Bug 64489 - FILESAVE: LibreOffice produced .xls files don't have file type info in properties when opened in Excel .doc files do
Summary: FILESAVE: LibreOffice produced .xls files don't have file type info in proper...
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Spreadsheet (show other bugs)
Version: 4.0.3.3 release
Hardware: Other Mac OS X (All)
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard: BSA NeedsDevEval
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2013-05-12 11:24 UTC by declan_moriarty
Modified: 2014-02-27 23:03 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
i915 platform:
i915 features:

Attachments
This contains test file.xls, test file.doc, test file_xls properties.png, test file_doc properties.png. These png's show the properties not filled in for the XLS file and filled in for the DOC file produced by Writer and Calc respectively. (15.22 KB, application/zip)
2013-05-12 11:24 UTC, declan_moriarty 		Details
View All

Description declan_moriarty 2013-05-12 11:24:21 UTC 
Created attachment 79193 [details]
This contains test file.xls, test file.doc, test file_xls properties.png, test file_doc properties.png.  These png's show the properties not filled in for the XLS file and filled in for the DOC file produced by Writer and Calc respectively.

Problem description: 

LibreOffice produced MS Excel .xls files don't have any file type info in the properties dialogue box when opened in Excel - .doc files do.
Steps to reproduce:
1. Create a .xls spreadsheet in Calc
2. Transfer to Windows PC and open in MS Excel.
3. Open Properties dialogue box and go to General tab.

Current behavior:
All file type information and statistics for the general tab are empty.
Expected behavior:
All these fields should be filled in.
              
Operating System: Mac OS X
Version: 4.0.3.3 release
Comment 1 ign_christian 2013-05-15 08:38:17 UTC 
With LO 4.0.3.3 (Win7 Home Premium 32bit) I can see properties of all the attached files.
Comment 2 declan_moriarty 2013-05-15 09:03:42 UTC 
@ign_christian,

Have you opened the supplied files in Excel on your Windows 7 system?  The problem is that the Excel properties are not filled in.  The scant LibreOffice properties are filled in when the files are opened in LO.  Someone receiving an LO produced .xls spreadsheet might not like the idea that these properties are not filled in, since they may wonder how it was produced and if it was malicious.

Note that the .doc files work and the .xls files don't.  So something is different between the way Writer deals with file properties and Calc.
Comment 3 Julien Nabet 2013-05-18 15:05:16 UTC 
Michael: I can't reproduce this since I don't have MsOffice but if it's confirmed perhaps that, provided someone gives code pointers, it could be an easy hack, what do you think?
Comment 4 Michael Meeks 2013-05-20 08:37:38 UTC 
Sure - it could be an easy-hack, but it would take some code pointers.  I'll add the tag for ProposedEasyHack. The 'properties' are saved in a separate OLE2 binary stream which (IIRC) shares a reasonably common syntax with other modules like writer.

Having said that - IIRC there is data in there we need, and IIRC it used to work so ... not sure. Also - it needs confirming by someone with MS Office.

HTH.
Comment 5 bfoman 2013-06-28 13:29:59 UTC 
(In reply to comment #2)
> problem is that the Excel properties are not filled in.  The scant
> LibreOffice properties are filled in when the files are opened in LO. 

Confirmed with:
LO 4.2.0.0.alfa0
Build ID: 2013-06-24 own debug build 
Windows 7 Professional SP1 64 bit

xls document properties are empty in Excel 2010.
doc document properties are visible in Word 2010.
Comment 6 Robinson Tryon (qubit) 2013-10-23 16:50:40 UTC 
Removing comma from whiteboard (please use a space to delimit values in this field)
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA/Bugzilla/Fields/Whiteboard#Getting_Started
Comment 7 Robinson Tryon (qubit) 2013-10-23 17:10:43 UTC 
(In reply to comment #4)
> 
> Having said that - IIRC there is data in there we need, and IIRC it used to
> work so ... not sure. Also - it needs confirming by someone with MS Office.
> 

If the document properties used to be present, should we count this as a regression?  We could try testing some old versions or use a bibisect repository...
Comment 8 Joel Madero 2014-02-27 23:03:44 UTC 
In order to limit the confusion between ProposedEasyHack and EasyHack and to make queries much easier we are changing ProposedEasyHack to NeedsDevEval.

Thank you and apologies for the noise

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