On Sun, Apr 16, 2017 at 3:25 PM, Brian Barker <b.m.barker@btinternet.com>
wrote:
At 16:33 14/04/2017 -0500, Brian Noname wrote:
I've just discovered that when I save a copy of an invoice it's saving
the spreadsheet part as an image. This is not the behavior I expected.
[...] When I save a copy of this file as Word 2007/2010/2013 (*.docx) if
converts the spreadsheets as an image! [...] The older Word 97 format is
not readable anymore by one of my customers. If I save an 2003 .xml version
Libreoffice can't even open a readable document again!?
You are tying yourself in knots here - and quite unnecessarily.
o Don't believe what one customer tells you about what s/he can or cannot
handle: they may just not be competent enough to understand. My bank
provides documents in the format it chooses; it may respond to suggestions
for changes from customers in general, but it certainly wouldn't believe me
if I simply claimed I couldn't handle what it provided. Is your bank any
different?
Well, I'm not a big bank with loads of customers that I can less less if
they take their business elsewhere. This is a major client, that brings me
significant business. I'd have to find multiple clients to replace him.
That's a lot of work. So I do what I can to keep him happy.
o You are confusing on the one hand the format in which you keep our own
records and active documents and on the other hand what you send your
customers. You may need part of a spreadsheet in a text document to be
active but you should not want your customers to be able to modify your
invoices easily. They may halve the price and pay you accordingly!
No, I'm not. I use one format, and he has requested another. I keep my
records and my own copies of invoices, etc. I make him a special copy, just
for him. Because I want to keep him happy. It's just good business. But
that copy is not being done right.
o Save and keep your own documents in LibreOffice's native Open Document
Format formats, here .odt and .ods. Use a DDE link to an .ods spreadsheet
document in your .odt text document if you wish.
I do.
o Send your customers a frozen document. You need a format that is
suitable for final versions of documents and is robust to changes between
systems - operating system, installed fonts, printers, printer drivers, and
so on - and is also easily displayed by and printed from application
software that is easily available for a wide range of platforms and
conveniently free of charge for your customers. That is not *any* word
processor document format; that's PDF. Oh look: LibreOffice will export
your documents as PDF.
Yes, but he enters the data from my invoice into his own systems. This
allows him to not have to key it all in, if he can copy and paste.
At 10:30 16/04/2017 -0500, Brian Noname wrote:
I can't dictate to paying clients what software to use to open my
invoices.
No, but you can dictate the format in which you choose to provide
invoices - providing that is reasonable (as PDF is).
I can't just send it in ODF. Unless MS Office has suddenly decided to
support reading ODF files.
Microsoft claims it has done this - though not "suddenly". (But you
shouldn't want to use office formats anyway; see above.)
This is something special I do for a major client, to increase his
customer satisfaction.
I could send it in PDF, and will if I have no other choice.
It's the best choice: you need no "other choice".
I use this system for my business. It has to work, or I have to use
something else.
As always, you are very welcome to use whatever software you wish.
LibreOffice will work for you, but chacun à son goût.
At 14:14 16/04/2017 -0500, Brian Noname wrote:
As long as I maintain the object in an ODF format, as a document or a
template, it works as it should.
Good. Using LibreOffice's native format for your own document files is
what you should always do.
It's only once LO saves it into an Office 2013 format, that it converts
to an image.
So don't do that (for your own use). See above.
Again, I don't. It's a special thing I do for a special client who has
asked for this to make his work easier. It should have been a simple thing
to do, and has been or years. But suddenly when I use the newer format it
doesn't work the same way.
I can export it to PDF, and I have confirmed that I can copy and paste the
text, from the PDF, but it loses it's spreadsheet layout. I don't know if
that will work for him. So he will be able to use it, but at a reduced
level of productivity.
It's at least better than an image where he can't copy and paste the data
at all.
It's a far cry from the simple solution of it being a spreadsheet. I may
just have to send him the underlying spreadsheet instead of the nicer
format of the company invoice, or in addition to it. The spreadsheet might
even be better for him.
But the good news is I think I found the issue!
Under the menu "Tools -> Options -> Load/Save -> Microsoft Office" I
unchecked the option for "[S] Convert and save the object" on the line
"Excel to LibreOffice Calc or reverse" and it now doesn't convert it to a
graphic. Not sure what it will look like on his system yet. It's a fairly
simple spreadsheet.
So problem solved! Maybe.
I have not tested opening it on a Windows machine.
My copy of LibreOffice has this set by default, as well as other
pre-checked items. I've been using LibreOffice out of the Linux Mint Box
without any tweaking. I will have to add this to my list of customizations
to do, on subsequent releases if system upgrade procedures.