc.odt

(124.11 KiB) Downloaded 93 times

[Chet 7]

I did what you said and got the same result. Thanks. But is there any way to remove the crazy margins in the file you created? Like so the text goes all the way to the right and left side of the window?
I'm still absolutely baffled how this happened, though, and what I need to do to avoid it in the future.
Thanks for your help!

Anyone know how I can download LibreOffice? I can't install the file, and can't create an account to ask for help (see above)

[FJCC]

The "crazy margins" are showing the document page. You can switch back to the view with no margins with the menu item View -> Web Layout.

[Chet 7]

Switching back to Web Layout makes the whole problem come right back, so that's not an option. Your solution only works if I keep it on Print layout forever, and I'd drown myself before I'd view all my documents that way.
This is just absolutely crazy. What could there possibly be in the text content of these files specifically, that causes these massive stalls, and that managed to infect three different docs simultaneously? This is like a "splinter in my mind," it's crazy. Are there any other thoughts? It's not the end of the world so thanks for your help, but it would be great to get a little more closure about what's going on or how to avoid it in the future, especially because LibreOffice isn't a solution if it won't install AND I can't create an account to ask for help.
Thanks!!

[robleyd]

Is it possible that you have e.g. some very long paragraphs as a result of using Shift+Enter for a line break instead of just Enter for a new paragraph? You can see the type of breaks you have by turning on View | Non-printing characters. Paragraph breaks will show as a pilcrow ¶ whereas line breaks are a left pointing arrow ↲.

[Chet 7]

Thanks, but no, I just went through the file carefully and there are virtually no line breaks.
Also it seemed to happen to three different documents exactly at the same time and never before, so I can't fathom anything I could have started doing differently all at the same time... Any other thoughts?

[FJCC]

The file Document-1_fjcc.odt works fine for me in Web Layout. My laptop has 8 GB of memory and it's old, so it is nothing special.
When you reset your user profile, did you get the registration screen when you restarted OpenOffice?

I searched for line breaks and there are many. I did not see any paragraphs that were anything like long enough to be a problem, but with so many line breaks, there could be one. Much of the document is an enormous table. I think that would help prevent overly long paragraphs.

[robleyd]

The file Document-1.odt also opens without issue for me.

Something you might consider is using styles rather than direct formatting; removing all direct formatting gives approximately 10% smaller file.

It might also help to break the monster table into smaller sections.

[Hagar Delest]

Hardly a long document at all. Only 82 pages in normal view.
It opens in less than 2s on my Windows 10 machine with LibreOffice.
AOO may get confused by so much different formatting.

You may have downloaded only partially the LO installer. Try to download again.

[RoryOF]

The original document opened on my linux machine including loading and starting OpenOffice in 2 seconds (timed).

Using Page View, which I would prefer in any document for printing, one can adjust the scaling factor of the display to "lose" the "crazy" margins, i.e. adjust the scaling factor by pulling the slider at bottom right of the OpenOffice window so that the text extends from side to side of the screen, if that is one's desire.

If that slider is not visible, click on /View /Status Bar.

Previous remarks in this thread about formatting optimisations will also be helpful.

If one wishes to see a long page ie, 9:16 instead of the usual 16:9, one can turn a monitor in its side and change the operating system settings to use that configuration. One often sees such a configuration in use on flight or train annunciators at airports and stations.

[LastUnicorn]

You can use SHA-256 hash checksums to check if the download of a LibreOffice installer file is corrupt or not.

To get the official LibreOffice SHA-256 hash checksum value go to the LibreOffice download page and get the following information:

LibreOffice Checksum Info.png (81.54 KiB) Viewed 1461 times

Once you have the checksum hash value, SHA-256 is best, download this application for checking if the checksum of the file you downloaded actually matches the checksum hash value provided by LibreOffice: MD5 & SHA Checksum Utility Note: the program is fully portable so nothing will be installed to your system. Also note that you will only need the 'Free' version, so you don't have to purchase the program. (If you can't see how to download the program at the 'Wordpress' site then download from here: MD5 & SHA Checksum Utility.)

Instructions on how to use the program to Verify a checksum hash are give at the Wordpress webpage pointed to above. Or use the following illustration as guide for the MD5 & SHA Checksum Utility:

MD5 & SHA Checksum Utiility.png (37.67 KiB) Viewed 1461 times

If the file you have is not corrupt then there is something Windows is doing to prevent the install. If it was me I would try making and 'exclusion'/'exception' to the installer file in whatever anti-virus application you are using on Windows.

Also note that you don't need to join Ask LibreOffice Org to ask questions about LibreOffice. You can ask your questions in this forum and someone will answer, this forum supports LibreOffice too.