NeoOffice 2017 Upgrade Issues

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Revision as of 17:00, 9 June 2019

NeoOffice 2017 is based on the LibreOffice 4.4 code. Because earlier versions of NeoOffice were based on the much older OpenOffice 3.3 code, users may find NeoOffice behaves differently after upgrading to NeoOffice 2017. Below are the most common issues that we have seen after upgrading to NeoOffice 2017:

Installation issues

General issues

Hyperlinks do not open when clicked

In the LibreOffice 4.4 code used by NeoOffice 2017 (as well as all recent versions of OpenOffice and LibreOffice) hyperlinks only open when clicked while the Command key is pressed (Command-click).

To open hyperlinks with only a click, use the following steps:

• Select the NeoOffice > Preferences menu item
• In the Options dialog that appears, select the NeoOffice > Security item and then press the Options button
• In the Security Options and Warnings dialog that appears, uncheck the Command-click required to follow hyperlinks checkbox and press the OK button
• After the Security Options and Warnings dialog closes, press the OK button

Dark Mode issues

Text in documents is black instead of white

When running in Dark Mode, text in documents will be white only if the text color is not set. If text is set to a specific color, NeoOffice will display that color.

To unset text color in Calc documents, select some cells, select Format > Cell menu item. In the Character dialog that appears, select the Font Effects tab, set the Font color listbox to "Automatic", and press the OK button.

To unset text color in Writer or Impress documents, select some text, select Format > Character menu item. In the Character dialog that appears, select the Font Effects tab, set the Font color listbox to "Automatic", and press the OK button.

Writer issues

Mail merge adds blank pages when printing

When printing some mail merge documents that were saved in NeoOffice 2015 or earlier, the LibreOffice 4.4 code used by NeoOffice 2017 may insert blank pages in the printed output.

To stop the insertion of blank pages when printing, use the following steps:

• While in your mail merge document, select the NeoOffice > Preferences menu item
• In the Options dialog that appears, select the NeoOffice Writer > Print item and then uncheck the Print automatically inserted blank pages checkbox and press the OK button
• Save your mail merge document

Custom starting page numbers are incorrect

When opening some documents that have custom starting page numbers that were saved in NeoOffice 2015 or earlier, the LibreOffice 4.4 code used by NeoOffice 2017 may display the incorrect page number.

To correct the custom starting page numbers, use the following steps:

• Move the cursor into the first paragraph of your document. If a table is at the start of the first paragraph, insert a new blank line before the table by moving the cursor to the beginning of the top left cell in the table and then pressing the Return key, and then move the cursor to the new blank line.
• Select the Format > Paragraph menu item
• In the Paragraph dialog that appears, select the Text Flow tab and then, in the Breaks section, check the Insert and the With page style checkboxes, enter the custom starting page number in the Page number field, and press the OK button
• If you have any page breaks in your document, move the cursor into the first paragraph after a page break and repeat the preceding 2 steps
• Save your document

Spreadsheet issues

Spreadsheet formulas display #VALUE! instead of a number

If a mathmatical formula references any cells that contain spaces or other non-numeric characters, the LibreOffice 4.4 code used by NeoOffice 2017 (as well as all recent versions of OpenOffice and LibreOffice) will display #VALUE!. In contrast, the OpenOffice 3.3 code used by earlier versions of NeoOffice would behave as if such cells were empty cells.

To stop the display of #VALUE!, there are two options:

1. Put each cell reference in a mathematical formula into the N() function. The N() function will return 0 if the cell reference is non-numeric which is very similar to the OpenOffice 3.3 behavior.
2. Delete cells with spaces or other non-numeric characters that are referenced by any mathematical formulas in your spreadsheet. You can delete most of the cells with spaces or other non-numeric characters using the following steps:
   • Select the cell range which contains text strings
   • Choose the Edit menu then the Find & Replace… sub-menu
   • In the Find & Replace window, enter "^.*[^0-9\-.,].*$" (without quotes) in the Search For field
   • Set the Replace With field to empty
   • Click Other options or More options button
   • Check the Regular expressions checkbox
   • Set the Search in listbox to Values
   • Press the Replace All button

Deleting a cell in a spreadsheet always displays a dialog

To stop the display of this dialog, use the following steps:

• While in a Calc document, select the NeoOffice > Preferences menu item
• In the Options dialog that appears, select the NeoOffice Calc > Compatibility item
• Set the Key Bindings listbox to OpenOffice.org legacy
• Press the OK button

No grid lines in spreadsheet cells that have a background color

The LibreOffice 4.4 code used by NeoOffice 2017 draws the cell background color on top of grid lines. In contrast, the OpenOffice 3.3 code used by earlier versions of NeoOffice would draw grid lines on top of the cell background color.

To display grid lines in cells that have a background color, use the following steps:

• While in a Calc document, select the NeoOffice > Preferences menu item
• In the Options dialog that appears, select the NeoOffice Calc > View item
• Set the Grid lines listbox to Show on colored cells
• Press the OK button

Goal seek fails when the variable cell is empty or is non-numeric

The LibreOffice 4.4 code used by NeoOffice 2017 only processes variable cells that are set to a numeric value. If a variable cell is empty or contains text or a formula, goal seek will fail.

To stop goal seek from failing, you will need to set each variable cell's value to a numeric value such as 0 before you select the Tools > Goal Seek menu item.

Macro and extension issues

The Tools > Macros > Record Macro menu item is disabled

In the LibreOffice 4.4 code used by NeoOffice 2017, recording macros is disabled by default.

To enable recording macros, use the following steps:

• Select the NeoOffice > Preferences menu item
• In the Options dialog that appears, select the NeoOffice > Advanced item, check the Enable macro recording checkbox, and press the OK button

Macros and extensions that worked in NeoOffice 2015 do not work in NeoOffice 2017

The macro runtime and extension APIs in the LibreOffice 4.4 code used by NeoOffice 2017 contains many security and syntax changes from the very old OpenOffice 3.1.1 code used by NeoOffice 2015. Because of these LibreOffice changes, many macros and extensions that worked in NeoOffice 2015 and earlier versions may no longer work in NeoOffice 2017.

It may not be possible or practical to rewrite macros or extensions written for NeoOffice 2015 to work in NeoOffice 2017. In such cases, the following options are available:

• Try running your macros and extensions in OpenOffice 4.1.
• Downgrade to NeoOffice 2015.12 Classic Edition.