Large Flaw in Kingsoft Office Writer!

Juan Wei wrote:

If you're a fan of Kingsoft Office, beware.

If you type _________________________ and hit [Enter], your line of
underscores will be transformed to a "paragraph border" -- a bold black
line from margin to margin!!!

Kingsoft Support says,

"[T]he temporary workaround for this underline problem is not to press
Enter key.

"I have forwarded this problem to developers to see if there is a
solution. When I get a reply, I will inform you.

"Sorry that we do not support set 'no border' as default. We will
consider adding this feature in the future."

Don't press Enter!!!! Really????

================

I did find a workaround. Type your line of underscores. Hit [Space] and
then [Enter].

My aunt has Kingsoft Office Suite 2013. You never mentioned WHICH
version you are using. So it is after inputting exactly 25 underscores
that you get a horizontal rule HR line (what I suspect you are really
getting)? Or do you get a HR line after entering only 2 or 5
underscores and hitting the Enter key? What if you hit the Ctrl+Enter
key after the requisite number of underscores?

I haven't use Kingsoft much so I don't recall if it has auto-correct.
If it does have auto-correct, did you check if some number of contiguous
underscores equates to a HR line?

In MS Word 2010 (and probably earlier versions), the following
auto-correct settings are defaults:

--- (3 dashes) = horizontal rule line
___ (3 underscores) = ______________________________ (30 underscores)

I can see the Options dialog in their online manual (for the 2012
version) and that it has a Spelling tab but they don't show the contents
of that tab panel so I can't tell if Kingsoft has an auto-correct
feature or not. From some forum posts, auto-correct might be under the
Edit tab yet the auto-correct settings there don't show a preset list
and those the user can add to will insert replacement strings.

I did see in the 2012 online manual in the Options - Edit tab there is
a setting for:

Use smart paragraph selection

Have you tried with this option toggled (if enabled by default then
disable and retest).

Twould be a pity if Kingsoft Office Suite 2013 (free) doesn't have a
full fleged auto-correct feature. It's very handy for typing in a
series of characters to get automatically replaced with a special
character or another string (with the option to hit the Backspace key if
you don't want an auto-corrected string).

Softmaker's FreeOffice says it has a "SmartText" feature to replace
strings with another, like replacing "asap" with "as soon as possible".
Alas, Softmaker's site is extremely terse and their support is minimal.
They don't provide an online or downloadable copy of the product manual
so I can't check if their SmartText feature has a lookup table that you
could modify or add your own auto-correct (aka automatic replace)
strings.

"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...
On 10/02/2014 17:39, Juan Wei wrote:
If you're a fan of Kingsoft Office, beware.

If you type _________________________ and hit [Enter], your line of
underscores will be transformed to a "paragraph border" -- a bold
black line from margin to margin!!!

Kingsoft Support says,

"[T]he temporary workaround for this underline problem is not to
press Enter key.

"I have forwarded this problem to developers to see if there is a
solution. When I get a reply, I will inform you.

"Sorry that we do not support set 'no border' as default. We will
consider adding this feature in the future."

Don't press Enter!!!! Really????

================

I did find a workaround. Type your line of underscores. Hit [Space]
and then [Enter].

What version are you using? I tried this with my old Kingsoft Writer
8.1.0.3019 and couldn't replicate what you found.

I couldn't replicate it either. Mine is 8.1.0.3020 which I downloaded in
January of 2012.

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Windows Live Mail 2009 v14
Centrino Core2 Duo T7400 2.16 GHz - 4GB - Windows 7 Home SP1

Sounds like Al said (or meant to say) to hit Enter to add some lines
into your document. Then use the arrow keys to navigate back to one of
those line. INSERT the number of underscores you want but do NOT hit
the Enter key. Since there are more lines in your document past the one
where you inserted a bunch of underscores, you can use the down arrow
key (instead of the Enter key) to get at the following line.

sometext
Enter
Enter
Enter

Then use the Up arrow key to 1st Enter line. Insert the underscores:

sometext
_________________________Enter
Enter
Enter

The newline or linebreak will get pushed out as you enter the
underscores. You insert the underscores you are not hitting the Enter
key (again) after them.

Once you inserted the underscores in the blank placeholder line, do not
hit the Enter key and instead use the Down arrow key to move to one of
the following placeholder lines.

Rodney Pont wrote:

On Mon, 10 Feb 2014 15:20:51 -0500, Juan Wei wrote:

Somehow I think that typing

Name: _______________________________[SPACE][ENTER]

is a lot easier.

Doesn't it do underscore?

