Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 115508
copy drawing lines and paste - positions messed up!
Last modified: 2017-05-20 11:19:42 UTC
In Writer I drew some lines using the draw toolbar. When i select those lines, leave some empty space and paste them, the lines are pasted but they are messed up!!! So the shape isnot the same... for esample if i drew an arrow and copy and paste it, the new arrow is not the same as the original one, but it is messed up with only two lines (instead fo the three of the original one). I attach a document that show this
Created attachment 72938 [details] open this file and see how the arrow get messed up when copy and pasted
MRU->OD: see attached document, select the three lines, copy and paste into diffent place -> position of every single line changed. The problem might be, that the lines are anchored to different paragraphs. I remember that there was a similar problem in the past, but I couldn't find the regarding issue...
Using Windows XP, OOo 3.2.1 and with the build 9502, I was able to reproduce this bug. Although, there was some discrepancy on how I reproduced the bug. The steps I took is as follows: 1. Drew the shape of an arrow using 3 lines. 2. Selected the lines one-by-one using the SHIFT-key and using Ctrl-C to copy them. 3. Creating a few spaces between the originally drawn arrow, pasted the copied arrow Crtl-V, only to find that there was no problem. 4. Drew another arrow below the copied arrow and copied that one exactly like Step 2. 5. Creating a few spaces between the new arrow, pasted the new copied arrow using Crtl-V, to find that the position of the arrows were misaligned. It seems that the bug only occurs when a second copy is made on another set of shapes. It may be that somehow an internal or external factor is not allowing the lines to be assigned proper locations, which causes the misalignment. The problem does not only affect drawing of lines, but other shapes as well, for example, the oval and the rectangle. Right after I discovered the bug, I immediately tried to do the same with ovals, creating 3 ovals that overlapped each other (but still able to see each one), and then pasting them, again to find that the alignment of the ovals were off from the original. And ditto with the rectangles. The shapes do not need to be in threes and can also be unconnected for this bug to occur as well. I've attached a file with the reproduction of the bug and with the other examples of the bug that I've encountered. It seems that the you can also reproduce the bug by using the mouse (Drag a box around the shapes, copy them using Crtl-C and the right-clicking and selecting Paste in the drop-down menu). Using different methods of copying with the mouse and keyboard still reveals the bug, so this would not be a way to get around the problem. An easy way I've found to get around this bug is to just open up a new document, create the shapes you want, copy them and then paste them into the document you were working on. This bug does not seem to create huge problems, but may be very annoying for beginner users or people who do not use computers very often. It would obviously be better if this bug did not occur and that it would be fixed as soon as possible.
Created attachment 75605 [details] An few examples of the bug occurence.
I was able to replicate this bug using he following environment: Open Office Writer Version 3.2.1 Buld 9502 OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. The steps that I have used for replicating the bug are as follows: 1. Open Open Office Writer 2. Use the drawing toolbar to draw a couple of lines and arrows on the page space. 3. Select an arrow and copy it, either using the mouse or the keyboard shortcut. 4. Paste it in a different place on the same page. After pasting, the alignment of the arrow will no longer be the same. It will be distorted with the head no more in its original position. I have tested drawing a couple of arrows and other shapes using Open Office Writer Writer. Whenever I copied and pasted the figure in a different location on the same page, the figure was distorted. This may not be a major problem for many, but those who use the drawing pad frequently may face some difficulty using this feature and this may produce results that are unacceptable.
The issue was reproducible using the following environment: Open Office 3.2.1(Writer) Build: 9502 OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Steps to reproduce: 1. Open a new Open Office Writer document. 2. Draw shapes using either the line drawing tool or other various shape tools(Rectangle/Ellipse/Basic shapes) available. 3. Select the shapes by holding down the shift key and selecting each line/shape one by one using mouse's left button. Once selected copy it using either CTRL+V or clicking on copy from the edit menu bar. 4.Paste the shape copied in step 3. 5.The shape will be distorted. Upon further investigation noticed that this almost never happens on the first shape drawn on a completely new document. The bug surfaces only after subsequent shapes/images are drawn and then copied/pasted over. This is not much of a problem for general use, but in special cases where complex diagrams, flow charts and other illustrations are used it may pose as a significant drawback.
This bug was reproduced on Windows 7 and OO 3.2.1 Steps to replicate the issue: 1) Open openOffice document. 2) Draw an arrow with 3 lines. 3) Select the arrow lines using shift and press ctrl+c. 4) Press Ctrl+v to paste the object few spaces down. The drawing object does not necessarily has to be an arrow. The issue is same with all the drawing objects. One of the things I found is that when we open the OpenOffice, the first drawing object does not appear to have any problem with copy and paste. Objects thereafter are not copied correctly. One workaround is to open a new document as the first object in the new document also does not have any issue. Also, I found another workaround for the issue. When we select the drawing object using mouse, rather than selecting individual lines and use ctrl+c and ctrl+v, to copy and paste, the object is copied correctly. 1) Select the object using cursor. The object will be highlighted. 2) Press Ctrl+c to copy the object. 3) Go to the desired location and press ctrl+V to paste the object. 4) The object is copied.
I have reproduced the issue, and believe I understand why the problem occurred. The tests are all in the attached document and can be copied and pasted. Environment Mac OSX 10.5.8 Open Office 3.2.1 Build 9502 Steps are as follows: 0. Setup: 0.1 Click on File -> New -> Text Document 0.2 Click on View -> Toolbars. If Drawing is not checked the select Drawing shortcuts A: When I say copy and paste the lines it means: A.1 click on cursor icon in drawing toolbar A.2 click on one line A.3 click on the other lines while holding shift key A.4 press Apple+C A.5 Unselect the lines by clicking to the side of the lines A.6 paste by pressing Apple+V I did 10 tests: Test 1: two perpendicular lines 1.1 click on line icon in the toolbar 1.2 draw horizontal line while holding down shift key 1.3 draw crossing vertical line while holding down shift key. 1.4. copy and paste the lines. Result successful Test is repeated using other formations as can be seen in the attached document in more details. The 'problems' starts to appear when the lines have different anchor points as seen in tests 6,7 and 10. Because of the different anchor points when we paste from one area the alignment is off. To ensure alignment do as in test 8 and 9. In test 8 we anchored everything to the page. Thus it didn't matter how we aligned the lines they would be pasted from the same anchor point and thus maintain alignment. In test 9 we changed the anchor from test 8 back to paragraph (details are in the attachment), which made the anchor of all the lines from the same paragraph. In test 10 we used the same shape from test 9 and only changed the anchor of one line. When pasted that line was the only one misaligned. From these tests one possible theory is that when drawing the lines, depending on where we start drawing the lines, the lines will have different anchor points. When we select them all we assume the group has a common anchor point. When pasted, the program pastes it properly according to the anchor points. I do not think this is a defect. If a user wishes to paste with maintained alignment then he can anchor to page or group the lines which gives the lines a common anchor. If this is causing more problems it might be good to mention it as a tip from the helper.
Created attachment 75662 [details] Ten Tests to show effect of anchors
Reset assigne to the default "issues@openoffice.apache.org".