libreoffice calc unreadable cells are far too tiny when I import a CSV file

Asked by steve2267

Background / Problem Description
------------------------------------------------
When I open a CSV file (all completed payments in CSV format from PayPal) in LibreOffice 3.3.2, the file imports OK (or seems to), BUT ALL CELLS are microscopically small!

Selecting the entire worksheet and changing fonts (Arial / 10pt, NewCourier / 12pt) does not change anything. If I right click on the left hand border of the worksheet and select ROW HEIGHT and manually set the row height to some value (e.g. 0.20" and check the Default box), NOTHING changes!

I had *just* installed libreoffice-gnome when this problem occurred. I believe I had previously opened the .csv file without any problems. I will try uninstalling libreoffice-gnome to see if that affects the behavior of calc and will report back.

Details
----------
Here is the details from the Help > About menu selection within LibreOffice:

LibreOffice 3.3.2
OOO330m19 (Build:202)
tag libreoffice-3.3.2.2, Ubuntu package 1:3.3.2-1ubuntu2~lucid1

I am running Ubuntu 10.4 LTS:
% cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=10.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=lucid
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 10.04.3 LTS"

Here are the LibreOffice packages I have installed:
aptitude search libreoffice | grep ^i
i libreoffice - office productivity suite
i A libreoffice-base - office productivity suite -- database
i A libreoffice-base-core - office productivity suite -- shared librar
i A libreoffice-calc - office productivity suite -- spreadsheet
i A libreoffice-common - office productivity suite -- arch-independ
i A libreoffice-core - office productivity suite -- arch-dependen
i A libreoffice-draw - office productivity suite -- drawing
i A libreoffice-emailmerge - office productivity suite -- email mail me
i A libreoffice-filter-mobiledev - office productivity suite -- mobile device
i libreoffice-gnome - office productivity suite -- GNOME integra
i A libreoffice-gtk - office productivity suite -- GTK+ integrat
i A libreoffice-impress - office productivity suite -- presentation
i A libreoffice-java-common - office productivity suite -- arch-independ
i A libreoffice-math - office productivity suite -- equation edit
i libreoffice-pdfimport - LibreOffice extension for importing PDF do
i libreoffice-presentation-minimi - LibreOffice extension for size-efficient p
i libreoffice-presenter-console - LibreOffice Impress extension for a separa
i A libreoffice-report-builder-bin - LibreOffice extension for building databas
i A libreoffice-style-human - office productivity suite -- Crystal symbo
i A libreoffice-writer - office productivity suite -- word processo
i mozilla-libreoffice - office productivity suite -- Mozilla plugi

Here is what aptitude has to say about libreoffice:
aptitude show libreoffice
Package: libreoffice
New: yes
State: installed
Automatically installed: no
Version: 1:3.3.2-1ubuntu2~lucid1
Priority: optional
Section: editors
Maintainer: Ubuntu Core Developers <email address hidden>
Uncompressed Size: 45.1k
Depends: libreoffice-core (= 1:3.3.2-1ubuntu2~lucid1), libreoffice-writer, libreoffice-calc, libreoffice-impress,
         libreoffice-draw, libreoffice-math, libreoffice-base, libreoffice-report-builder-bin, ttf-dejavu,
         ttf-sil-gentium-basic, libreoffice-filter-mobiledev, liblucene2-java (>= 2.3.2), libreoffice-java-common (>=
         1:3.3.2~)
Recommends: ttf-liberation | ttf-mscorefonts-installer
Suggests: hunspell-dictionary, myspell-dictionary, libreoffice-help-3.3.2, menu, unixodbc, cups-bsd, libsane,
          hyphen-hyphenation-patterns, mythes-thesaurus, libxrender1, libgl1, libreoffice-gnome, iceweasel | firefox |
          icedove | thunderbird | iceape-browser | mozilla-browser, default-jre | gcj-jre | java-gcj-compat |
          openjdk-6-jre | sun-java5-jre | sun-java6-jre | java5-runtime | jre, openclipart-libreoffice, pstoedit,
          imagemagick | graphicsmagick-imagemagick-compat, libpaper-utils, gstreamer0.10-plugins-base,
          gstreamer0.10-plugins-good, gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly, gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad, gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg,
          libldap-2.4-2, libreoffice-filter-binfilter, libreoffice-officebean
Description: office productivity suite
 LibreOffice is a full-featured office productivity suite that provides a near drop-in replacement for Microsoft(R)
 Office.

