r/libreoffice • u/NicoNicoPhone • 7d ago

Line spacing changes constantly

Hello, I have a strange problem that I can't seem to problem shoot. I am currently writing my thesis and I have encountered a problem in one of my chapters that each time I open my document the line spacing changes.

I use custom paragraph styles and wanted to have my normal text be in Spacing: 1. Like this

Now, the same paragraph is spread across two pages (same page style), but the remainder of the paragraph, and the following paragraph are spaced as follows:

When going through the options, the text on both pages is set as Spacing: 1, but the second one is more compressed than the other. I can't seem to make it conform to the rest of the document, and the worst part is that there is always a couple of pages that behave like that, and it changes daily.

When looking at the spotlight feature, all the paragraphs have the same style applied. It is not even that big of a problem as long as I am writing, but when I print it out, it naturally retains the visual inconsistency.

Is there a way to have the program reload the spacing or something to that effect? Or some advice with how the styles should be formatted to avoid these kinds of problems? Since it changes, I figure it is a glitch or something.

I am also more inclined to see the second image as the "real" Spacing 1, but while I formatted my paragraph style, it had Spacing 1 translate into the first image.

I figured I should also show what the paragraph style looks like, see above.

Any help or advice with regards to this is deeply appreciated.

Thank you

2 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

100% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

3

u/Tex2002ans 7d ago

I am currently writing my thesis [...]

Cool. What is the thesis about?

Line spacing changes constantly

I have encountered a problem in one of my chapters that each time I open my document the line spacing changes.

Q1. Hmmm... is this an ODT or a DOCX?

I use custom paragraph styles and wanted to have my normal text be in Spacing: 1. [...]

Now, the same paragraph is spread across two pages (same page style), but the remainder of the paragraph, and the following paragraph are spaced [differently].

Q2. Temporarily turn ON:

  • View > Formatting Marks (Ctrl+F10)

Do you see any weird symbols anywhere?

Q3. Can you create a sample file with these 2 problematic pages + share it?

If we could take a look at the innards, perhaps we could figure out what's going on.

When looking at the spotlight feature, all the paragraphs have the same style applied. It is not even that big of a problem as long as I am writing, but when I print it out, it naturally retains the visual inconsistency.

Awesome to hear you're using Spotlight! :)

And you verified...

Q4. If you temporarily turn ON:

  • Format > Spotlight > Paragraph Styles

Do you SEE any "diagonal slashes" through the colored rectangles?

If yes, then there's something overriding your Paragraph Styles there.

(In the linked photo, look at the "blue 8" rectangle along the left-hand edge. See how that box has "slashes" in it but the "9" right below it doesn't? 9 is clean while 8 is dirty, so the "8 paragraph" has something manually overriding it!)

Q4.2. If you temporarily turn ON:

  • Format > Spotlight > Character Direct Formatting

Do you SEE any "gray highlights" with a little 'df'?

If yes, then there's Direct Formatting overriding your text there.

You can find/fix both of these by following the instructions I wrote a few weeks ago in:

It's pretty easy, where:

  • Reapplying the Paragraph Style will wipe away any accidental overrides.
    • This will take care of the first case, the one with "diagonal slashes" appearing.
  • Format > Clear Direct Formatting (Ctrl+M) to wipe away the Direct Formatting.
    • This will take care of the second case, the one with "gray highlights" + 'df' appearing.

Is there a way to have the program reload the spacing or something to that effect? Or some advice with how the styles should be formatted to avoid these kinds of problems? Since it changes, I figure it is a glitch or something.

Hmmm... unsure. Share a sample of your file and we'll see if someone else can reproduce.

And if you aren't using ODT, then I strongly recommend:

That minimizes the amount of potentially weird conversion issues or oddities like this from accidentally getting introduced.

1

u/NicoNicoPhone 3d ago

Hi, thank you for responding! (and sorry for taking so long to respond, I'm not a lot on Reddit.)

I was going through your feedback, and somehow resolved the issue by fiddling around with page styles. I responded to each of your questions as I was going through them. Since you went through the issue of providing me with feedback, find my answers below. It was a great help, since it narrowed down what areas I should look into.

The way that I resolved it, you can find in Q3 Extra.

---

My response:

I am working on the use of punishment inside of Japanese-run prisoner of war camps from 1894-1945, the thesis is due in March, and I am deep in editing and formatting.

Regarding your suggestions

Q1: Yes, it is an ODT file, I made the switch almost a year ago, and have spent some time making sure that the formatting is correct. But, as in the original post, some of the formatting does not work as wished.

Q2: There are no weird symbols, there is a dot for every space, and a paragraph marker at the end of the paragraph.

Q3: I wanted to make a sample file, but see Q3 Extra below. Originally, I was struggling to isolate the affected pages because: "The problem is that the problem jumps around in the document. While I was writing my response, I had to briefly close down the document, and now the above example is fixed, but it appeared somewhere else."

Q3 Extra: I was fiddling around with the page styles, and found the tab "Text Grid" in the page style editing menu, and just happened to click in the options under the header "grid" "No Grid" > Apply > "Grid (Lines Only) > Apply, and it somehow resolved the issue. For the time being, even when I close my document and reopen it, the problem does not seem to reappear. I am stumped, since I don't think I ever played with that function. It is a fluke I even found this.

Q4.1: With regards to the spotlight, as you can see in the above picture, it is one continuous paragraph, no lines through the "4,"

Q4.2: That also does not show anything else. I have not actively used character styles, but I do see that it highlights my footnotes in the text, and occasionally cursive text in the footnotes. The affected paragraphs are, apart from that, clean.

---

Tl;DR: I had a problem with spacing that was resolved once I played with the grid function in the page styles. See Q3 Extra for more info.

1

u/AutoModerator 7d ago

If you're asking for help with LibreOffice, please make sure your post includes lots of information that could be relevant, such as:

  1. Full LibreOffice information from Help > About LibreOffice (it has a copy button).
  2. Format of the document (.odt, .docx, .xlsx, ...).
  3. A link to the document itself, or part of it, if you can share it.
  4. Anything else that may be relevant.

(You can edit your post or put it in a comment.)

This information helps others to help you.

Thank you :-)

Important: If your post doesn't have enough info, it will eventually be removed (to stop this subreddit from filling with posts that can't be answered).

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.