Name: turn underscore on[spaces ]underscore off[ENTER]

Apparently he wants or needs a contiguous series of underscore
*characters* instead of a bunch of underLINED space characters. If he
is using a non-monospaced (proportional) font, N underscores will be
wider than N spaces that are underlined.

Mike Barnes wrote:
Juan Wei wrote:
Mike Barnes has written on 2/10/2014 2:53 PM:
Juan Wei wrote:
Roger Mills has written on 2/10/2014 1:34 PM:
On 10/02/2014 17:39, Juan Wei wrote:
If you're a fan of Kingsoft Office, beware.

If you type _________________________ and hit [Enter], your line of
underscores will be transformed to a "paragraph border" -- a bold black
line from margin to margin!!!

Kingsoft Support says,

"[T]he temporary workaround for this underline problem is not to press
Enter key.

"I have forwarded this problem to developers to see if there is a
solution. When I get a reply, I will inform you.

"Sorry that we do not support set 'no border' as default. We will
consider adding this feature in the future."

Don't press Enter!!!! Really????

================

I did find a workaround. Type your line of underscores. Hit [Space] and
then [Enter].

Doesn't sound life-threatening!

Did I say it was life-threatening?

And if I don't hit Enter, how can I continue editing the document?

I suspect you're making a mountain out of a molehill. "Large flaw"? I
don't think so.

You could simply type a space after the last underscore and before the
enter key.

Scroll back to just below the ================

Yes, it's badly expressed to the point of being Just Plain Wrong, but a
little bit of ingenuity goes a long way.

If having the space there bothers you, remove it (e.g.
left-arrow backspace right-arrow). On a scale of one to ten for
inconvenient workarounds, I'd score it at 1.5 maximum, unless there's
something you're not telling us.

At my age, every trick I have to remember rates at least a 6. :-)

I don't know how old that is but FWIW I'm in my late 60s.

I think it's unconscionable that any program does something
automatically that you cannot reconfigure.

It's a bug. Most programs have them.

[Following up my own posting]

Another thing to try is, when the program has turned your underscores
into a horizontal line, an "undo" operation might reverse it. Press
Ctrl+Z and see what happens.

--
Mike Barnes

Rodney Pont has written on 2/10/2014 4:31 PM:
On Mon, 10 Feb 2014 15:20:51 -0500, Juan Wei wrote:

Somehow I think that typing

Name: _______________________________[SPACE][ENTER]

is a lot easier.

Doesn't it do underscore?

Name: turn underscore on[spaces ]underscore off[ENTER]


How do you turn underscore on?

VanguardLH has written on 2/10/2014 5:02 PM:
Rodney Pont wrote:

On Mon, 10 Feb 2014 15:20:51 -0500, Juan Wei wrote:

Somehow I think that typing

Name: _______________________________[SPACE][ENTER]

is a lot easier.

Doesn't it do underscore?

Name: turn underscore on[spaces ]underscore off[ENTER]

Apparently he wants or needs a contiguous series of underscore
*characters* instead of a bunch of underLINED space characters. If he
is using a non-monospaced (proportional) font, N underscores will be
wider than N spaces that are underlined.


Ah. Now I see what he means. Underlined spaces would work for a form to
be printed.

Mike Barnes has written on 2/10/2014 6:09 PM:
Mike Barnes wrote:
Juan Wei wrote:
Mike Barnes has written on 2/10/2014 2:53 PM:
Juan Wei wrote:
Roger Mills has written on 2/10/2014 1:34 PM:
On 10/02/2014 17:39, Juan Wei wrote:
If you're a fan of Kingsoft Office, beware.

If you type _________________________ and hit [Enter], your line of
underscores will be transformed to a "paragraph border" -- a bold black
line from margin to margin!!!

Kingsoft Support says,

"[T]he temporary workaround for this underline problem is not to press
Enter key.

"I have forwarded this problem to developers to see if there is a
solution. When I get a reply, I will inform you.

"Sorry that we do not support set 'no border' as default. We will
consider adding this feature in the future."

Don't press Enter!!!! Really????

================

I did find a workaround. Type your line of underscores. Hit [Space] and
then [Enter].

Doesn't sound life-threatening!

Did I say it was life-threatening?

And if I don't hit Enter, how can I continue editing the document?

I suspect you're making a mountain out of a molehill. "Large flaw"? I
don't think so.

You could simply type a space after the last underscore and before the
enter key.

Scroll back to just below the ================

Yes, it's badly expressed to the point of being Just Plain Wrong, but a
little bit of ingenuity goes a long way.

