John Jason Jordan
March 28th, 2009, 10:21 PM
I have been a power user of OOo since before moving from Windows to Linux (Hoary). If anyone is going to find something wrong it is me.
To test this you need OOo 3.01 on Jaunty, although it also happens on Intrepid. But if you install 3.01 on Hardy it does not happen. It is an Intrepid bug that has not been fixed in Jaunty, which is why I think I need to report it as a bug.
Here is a test: Open a new, blank Writer (text) document. Create a frame with two or more columns. In the frame insert a table with one row and two columns. Set the first column to half an inch or 1.5 cm, or thereabouts, leaving the right column for the rest of the table.
With the cursor in the right column go to Insert > Object > Formula. When the formula editing window appears enter the following in the syntax window:
font Sans bold left [ font Serif nbold { alignl stack { something # anything # nothing # everything } } right ]
Having done so, exit the formula editing window by clicking anywhere in the document except on the formula.
Now copy the table, hit a carriage return, and paste it in below. Double click on the second formula to make the editing window appear. Delete the last item from the stack. Again, click anywhere in the document other than in the formula to make the formula editing window disappear.
Repeat, deleting another item from the stack so you now have three formulas in tables in a column in your frame. The formulas will have 4, 3, and 2 items in their stacks.
In OOo 3.01 in Hardy the brackets are all the same, just bold. What you will see on screen for Intrepid/Jaunty is that the left and right bracket are bolder according to how many items in the stack. The more items, the bolder the bracket.
Print the page. You will find that the brackets probably print just bold.
Now go back to the formulas and make the items in the stack longer, like change "something" to "something-something-something." Print again. While the screen view remains the same (incorrect because the thickness of the bracket varies according to the number of items in the stack), the print output will eventually print one of the brackets super-fat, like six times as bold as it is supposed to be.
Now export to PDF and open in your favorite PDF viewer. You will find that the brackets vary according to the number of items in the stack. In other words, OOo PDF export must be using the screen view somehow.
It is actually more sinister and deep than the above indicates. I find constant problems in OOo and in Scribus when I apply bold attributes to a font. This never happened in Hardy, started in Intrepid, and continues in the beta of Jaunty.
The above has been confirmed by another user on the OOo user e-list. He has machines with Hardy and Intrepid, and each has OOo 2.4.1 and 3.0.1. His machines are all 32-bit and mine is x86_64.
I suspect the problem is somehow related to the new video drivers that came with Intrepid, although the problem continues in Intrepid whether I use the nv driver or the nVidia driver for my nVidia video chip.
I can also confirm that similar problems occur when bolding text in Scribus and AbiWord. In other words, it an Ubuntu problem, not just an OOo problem. Having said that, it may lie in Gnome rather than OOo itself.
I feel I need to file a bug report, and ASAP, due to the fast approaching deadlines for Jaunty. I don't even know how to file a bug report. I need confirmation from someone else here, and instructions for how to file the bug report.
To test this you need OOo 3.01 on Jaunty, although it also happens on Intrepid. But if you install 3.01 on Hardy it does not happen. It is an Intrepid bug that has not been fixed in Jaunty, which is why I think I need to report it as a bug.
Here is a test: Open a new, blank Writer (text) document. Create a frame with two or more columns. In the frame insert a table with one row and two columns. Set the first column to half an inch or 1.5 cm, or thereabouts, leaving the right column for the rest of the table.
With the cursor in the right column go to Insert > Object > Formula. When the formula editing window appears enter the following in the syntax window:
font Sans bold left [ font Serif nbold { alignl stack { something # anything # nothing # everything } } right ]
Having done so, exit the formula editing window by clicking anywhere in the document except on the formula.
Now copy the table, hit a carriage return, and paste it in below. Double click on the second formula to make the editing window appear. Delete the last item from the stack. Again, click anywhere in the document other than in the formula to make the formula editing window disappear.
Repeat, deleting another item from the stack so you now have three formulas in tables in a column in your frame. The formulas will have 4, 3, and 2 items in their stacks.
In OOo 3.01 in Hardy the brackets are all the same, just bold. What you will see on screen for Intrepid/Jaunty is that the left and right bracket are bolder according to how many items in the stack. The more items, the bolder the bracket.
Print the page. You will find that the brackets probably print just bold.
Now go back to the formulas and make the items in the stack longer, like change "something" to "something-something-something." Print again. While the screen view remains the same (incorrect because the thickness of the bracket varies according to the number of items in the stack), the print output will eventually print one of the brackets super-fat, like six times as bold as it is supposed to be.
Now export to PDF and open in your favorite PDF viewer. You will find that the brackets vary according to the number of items in the stack. In other words, OOo PDF export must be using the screen view somehow.
It is actually more sinister and deep than the above indicates. I find constant problems in OOo and in Scribus when I apply bold attributes to a font. This never happened in Hardy, started in Intrepid, and continues in the beta of Jaunty.
The above has been confirmed by another user on the OOo user e-list. He has machines with Hardy and Intrepid, and each has OOo 2.4.1 and 3.0.1. His machines are all 32-bit and mine is x86_64.
I suspect the problem is somehow related to the new video drivers that came with Intrepid, although the problem continues in Intrepid whether I use the nv driver or the nVidia driver for my nVidia video chip.
I can also confirm that similar problems occur when bolding text in Scribus and AbiWord. In other words, it an Ubuntu problem, not just an OOo problem. Having said that, it may lie in Gnome rather than OOo itself.
I feel I need to file a bug report, and ASAP, due to the fast approaching deadlines for Jaunty. I don't even know how to file a bug report. I need confirmation from someone else here, and instructions for how to file the bug report.