[Upstream] Autosave causes document to scroll back to cursor position

[Jeffreyf]

Binary package hint: openoffice.org

If scrolling a document and using the autosave feature, the document will roll back to the cursor position in the document instead of staying where you currently are on the screen.

I am scrolling my document but may have edited or place my cursor somewhere else in the document. Autosave saves the document and immediately scrolls back to the cursor.

This bug is rather annoying if you are editing a multipage document and scrolled several 10's of pages forward only to have the application place you back to my cursor which may possibly be on page 1. I have on many occasions lost my place only to find it again and have autosave throw me back to the cursor.

Workaround is to turn off autosave, but that runs a risk of losing possibly many hours of work if the application crashes or other reasons like a power failure.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Jul 15 20:55:10 2008
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.04
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: openoffice.org-core 1:2.4.1-1ubuntu2
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/lib/openoffice/program:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: openoffice.org
Uname: Linux 2.6.24-19-generic i686

[Chris Cheney (ccheney)]

I can't reproduce this on current up to date Ubuntu 8.04.1. I created a file and put the cursor in some position of the file, set the autosave to 1 minute and scrolled to some other location in the file. When the file saved it didn't change where it was displaying in the file.

Chris

[Jeffreyf (jflaker-yahoo)]

I don't know if this makes a difference, but I am working on a MS-Word document (.DOC) when the actions I describe happen. I haven't tried a native OO document.

[Chris Cheney (ccheney)]

I can't seem to reproduce it even when saving the document as word format (.doc) first.

Chris

[Jeffreyf (jflaker-yahoo)]

Is there a way to make a screenshot video? I can record it and post it.

[Chris Cheney (ccheney)]

There is a package called 'istanbul' that you can use to record desktop video.

By the way does this problem happen on all files or just on certain ones, if only on certain ones can you attach an example file exhibiting the problem to the launchpad bug report?

Thanks,

Chris

[Jeffreyf (jflaker-yahoo)]

I tried to get Istanbul to record, but it freezes for some reason. But anyway......Yes, it seems to happen in MS-Word documents. I don't have any OO docs so I don't know, but I believe I saw it only once in a temporary OO doc I had a while back but deleted.

Specifically, place the cursor at some point in the document and make a change (Space bar is sufficient). Then scroll, not page down, scroll with the mouse of side scroller to some where else in the document. When autosave kicks off, the document scrolls back to the cursor position.

As I said, not such a big deal in a 1 or 2 page document, but in a multipage document, it can lose you for a few minutes trying to figure out where you left off.

[Chris Cheney (ccheney)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!

[Eduard Hasenleithner (eduard-hasenleithner)]

I can reproduce something similar with 8.10 by means of creating a table, putting the cursor into the table and typing at least one letter into the table. When moving away from the table to a different page with the mouse scroll wheel, openoffice goes back to the cursor when pressing the "save file" button.

I guess this also happens with autosave.

[Chris Cheney (ccheney)]

ehasenle,

Thanks I can now reproduce this issue.

Chris

[Chris Cheney (ccheney)]

Verified on official OOo 3.1.0 and dev300 m49 (OOo 3.2).

[hsm flxCore (hannes-smit)]

I have the same problem with Open Office 3.1.1.
Is a solution already available?

[hsm flxCore (hannes-smit)]

Generally I think that auto-saving must be done in another thread. If this is not the case yet...
Furthermore I can think of the following 3 solutions:
1. Maybe it is an idea to put a constraint on the auto-save feature? Only when 'idle' or only when 'typing' for example.
2. Is it possible to autosave a COPY, and not the original file (I'm not into autosaving, so maybe this is already happening)
3. Skip the step that focuses back on the cursor. What will happen then?

[Jeffrey Flaker (jflaker)]

For option 1, The autosave idea is to make sure that you have an incremental save in case of a computer or power failure. Depending on the size of the document, you can literally have hours of work go POOF. I have learned from lost work, to set autosave to 2 or 3 minutes...So every 2 or 3 minutes I definitely want to save my work.

Option 2: Does it matter? We are still saving data

Option 3: Not sure why the cursor goes back unless the document is reloaded for some reason. If there is a focus event, then I think removing that action would be the best solution.

[hsm flxCore (hannes-smit)]

Thanks Jeffrey for your response!
Two point are still unclear to me:

A. is autosaving taking place in another thread than the display & typing?
B. with option 2 I meant to copy a snapshot of the file and process this in parallel (first copy in memory, then I/O write the file). I think that I/O writing the original file interferes with using the original file at the same time, right?

Anyway, working on option 3 is the best thing to do right now, I guess.

[Jeffrey Flaker (jflaker)]

I am not familiar with the code, but rather observing the behavior.....

Much can be inferred by observation, most being wrong,

[David Tombs (dgtombs)]

Reproduced in Lucid (1:3.2.0-7ubuntu4). I'm going to try the OO.org-provided debs and see if I can reproduce there before sending upstream.

[David Tombs (dgtombs)]

I also reproduced on officie OOO320m12 (3.2) so I reported upstream.

[Chris Cheney (ccheney)]

David,

Thanks for forwarding this upstream.

[Eduard Hasenleithner (eduard-hasenleithner)]

Also managed to reproduce this issue with libreoffice 1:3.4.2-2ubuntu3 in current oneiric.

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

[This is an automated message.]
There are no new official OpenOffice.org releases in Ubuntu packaging anymore => Won't Fix

If the problem persists, please mark this bug as "also affects project Libreoffice" or "also affects distribution Libreoffice (Ubuntu)" if that has not happened already.

Please leave references to upstream OpenOffice.org bugs in place to allow cross pollination.

[David Tombs (dgtombs)]

Created attachment 51440
sample document demonstrating the issue

In the attached document (a simple two-page document with a table), saving will
cause the screen to scroll jump to the cursor position.

Steps to reproduce:
1) Type some information in the table.
2) Mouse-wheel scroll down to the second page.
3) Click the save button.
4) View jumps back to the table.

Same thing happens with autosave, which I tested by setting autosave down to 1
minute.

Bug report copied from <http://openoffice.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=111894>.

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

[This is an automated message.]
This bug was filed before the changes to Bugzilla on 2011-10-16. Thus it
started right out as NEW without ever being explicitly confirmed. The bug is
changed to state NEEDINFO for this reason. To move this bug from NEEDINFO back
to NEW please check if the bug still persists with the 3.5.0 beta1 or beta2 prereleases.
Details on how to test the 3.5.0 beta1 can be found at:
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA/BugHunting_Session_3.5.0.-1

more detail on this bulk operation: http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/RFC-Operation-Spamzilla-tp3607474p3607474.html

[David Tombs (dgtombs)]

I can reproduce with 3.5.0 beta 2.

[David Tombs (dgtombs)]

By the way, this bug is registered in Ubuntu at: <https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libreoffice/+bug/248870>

[Stgohi-lobugs (stgohi-lobugs)]

reproducible with LO 4.0.2.2 (Win7 Home, 64bit)

But I don't think this is a bug, because after saving the file, it should jump back to the page where the cursor is and it does it as expected, because with the mouse scrolling I am not changing the position of the cursor. Therefore, this is correct for me and the normal behavior.
Can anybody else confirm this?

[Dmitry Kann (yktooo)]

Why in heaven's name "it should jump back to the page where the cursor is"? To me, it's completely illogical.

[David Tombs (dgtombs)]

Well, it breaks my expectations along with a few other users of Ubuntu at least. Why would you want the cursor to jump upon save?

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Jeffreyf, this is unreproducible in Xubuntu. Could you please test for this in LibreOffice and report your results?

 lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 13.04
Release: 13.04

policy libreoffice-writer
libreoffice-writer:
  Installed: 1:4.0.2-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1:4.0.2-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1:4.0.2-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Jeffrey Flaker (jflaker)]

As of
LibreOffice 3.5.7.2
Build ID: 350m1(Build:2)

I can no longer reproduce this. I just opened a 25 page document, added spaces to the end of the first page then scrolled to the last paragraph of the last page and waited for autosave to kick off. The document stayed in place as well as my cursor was where I left it.

I guess you can close it as no longer an issue/not reproduceable.

[David Tombs (dgtombs)]

The upstream bug (41063) is still reproducible for me using 1:3.6.2~rc2-0ubuntu4.

[Jeffrey Flaker (jflaker)]

please close - Ancient bug and no longer a problem. Been using the product for quite a while without a problem

[David Tombs (dgtombs)]

I can still reproduce the bug and the upstream bug (41063) is still open.

[Hartwig Kolbe (kolbeb)]

We have now LO 5.02, and this ancient bug still makes the focus jumping around when trying to edit an object bigger than the screen (table, ole, picture, etc). You really have to be fast when you want to resize such objects, otherwise your focus is back to the cursor, and you lost the handle.
This is one of the major obstacles using LO with other than really simple documents..

[Aethralis (aethralis)]

I have now version: 5.0.3.2 (Build ID: 1:5.0.3~rc2-0ubuntu1~trusty2) and the bug (as described above) exists and is very annoying. I did not experience this bug in LO 4 versions.

[Charlie Thomsen (thomsec)]

I have the same issue. Upon autosave the view jumps to the cursor position.
I'm using Version: 5.1.3.2
Build ID: 1:5.1.3-0ubuntu1
CPU Threads: 8; OS Version: Linux 4.4; UI Render: default;
Locale: en-US (en_US.UTF-8)

[Nicolaj Knudsen (nicolaj-knudsen)]

This bug is present in version 5.0.6.3 and is one of the most detrimental experiences when using Libre Office. The screen jumps up and down involuntarily when reviewing what you wrote on the previous pages. Leave the PC to make a cup of coffee and when you come back you have lost the page you were on and have to scroll. It's frustrating to no end.

[Gerard Schaafsma (schaafsma-gerard)]

And still present in version 5.1.4.2, under Linux version 4.4.0-36-generic (buildd@lcy01-01) (gcc version 5.4.0 20160609 (Ubuntu 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.2) ) #55-Ubuntu SMP Thu Aug 11 18:01:55 UTC 2016
Very annoying, had a similar problem with jEdit, which I could solve. It is a very annoying behaviour