Does LibreOffice Team actually test their software for DOCX support?

I don't want to sound like ungrateful as I use and prefer to use LibreOffice even in Windows at those odd moments. I normally reside in Ubuntu and run LO 4.0.1.

As a developer when I see basic operations like this:
1) Create a LO Text file (ODT)
2) Write something and include some embedded graphics (Bitmap) into the document.
3) Then do a "Save as..." to a DOCX file.

failing to produce the correct result when one opens the docx in MS Office 2007, it is clearly a fault in the product or someone did not test their product.

Perhaps the LO team's definition of DOCX is text only file.

I am not sure if the graphic is missing or malformed. Since DOCX file is just a ZIP file, I can unzip the contents and the image file (.png) is awfully small. When one tried to open it, the viewer complaints about the corruption. This seems to indicate to me that their file converter has stuffed up the image in the process.

Surely the above steps must be described in their test procedure and user requirements. Yet the result, as echoed by voluminous chants for help in the Internet, seems to indicate that the LO Team do not include this most basic requirement in their test procedure. Otherwise, how could they not spot that missing graphic. I even doubt if they do test their product.

If LO cannot handle basic DOCX, they should branded that support as experimental or in beta mode and stop trying to make a case that it can handle DOCX file format. Doing so is highly irresponsible.

I am wondering how long will LO come around fixing this sought after bug-fix that has been around for as long as Open-Office/LibreOffice claiming to support DOCX.

Please do not include other fancy stuff and fix this most basic problem first as your product continues to wear a big cross for DOCX support.

Missing cursor keys in Windows 8 Tablet

Cursor keys have also been banished from the soft keyboard of Windows 8 tablet. It may be the first time Microsoft has removed the cursor keys from their soft keyboard.


The soft keyboard part, of the Windows 7 Tablet Input Panel definitely has the cursor keys.

Why is it so inappropriate to have cursor keys in a Touch tablet when it is often impossible to using the finger to move the cursor by one character? Remember because of the font uses, each character is not of the same width and I challenge anyone to move the cursor between two dots with precision.

It is crazy. I am so glad that there is a good practical solution for my Android Tablet.

Cursor keys on tablet - the Android solution

Ever since this new crop of tablets - iPad and Android - came onto the market, I have been stunned to find the absence of these 4 cursor movement keys - Left, Right, Up and Down.

There was a situation when I was asked to compose a document on an iPad in some meeting and it was a severely frustrating experience to type even two lines. Yes I am not the greatest typist on earth but I am not unaccustomed to writing on a computer either.

It is like stuttering in typing; you type something and then you use back spaces to get back to where your correction point and retype. Surely, this is suppose to be a new generation of touch input over the familiar XP Tablet I once used for over 4 years.

If one search Google looking for answers, you come away with an impression of an ideological war to rid cursor keys on tablet. Why? I have yet seen a report from any user-interface laboratory scientifically measuring the benefit of getting rid of the cursor keys. Equally I have yet seen any substantiation of the harm having these keys present.

You have (almost) all the keys in a real QWERTY keyboard and a cursor on the screen and you still need them to type using your soft keyboard. So what harm is having the cursor keys? If one thinks such keys are unnecessary in a touch environment why not getting rid of all keys - no soft keyboard at all.

Microsoft's XP and Win7 Tablet can function efficiently entirely without a soft keyboard. Samsung Note has a pen input that it converts the scribble into text, much like the Transcriber found in the PDA era, and not using soft keyboard.

Android's development team seems to have a habit of forgetting the more important matter and including so called 'cool' stuff.

Thankfully, a group of developers couldn't put up with this nonsense ideological struggle any more and created the Hacker's Keyboard, which you can download from Google Play. It works wonders and its 4 cursor movements keys are like a torch light in a dark tunnel.

Thanks for this sensible invention (or rather reinvention), my frustrating typing sessions in my Toshiba AT1S0 running Android 3.2.1 tablet are in the distance past.

Since I do not have any Apple device and hence I have not paid too much attention looking for its supplement. A casual Google Search for iOS and cursor keys did not yield any glaringly obvious redress but an endless pleads for solutions.

Cavaet in using KGpg in Ubuntu

After I have discovered KGpg as a suitable replacement of GPA, I ran into some rather strange now-you-see-it-and-now-you-don't-see-it situation.

I have also discovered many posts complaining that KGpg does not appear to run. KGpg is a KDE application and it turns out that after the first execution, the default behaviour in any subsequent invocation is to minimise to system tray.

System Tray in Ubuntu is different from that in KUbuntu and its subsequent default start up mode gives the illusion that the program fails to run. It is running OK except that it has been minimised to system tray.

Hence after configuring your KGpg for the first time, you will not see it any more in Ubuntu. Not even if you reinstall it.

This is because KGpg writes the settings to this file:

~/.kde/share/config/kgpgrc

and uninstallation does not remove this file.

If you invoke KGpg in Ubuntu and does not see its window showing up, do this:

1) Use System Monitor to terminate the KGpg process, if it is running.

2) In the Terminal, type:
gedit  ~/.kde/share/config/kgpgrc

to edit the configuration file

3) In the [User Interface] section add the following line:
systray_icon=false

4) Save the file and restart Kgpg.