If having the space there bothers you, remove it (e.g.
left-arrow backspace right-arrow). On a scale of one to ten for
inconvenient workarounds, I'd score it at 1.5 maximum, unless there's
something you're not telling us.

At my age, every trick I have to remember rates at least a 6. :-)

I don't know how old that is but FWIW I'm in my late 60s.

I think it's unconscionable that any program does something
automatically that you cannot reconfigure.

It's a bug. Most programs have them.

[Following up my own posting]

Another thing to try is, when the program has turned your underscores
into a horizontal line, an "undo" operation might reverse it. Press
Ctrl+Z and see what happens.


Did that. Nothing.

Jeff Layman has written on 2/10/2014 3:53 PM:
On 10/02/2014 17:39, Juan Wei wrote:
If you're a fan of Kingsoft Office, beware.

If you type _________________________ and hit [Enter], your line of
underscores will be transformed to a "paragraph border" -- a bold black
line from margin to margin!!!

Kingsoft Support says,

"[T]he temporary workaround for this underline problem is not to press
Enter key.

"I have forwarded this problem to developers to see if there is a
solution. When I get a reply, I will inform you.

"Sorry that we do not support set 'no border' as default. We will
consider adding this feature in the future."

Don't press Enter!!!! Really????

================

I did find a workaround. Type your line of underscores. Hit [Space] and
then [Enter].

What version are you using? I tried this with my old Kingsoft Writer
8.1.0.3019 and couldn't replicate what you found.


9.1.something

VanguardLH has written on 2/10/2014 4:53 PM:

My aunt has Kingsoft Office Suite 2013. You never mentioned WHICH
version you are using.

9.1.0.4480

So it is after inputting exactly 25 underscores
that you get a horizontal rule HR line (what I suspect you are really
getting)? Or do you get a HR line after entering only 2 or 5
underscores and hitting the Enter key? What if you hit the Ctrl+Enter
key after the requisite number of underscores?

Even just one underscore becomes the bold black line. (Not sure whether
it is an HR or a paragraph border).

I haven't use Kingsoft much so I don't recall if it has auto-correct.
If it does have auto-correct, did you check if some number of contiguous
underscores equates to a HR line?

Writer Tools Options

Nothing about HRs.

I did see in the 2012 online manual in the Options - Edit tab there is
a setting for:

Use smart paragraph selection

Have you tried with this option toggled (if enabled by default then
disable and retest).

I just tried checking that and it doesn't seem to make a lasting difference.

I think that I'll just use "add a space before hitting Enter" approach.

Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions.

Juan Wei wrote:

VanguardLH:

So it is after inputting exactly 25 underscores
that you get a horizontal rule HR line (what I suspect you are really
getting)? Or do you get a HR line after entering only 2 or 5
underscores and hitting the Enter key? What if you hit the Ctrl+Enter
key after the requisite number of underscores?

Even just one underscore becomes the bold black line. (Not sure whether
it is an HR or a paragraph border).

Sure looks like a glaring and rather ridiculous bug. A single
underscore followed by a newline should not be equated to a horizontal
rule or paragraph marker or anything other than just a single
underscore. Odd that no one has reported this bug to them before.

VanguardLH has written on 2/10/2014 8:15 PM:
Juan Wei wrote:

VanguardLH:

So it is after inputting exactly 25 underscores
that you get a horizontal rule HR line (what I suspect you are really
getting)? Or do you get a HR line after entering only 2 or 5
underscores and hitting the Enter key? What if you hit the Ctrl+Enter
key after the requisite number of underscores?

Even just one underscore becomes the bold black line. (Not sure whether
it is an HR or a paragraph border).

Sure looks like a glaring and rather ridiculous bug. A single
underscore followed by a newline should not be equated to a horizontal
rule or paragraph marker or anything other than just a single
underscore. Odd that no one has reported this bug to them before.

Can you see a list of what reports have been made?

What's the attraction of Kingsoft Office over something free like
OpenOffice.org or LIbreOffice ?

--

Brian Gregory (in the UK).
To email me please remove all the letter vee from my email address.

Brian Gregory said on 2/10/2014 8:50 PM:
What's the attraction of Kingsoft Office over something free like
OpenOffice.org or LIbreOffice ?

Look and feel for one. I didn't like Open Office. But here again,
it could be just as simple as the first one that grabs you fancy.
(Whatever that "fancy" is).

They're all free so it ain't money!!

On Mon, 10 Feb 2014 20:50:04 -0500, Brian Gregory
wrote:

What's the attraction of Kingsoft Office over something free like
OpenOffice.org or LIbreOffice ?

Faster load times, features which actually work.

--
Silver Slimer
GNU/Linux is a duct-taped form of Communism