3GPP specifications in DOC not rendered correctly

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Black_Fox
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Joined: Tue May 16, 2023 9:13 pm

3GPP specifications in DOC not rendered correctly

Post by Black_Fox »

This is one of the few cases where for my usage TextMaker has visible issues with a DOC(X). This has happened "always" for me - at least since I've started with SoftMaker 2018 - but this beta is a good opportunity to report the issue.

3GPP specs are publicly available and are very large (hundreds of pages of text, an image here and there, and up to tens of MBs in uncompresed DOC), so I believe they can serve as a good test for multiple purposes. I've downloaded 33.501-i10.zip from https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/ ... es/33.501/. I don't have Word at hand at the moment for a precise comparison, but even opening the same file side-by-side in LibreOffice Writer shows differences. Listing the "page X" as in what's listed in every page header:
  • the three lines of title stretch beyond the page right border (title page)
  • images are missing (e.g. page 27)
  • header only shows page number in the middle, not the release number nor spec name in the two corners (page 2 and onwards)
  • reference link color looks weird (item [29] on page 18 or item [101] on page 20)
  • "page end" doesn't seem to work (section 4 should start on page 27, not the very end of page 26)
Other than this I see no issues on Fedora 38.
miguel-c
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Re: 3GPP specifications in DOC not rendered correctly

Post by miguel-c »

These files have some quicks. I extracted https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/ ... 01-i10.zip . Inside there was a DOC file which I opened in MS Word, saved as DOCX and it fixed most of issues:
1. the three lines of title stretch beyond the page right border (title page)
Fixed by saving as DOCX. Anyway reported it to the developers

2. images are missing (e.g. page 27)
Those images are OLE objects and our Linux version doesn't support OLE

3. header only shows page number in the middle, not the release number nor spec name in the two corners (page 2 and onwards)
Fixed by saving as DOCX. Anyway reported it to the developers

4. reference link color looks weird (item [29] on page 18 or item [101] on page 20)
Fixed by saving as DOCX. Anyway reported it to the developers

5. page end" doesn't seem to work (section 4 should start on page 27, not the very end of page 26)
Section 4 also starts on page 26 on MS Word. The author should have used a section break and he didn't.
Black_Fox
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Joined: Tue May 16, 2023 9:13 pm

Re: 3GPP specifications in DOC not rendered correctly

Post by Black_Fox »

Thanks for forwarding the issues, I appreciate it.

Fixed by saving as DOCX
I understand that DOC is an archaic format, but some of the the spec documents are very current. I know that I could obtain Word to do the conversion, but as at that point I already use Word, why would I need another text processor?
Those images are OLE objects and our Linux version doesn't support OLE
Is there a chance OLE will be supported on Linux eventually?
Section 4 also starts on page 26 on MS Word. The author should have used a section break and he didn't.
I see, sorry for the false alarm. It must have been a coincidence that LibreOffice displayed it better than what the original was :)
miguel-c
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Re: 3GPP specifications in DOC not rendered correctly

Post by miguel-c »

I reported the issues so the developers try to fix them.
The thing with OLE objects is that most time their preview is an EMF file which we don't support yet in Linux, but plan to in the future. No dates yet.
miguel-c
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Re: 3GPP specifications in DOC not rendered correctly

Post by miguel-c »

Most of the issues have been fixed, except for EMF
The fixes will be included in the next beta 2024 (v1114) or the next service pack for 2021 (v1066).
Black_Fox
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Joined: Tue May 16, 2023 9:13 pm

Re: 3GPP specifications in DOC not rendered correctly

Post by Black_Fox »

Thank you for getting back to me, I've rechecked the document on rev S1200.0617.

I can see that the title lines still stretch beyond the page right border, it also happens on the 2nd page (screenshot).
miguel-c
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Re: 3GPP specifications in DOC not rendered correctly

Post by miguel-c »

Regarding that last issue, I've doubled checked and it won't be fixed for now, because it only happens in special cases in old DOC text frames. Fixing it could have other implications that would be worse.
Also saving as docx solves the issue.
Black_Fox
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Re: 3GPP specifications in DOC not rendered correctly

Post by Black_Fox »

OK, acknowledged.

Thanks to you and the dev team for prompt fixes!
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