 This metapackage installs all components of libreoffice: * libreoffice-writer: Word processor * libreoffice-calc:
 Spreadsheet * libreoffice-impress: Presentation * libreoffice-draw: Drawing * libreoffice-base: Database *
 libreoffice-math: Equation editor * libreoffice-filter-mobiledev: Mobile Devices filters *
 libreoffice-filter-binfilter: legacy filters (e.g. StarOffice 5.2)

 You can extend the functionality of LibreOffice by installing these packages: * hunspell-*/myspell-*: Hunspell/Myspell
 dictionaries for use with LibreOffice * libreoffice-l10n-*: UI interface translation * libreoffice-help-*: User help *
 mythes-*: Thesauri for the use with LibreOffice * hyphen-*: Hyphenation patterns for LibreOffice * libreoffice-gtk: Gtk
 UI Plugin, GNOME File Picker support, QuickStarter for GNOMEs notification are * libreoffice-gnome: GNOME VFS, GConf
 backend * menu: Will add libreoffice menu entries for every Debian window manager. * unixodbc: ODBC database support *
 cups-bsd: Allows LibreOffice to detect your CUPS printer queues automatically * libsane: Use your sane-supported
 scanner with LibreOffice * libxrender1: Speed up display by using Xrender library * libgl1: OpenGL support *
 openclipart-libreoffice: Open Clip Art Gallery with LibreOffice index files * iceweasel | firefox | icedove |
 thunderbird | iceape-browser | mozilla-browser: Mozilla profile with Certificates needed for XML Security... *
 openjdk-6-jre | gcj-jre | java5-runtime: Java Runtime Environment for use with LibreOffice * pstoedit / imagemagick:
 helper tools for EPS thumbnails * gstreamer0.10-plugins-*: GStreamer plugins for use with LibreOffices media backend *
 libpaper-utils: papersize detection support via paperconf * libldap-2.4-2: LDAP client library; needed for LibreOffice
 getting its profiles from LDAP

Question information

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Status:
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For:
Ubuntu libreoffice Edit question
Assignee:
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Solved by:
marcus aurelius
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Revision history for this message
Best marcus aurelius (adbiz) said :
#1

click on view>zoom then adjust the zoom factor to 100% (1:1) or larger.

Revision history for this message
marcus aurelius (adbiz) said :
#2

also, version 3.3.2 is old. you should update to the newer version of libreoffice, which is 3.3.4 or 3.4.4.

Revision history for this message
steve2267 (steve-camptechnologies) said :
#3

THANK YOU marcus! I had discovered that about half an hour ago (zoom factor had been reset to 20%; view>zoom and selecting 100% restored everything), but I was interrupted by a phone call before I was able to post an update in here.

Weird that the zoom factor gets reset to a tiny factor when opening a .csv file.

Regarding updating to a newer version of libreoffice.... I recently (yesterday in fact), took the LibreOffice plunge and ripped OpenOffice off of my system, and installed LIbreOffice from scratch using the instructions found here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LibreOffice.

While my apt-fu is kind of weak... I did run 'sudo apt-get update' to refresh my apt caches, and then used 'aptitude show libreoffice' along with 'apt-cache show libreoffice' and 'apt-cache showpkg libreoffice'. Everything is showing me only 3.3.2 as being available.

The instructions at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LibreOffice had me install the ppa:libreoffice/ppa:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa

Which gave me:

% cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/libreoffice-ppa-lucid.list
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/libreoffice/ppa/ubuntu lucid main

So.... how / where do I get access to the "latest" stable version of OpenOffice via my apt-get Debian repositories?

Many thanks. (Sorry for being so long winded...)

Revision history for this message
steve2267 (steve-camptechnologies) said :
#4

Thanks marcus aurelius, that solved my question.

Revision history for this message
El Samuels (wesamuels) said :
#5

I have a related issue. When I open .csv files in LibreOffice (4.2.1.1 on Ubuntu 12.04), the default zoom is huge (237%).

I've created a default template following this page's advise
https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=504
This is works for opening new .ods files, but not for whenever I open a .csv (or other non-native formats).

Cheers.

Revision history for this message
Dave Dixon (ddixon-swcp) said :
#6

Calc recently started opening csv files at a really small zoom. It started happening for csv files downloaded via Firefox, but happened for any csv file I double-clicked. I fixed it by double-clicking a saved csv file, setting the zoom to 100%, and saving it.

Ubuntu 14.04 LibreOffice 4.2.3.3 Build ID: 420m0(Build:3)