During the first installation of KGpg, you can change the default not to use system tray icon in Settings > Config KGpg > Misc > Applet & Menus. If you have forgotten to do it in that phrase, you then need to edit the configuration settings manually as shown above.

Using a second disk drive in Ubuntu and auto-mounting it

Recently, I added a second disk (virtual) to my Ubuntu 12.04 and now I want to make that disk auto-mount when I log on.

When you create additional disk drive using the "Disk Utility" tool, it adds that volume name to Nautilus. Depending on how one prepares that disk drive or partition, you may have trouble making it auto-mount; you can open Nautilus and click onto that drive to mount it. But it will not auto-mount.

There are several ways to make that partition auto-mount. However, most of these only works when the drive has a partition.

It turns out that in Linux, when you prepare a disk drive, it is not necessary to have a partition of sort. You can simply have a volume formatted with the right type and you can use it.

If you do not have a partition on that drive like this one:

Program such as Pysdm will not be able to configure it.

You can use udisks to mount the device on per-users basis by defining it in the "Start up Applications", like this:

/usr/bin/udisks --mount /dev/disk/by-uuid/4746946c-1cb1-404a-a74b-4a59cb248df2

This is the technique that I have chosen as I am happy to auto-mount it on per-users basis.

If you have a need to auto-mount a disk drive on a system-wide basis, make sure when you prepare that disk to:

1. Create a partition
2. Format that partition and assigned a Volume name to it
3. When you use Pysdm, it will report that this device has not been configured and proceed to configure it.
4. The name for this partition is actually the mount point name and make sure you use the Volume name otherwise it will create two entries in the /media directory when this device is mounted. This can be confusing.

Once Pysdm has configured this device, you can choose to auto-mount it and it will be mounted with the start of the system.

In search of GPA replacement in Ubuntu continues ...

Since Ubuntu 11.10 onwards have declared GPA not supported, I have been in search of ways to use GPA and have found several schemes:

1. Running old GPA at with root access and 
2. Emacs with its plug-in 

Now, I believe I have found a third one which provides a very convenient GUI facility to encrypt and decrypt clipboard data as well as files and is also supported in Ubuntu 12.04.

Testings with KGpg, one of the front ends listed in GnuPG that is available for installation via Ubuntu Software Centre, indicate that it lives up to the expectations and does not required to use any tricks, such as root access or via an editor.

It is just a front end to the GnuPG installation standard to Ubuntu. Hence you can use "Passwords and Keys" to manage the keys or to use KGpg's user-interface. They share the same private and public key stores.

So far I am very happy with this front end and hopefully it will be supported in future version of Ubuntu.

Using Gpg in Ubuntu 12.04 - replacement of GPA

Ever since I migrated from Ubuntu 11.04 upwards, I have lost the use of GPA and can only use it with super user privilege.

While that works very nicely it creates the ~/.gnupg directory with root ownership preventing other gnupg program, such as Seahorse, from accessing the keys. Seahorse does not even report access problem. It simply does not work well leaving the user oblivious of the underlying problem.

In the past, one can rely on the Encryption plugin for gedit to perform the encryption and decryption operation. But that is not supported in Ubuntu 12.04.

In search for some graphical means to encrypt and decrypt data on clipboard, I believe I have managed to connect all the dots to form a feasible solution. Here are the ingredients:

1. Instead Seahorse (I used Synaptic Package Manager)
2. Once installed, use Seahorse to import your private and your friends' keys.
3. Make sure gnupg2 and gnupg-agent are installed.
4. Install Emacs - either from the Ubuntu Software Centre
5. Use Synaptic Package Manager to install easypg, an Emacs plug-in or from here.

Before one uses easypg, one needs to be aware that there is reported potential vulnerability. The combination of easypg and gnupg also throw up some curly configuration arrangement on caching the passphrase.

If you are decrypting material for the first time, the program will prompt for the passphrase and on its graphical dialog box, you can use Details link to open up the dialog box to reveal treatments of the passphrase allowing you to specify how long the passphrase can be discarded. Unfortunately there is no option to discard once used.

Now you are ready to perform the GnuPG operations using Emacs.

For those new to Emacs, here is a brief introduction materials on how best to use Emacs for encryption and decryption of materials via the clipboard:

1. Open Emacs
2. Use Buffers | *scratch* to switch into the scratch buffer so that what you type or paste into does not get saved into a file. In Emacs even if you do not explicitly save a file, the content is written to a form of temporary file whose name formed from the given file name. Something you want to avoid.
3. Type your plain text or paste the cipher text into the buffer.
4. Select the entire text block. (Use Edit | Select all).
5. Then use Tools | Encryption/Decryption to bring up the sub-menu.
6. Select Encrypt Region or Decrypt Region depending on your need at this time.
7. If it is to encrypt the region, it will open up a split window on the bottom showing you brief instructions and a list of keys managed by Seahorse.
8. Use Tab key to navigate to the key list, then press m to select and u to deselect the key.
9. Once the keys are selected, click OK to perform the encryption and follow the prompt.
10. If it is to decryption, it will prompt you for your passphrase and then it will cache it.