O.O. Impress "grey out" with Ubuntu 8.10

[fm280]

I'm a new user of Ubuntu 8.10. since December last year.
I started developping new presentation slides with Open Office 2.4 using Impress. A new page creation/addition/deletion is quite smooth, however when attmpted to undate/change the old page, the screen color turns into "grey" and for 15 - 30 seconds, I can't use Impress at all. Such 15 - 30 seconds after it goes back norman and I can update the page without any difficulty. The presentation slide has 10 pages with only chracters and bullet points. No pictures inside.
I do not have any problem for adding new page.
While Impress is virtually hang-up (grey out), I still can use the other Ubuntu applications without any problem.

My PC is Dell GX280 with Pentium 4 CPU of 2.8GHz, 2 GB DDR2 memory, 250 MB HDD. The exactly same problem happens with another GX280 with the same h/w configurations. I've allocated 2.5 GB for Ubuntu swap area.

Is there anywhere I should tune-up Ubuntu or Impress?
Pls help and advise me.

Thank you,

[FIONEX]

I've had this happen once before. It could be something in your presentation that impress doesn't like. Does it happen with all presentations or just that particular one? The problem with OpenOffice is that it's written in java (just a horrible language for resource consumption).

[TreeHugger52]

I've had that happen to me as well, but only in one particular spreadsheet document. It was repeatable- the screen would grey and OOo would go unresponsive every time I sorted by a particular column. I never was able to figure out what was different about this one particular file- I copied the content I needed into a new file and never had the problem recur.

It's not much of a fix, but can you try to copy some of the slides into a new document and see it if freezes?

[fm280]

Thank you guys.

I got very much encouraged with your advice. At least I know it's not me alone.
In fact your suggestions gave me a lot of clues...as you say it happens at particular pages. Strangely it doesn't happen at picture-alone pages, which is supposed to use more CPU power.

Eventually I think I found the cause and solution.
I turned on the Ubuntu System Monitor and it showed CPU usage 100% when re-editing the troublesome pages. It is only 6 - 8% at the normal pages.
While re-editing a few words I noticed the default font is Dejavu Sans, and at the bottom the system says "This font is not included in the system and it will be changed to something appropriate".In some pages I selected the font to Arial from the beginning, where I never had happened the system freeze.

I guess DejaVu Sans is a kind of default font of Ubuntu or Impress, but it is not applicable for all the languages.
When I changed all the font into single one (included in the Ubuntu distribution), then CPU usage dropped down to 6 - 10% all the time.

The overall system response speed has (key stroke, mouse, display speed) dramatically improved.

Since I'm quite new to Ubuntu and Impress, I could not pay much attentions to the font selection yet.I've learned two lessens: Don't use default and mixed font with Impress, and I should be very careful with the system messages..at the bottom.

Thank you everybody for your kind support.

FM

[FIONEX]

no problem man! Ubuntu is a great system once you get the hang of it. I use to love windows and tried to use linux when it was still difficult to use (it was discouraging). But now, I wouldn't think of going back to windows. I hate it when somebody resets my computer and reboots into Vista...

[Deerfoot]

I am using Ubuntu 8.10.
A friend gave me his memory stick with a powerpoint presentation to critique. (He uses MS but I don't know which version. There was no problem uploading to my computer but viewing the presentation (I only used stills rather than the moving slide presentation as I was proof-reading it), I saw a lot of the wording was outside the frames. On each slide, the topmost frame had a black/grey background and the lettering within could scarcely be seen and some could not be seen at all.
Of course I told my friend about these problems. He was amazed as had not used any black/grey background and all the wording had fitted into each frame correctly.
I made a few corrections to grammar and saved in MS 2007.
His email to me, sent today, said this:

Was concerned when you said that I had black lettering on a black background (a number one no.no, which is not on mine).
My suspicion is that you do not have a compatible PP programme and that maybe your PP is 2005. or earlier.??
Checking back on the memory stick I found that the format was not the same as when I loaded it.
Looking at the technical data, it came up with the warning that the majority of slides would be corrupted, if using other than 2007 version.
So maybe I have put you to a lot of trouble looking at a PP that has gone through the mixing machine.
Will verify this by putting it on a computer with the 2007 version.

Other friends have sent MS PP presentations to me and I viewed them without a problem.
Can anyone help with this problem please?

Many thanks.
Mary

[Deerfoot]

Deerfoot
I have just received an email from the author of the PP I wrote of last night concerning the display on my computer.
Here is what he said:

The problem is mine.. I had not presented the PP on the memory stick correctly.
The PP is “safe and sound” on the computer. My apology for wasting your time.
The computer expert is coming this week to put me right.

All is well after all. Apologies for taking up unnecessary space!
Mary