Chris <ithinkiam@gmail.com> wrote:

This is a bit OT, but a real puzzler. All files were created on macs to
keep it slight on-topic.

tl;dr Anyone heard of a system which refuses perfectly good docx files created with LibreOffice, yet allows the same file yet saved from Word?
Is Microsoft playing silly buggers with standards again?

A family member is applying for a course at Edinburgh Uni and the
requirement is to upload a word file with a link to an online portfolio.
So a really tiny file.

The web ui for applications consistently bounces any attempt to upload
the word file created with LO with no error message or anything. It just refereshes the page.

We've spent the last 24 hours trying to debug this and a crazy idea was
to open it and save it in bona fide Word. Insanely that solved the issue!

Functionally there is no difference between the two files when opening
with Word or LO, although the LO version is only 5,583 bytes whereas the
Word version is 12,337 bytes.

Is the issue likely to be LO or the website?

Is there a tool that checks the validity of docx files at all?

Why on earth doesn’t the uni accept PDF docs?

--
Cheers, Alan

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Alan B <alanrichardbarker@gmail.com.invalid> wrote:

Chris <ithinkiam@gmail.com> wrote:

This is a bit OT, but a real puzzler. All files were created on macs to
keep it slight on-topic.

tl;dr Anyone heard of a system which refuses perfectly good docx files
created with LibreOffice, yet allows the same file yet saved from Word?
Is Microsoft playing silly buggers with standards again?

A family member is applying for a course at Edinburgh Uni and the
requirement is to upload a word file with a link to an online portfolio.
So a really tiny file.

The web ui for applications consistently bounces any attempt to upload
the word file created with LO with no error message or anything. It just
refereshes the page.

We've spent the last 24 hours trying to debug this and a crazy idea was
to open it and save it in bona fide Word. Insanely that solved the issue!

Functionally there is no difference between the two files when opening
with Word or LO, although the LO version is only 5,583 bytes whereas the
Word version is 12,337 bytes.

Is the issue likely to be LO or the website?

Is there a tool that checks the validity of docx files at all?

Why on earth doesn’t the uni accept PDF docs?

Just did a quick browse around and came across this product:

<https://www.onlyoffice.com/en/document-editor.aspx?docs=download>

I wonder if it does better than LO seems to do re MS compatibility?

--
Cheers, Alan

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On 24 Jan 2025 at 09:16:41 GMT, "Chris" <ithinkiam@gmail.com> wrote:

This is a bit OT, but a real puzzler. All files were created on macs to
keep it slight on-topic.

tl;dr Anyone heard of a system which refuses perfectly good docx files created with LibreOffice, yet allows the same file yet saved from Word?
Is Microsoft playing silly buggers with standards again?

A family member is applying for a course at Edinburgh Uni and the
requirement is to upload a word file with a link to an online portfolio.
So a really tiny file.

The web ui for applications consistently bounces any attempt to upload
the word file created with LO with no error message or anything. It just refereshes the page.

We've spent the last 24 hours trying to debug this and a crazy idea was
to open it and save it in bona fide Word. Insanely that solved the issue!

Functionally there is no difference between the two files when opening
with Word or LO, although the LO version is only 5,583 bytes whereas the
Word version is 12,337 bytes.

Is the issue likely to be LO or the website?

Is there a tool that checks the validity of docx files at all?

The puzzling thing to me is why they insist on an MS docx file. Perhaps it shows how deep MS have got their teeth into British universities in recent years. (Although it might not be the University (it's Edinburgh after
all!), but the academic who is insisting on docx files, which in my view would be a liability (cf. your ref to comparative file sizes).

Time Streater used to have a great .sig line which referred to MS Explorer,
and websites which refused to open if you used any other browser.

2p
John

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On 25 Jan 2025 at 17:01:59 GMT, "Another John" <lalaw44@hotmail.com> wrote:

Tim Streater used to have a great .sig line which referred to MS Explorer, and websites which refused to open if you used any other browser.

Still do, old bean old fruit.

--
Anyone who slaps a 'this page is best viewed with Browser X' label on a Web page appears to be yearning for the bad old days, before the Web, when you had very little chance of reading a document written on another computer, another word processor, or
another network.

-- Tim Berners-Lee

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Chris <ithinkiam@gmail.com> wrote:

This is a bit OT, but a real puzzler. All files were created on macs to keep it slight on-topic.

tl;dr Anyone heard of a system which refuses perfectly good docx files created with LibreOffice, yet allows the same file yet saved from Word?
Is Microsoft playing silly buggers with standards again?

A family member is applying for a course at Edinburgh Uni and the requirement is to upload a word file with a link to an online portfolio.
So a really tiny file.

The web ui for applications consistently bounces any attempt to upload
the word file created with LO with no error message or anything. It just refereshes the page.

We've spent the last 24 hours trying to debug this and a crazy idea was
to open it and save it in bona fide Word. Insanely that solved the issue!

Functionally there is no difference between the two files when opening
with Word or LO, although the LO version is only 5,583 bytes whereas the Word version is 12,337 bytes.

Is the issue likely to be LO or the website?

Is there a tool that checks the validity of docx files at all?

It may check the Creator Code.
Resaving will change that,

Jan

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