LibreOffice Writer Is Not Responding

Ask Fedora
1

I went to use LibreOffice Writer for the first time since installing Fedora 43 but it hangs on every doc I open as soon as I try and scroll through them. I get a window with “LibreOffice Writer” Is Not Responding. I have to click Force Quit. If I click Wait then it will often make other apps I have open hang as well. There is nothing in Problem Reporter.

I desperately need to get on with some work in this app this afternoon so this is very frustrating otherwise I need to boot into Windows and install LibreOffice there instead I guess.

2

Just a few quick questions.

Are the documents that fail to open .odt? or MS (.xlsx, .docx or similar)?
What version of libreoffice are you using?

On my f43 system I have LO version 25.8.3.2 and can open any of the docx or xlsx files on my system. (I have many and some are more than 10 years old)

Possibly a reinstall of the LO packages would be useful. (sudo dnf reinstall libreoffice\*) or maybe a full system update. (sudo dnf upgrade --refresh)

$ dnf list --installed libreoff*
Installed packages
libreoffice-base.x86_64             1:25.8.3.2-2.fc43 updates
libreoffice-calc.x86_64             1:25.8.3.2-2.fc43 updates
libreoffice-core.x86_64             1:25.8.3.2-2.fc43 updates
libreoffice-data.x86_64             1:25.8.3.2-2.fc43 updates
libreoffice-draw.x86_64             1:25.8.3.2-2.fc43 updates
libreoffice-emailmerge.x86_64       1:25.8.3.2-2.fc43 updates
libreoffice-filters.x86_64          1:25.8.3.2-2.fc43 updates
libreoffice-graphicfilter.x86_64    1:25.8.3.2-2.fc43 updates
libreoffice-gtk3.x86_64             1:25.8.3.2-2.fc43 updates
libreoffice-gtk4.x86_64             1:25.8.3.2-2.fc43 updates
libreoffice-help-en.x86_64          1:25.8.3.2-2.fc43 updates
libreoffice-impress.x86_64          1:25.8.3.2-2.fc43 updates
libreoffice-langpack-en.x86_64      1:25.8.3.2-2.fc43 updates
libreoffice-ogltrans.x86_64         1:25.8.3.2-2.fc43 updates
libreoffice-opensymbol-fonts.noarch 1:25.8.3.2-2.fc43 updates
libreoffice-pdfimport.x86_64        1:25.8.3.2-2.fc43 updates
libreoffice-pyuno.x86_64            1:25.8.3.2-2.fc43 updates
libreoffice-ure.x86_64              1:25.8.3.2-2.fc43 updates
libreoffice-ure-common.x86_64       1:25.8.3.2-2.fc43 updates
libreoffice-writer.x86_64           1:25.8.3.2-2.fc43 updates
libreoffice-x11.x86_64              1:25.8.3.2-2.fc43 updates
libreoffice-xsltfilter.x86_64       1:25.8.3.2-2.fc43 updates
3

I just went to LibreOffice writer and for me it is working as it should. So there has to be something else going on in your case. Best of luck getting it figured out and frankly I can sense your frustration. I wish you luck in getting this all sorted out.

4

It is mainly 2 documents that are doing it. Both .doc files. Other files do it but less frequently. These 2 .doc files are “application form” type documents that I need to fill in digitally as the company they are going to only accept them filled in directly rather than printed. (I don’t know why). As soon as I scroll down in the document any small amount, Libre Office disappears.

I have to have done this by the end of the weekend so I will just have to install LibreOffice in Windows and see if that works. No matter how hard I try to get away from Windows, Linux just keeps making that impossible unfortunately.

Update: I can also now confirm that opening both of these in the same version of LibreOffice on Windows and I can scroll through them just fine.

5

Files of the .doc format are old. (windows 1997 - 2003)
Perhaps you could try saving a copy as either .odt or .docx before scrolling, then use that copy to fill them in and save again in .doc format before submitting.

I find it unlikely that the company would be unable to accept files in .docx format. (the .doc files are after all a 20+ year old format)

6

Well I’d expect an old format to be better supported on Linux but it seems to be the opposite. LibreOffice on Windows handles the same files just fine.

However, I’ve also noticed that LibreOffice doesn’t render the pages properly anyway with the formatting being off compared to how it looks in MS Office. So, in my case, LibreOffice isn’t fit for purpose anyway. So this issue is sort of a moot point now.

Having no choice but to use MS Office is a rather major sticking point to switching to Linux for me unfortunately. Using Linux is one hell of a rollercoaster ride :smiley: