Crazy behavior when working with a rotated text box

[linucks]

Binary package hint: openoffice.org

I'd like to have some text displayed in a box at the bottom of a slide, with the text running vertically from bottom to top, but every time I try and resize the rotated text box with the mouse, it expands to fill the entire screen and is impossible either to resize or even edit the text in the box.

To reproduce: create a text box, enter two lines of text and then right-click on the box and select "Position and Size", select the "Rotation" tab and rotate by 90 degrees.

Click on the new text box (so that the turquoise resizing handles appear) and then move the mouse over one so that the double-headed arrow appears. Left-click and drag the mouse, and the text box extends into infinity in the opposite direction to the one that the mouse is dragged in.

Even just trying to highlight the text in the box causes the box to disappear from where it was and appear (several hundred times bigger and rotated back 90 degrees) to the left of the presentation, but it is impossible to see or edit the text when the box is in this position.

I thought the solution might be to use a "Vertical Text Box" from the drawing toolbar, but the vertical text-box button won't display in the drawing toolbar. Other buttons work fine and there is no error message displayed as to why the vertical text one will not display.

Additional Information:

jmht@laptop:/var/log$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 8.04.2
Release: 8.04
jmht@laptop:/var/log$ apt-cache policy openoffice.org-impress
openoffice.org-impress:
  Installed: 1:2.4.1-1ubuntu2.1
  Candidate: 1:2.4.1-1ubuntu2.1
  Version table:
 *** 1:2.4.1-1ubuntu2.1 0
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com hardy-updates/main Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com hardy-security/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1:2.4.0-3ubuntu6 0
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/main Packages

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Wed Jan 21 09:05:03 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.04
Package: openoffice.org-core 1:2.4.1-1ubuntu2.1
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/lib/openoffice/program:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/opt/real/RealPlayer
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: openoffice.org
Uname: Linux 2.6.24-21-eeepc i686

[Chris Cheney (ccheney)]

How do you insert a text box? I can't find the option in the menu in Impress.

[linucks (linucks42)]

Yes I know! I don't know if you want to call that a meta-bug, as it took me a while to work out how to do it myself... :-)

You need to display the "Drawing" Toolbar (View->Toolbars->Drawing) and the then text box tool is the one with the "T" in bold.

The vertical text box tool doesn't display by default (and as I mentioned above, won't display at all for me), but to get that to show it should be a case of clicking on the tiny black arrow at the far RHS of the drawing toolbar, selecting "Visible Buttons" and then clicking the button with the "T" on its side.

I've attached two screenshots that I hope will be helpful.

[linucks (linucks42)]

Adding a screenshot showing the text box just before resizing, when it suddenly explodes in size and moves to the RHS of the window.

[Tyson Williams (bender2k14)]

I also have this bug in Ubuntu 8.10 using the default OpenOffice.org Draw 2.4.1.

[Tyson Williams (bender2k14)]

Does this bug exists in OpenOffice.org 3.0? Can someone test this and report back?

[Chris Cheney (ccheney)]

This appears to be a bug in ooo-build.

[Chris Cheney (ccheney)]

The upstream bug of not being able to turn on the vertical text box button is:

http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=100486

[penalvch (penalvch)]

linucks, this is unreproducible in LibreOffice Impress. Does this work for you?

lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 11.04
Release: 11.04

apt-cache policy libreoffice-impress
libreoffice-impress:
  Installed: 1:3.3.2-1ubuntu5
  Candidate: 1:3.3.2-1ubuntu5
  Version table:
 *** 1:3.3.2-1ubuntu5 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty-updates/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1:3.3.2-1ubuntu4 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty/main i386 Packages

[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.

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

closing as invalid (expired) because of missing reply