IBM Lotus Symphony Release Notes

What's New in IBM® Lotus® SymphonyTM 3.0.1?

IBM Lotus Symphony offers better visual design, easier access, and more useful functions to assist your work.

General

  • Opening Microsoft Office 2007 documents that are protected by a password.
  • More numbering and bullet styles.
  • Performance enhancement for autosave.
  • Homepage enhancement.

Presentations

  • Editing speaker notes in normal view.
  • Coping data from a spreadsheet as a link.

Spreadsheets

  • Keeping formatting in DataPilot tables.
  • 1 million rows support in spreadsheets
  • Preserving the cell comments in Microsoft Office 2007 Excel files after save it in Lotus Symphony.

Charts

  • New chart types.
  • Inserting new level categories in chart data.
  • Including values from hidden cells.
  • Rotating text in data labels.

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Key Bug Fixes

  • Cannot save files if you keep the files open on Apple Mac OS and do not touch them for several days.
  • Content is lost after saving a .docx file to an .odt file that contains bookmarks across multiple table cells.
  • Open .pptx file in Symphony, create new slide, the default text box goes out of slide page.
  • Create a table in a presentation, input text in the table cells, apply a table design to the table, undo once or twice, Symphony fails.
  • Error message 4000:Unknown Exception shows when running LotusScript® code in Lotus Notes®.
  • Auto save cannot save the password of documents.
  • Copy a table with data from Excel to Symphony presentation, text in the graphic does not display well while opening the file or playing the screenshow in Symphony on Mac.
  • A security vulnerability in OpenOffice.org that is related to .doc file processing might lead to arbitrary code execution.
  • Open a .xls file with formula GETPIVOTDATA in the first sheet and Lotus Symphony fails.
  • Export an .ods file that contains a DataPilot with TopN settings, and Microsoft Excel 2003 reports that the file is corrupted when opening the .xls file.
  • Set preference as Microsoft Office 97-2003 file type for new created files, and the file extensions are not changed.
  • The title is not correctly positioned on slides that contain only titles.
  • Lotus Symphony fails when running the VBA code ThisWorkbook.Worksheets.Add.
  • Spell check marks the Hungarian word as a wrong word after added it in the dictionary.
  • Default Japanese font is not correct when changing locales to ja if the document is created in an English locale.
  • If you open a .xlsx file which contains multiple PivotTables with same name, the PivotTables are lost.
  • Range name is lost when opening the a .xls file that contains the same range names with a different scope.
  • Cannot import Excel template and Word template to the Template Organizer.
  • Lotus Symphony freezes when copying and pasting a bullet with a customized big graphic.
  • On Mac OS, Symphony freezes when using fn+control+F2 to switch to the menu.
  • Templates with a PNG object and an OLE object cannot be saved to .ppt format correctly.
  • Open a .docx file that contains a table and a special field in the table and the table is lost.
  • The page layout turns to Portrait when opening a .docx file that contains a section and table in the page with different page styles.
  • The arrow shapes are lost when opening a .docx file that contains arrows with unsupported line properties.
  • In a spreadsheet, paste a hyperlink into an unprotected cell in a protected sheet, and the cell turns into a protected cell.
  • In a spreadsheet, when Paste Special is selected for a comment only in a cell, the text in the cell is deleted.
  • Open an .xls file in Lotus Symphony, enter a formula that uses commas as the separator, save the file, and reopen it and the formula is lost.
  • The context menu for rows and columns does not display when right-clicking a cell in the table in a presentation.
  • When saving an .odp file as .ppt format, transparency on a shape is lost when opening the .ppt file in Microsoft PowerPoint.
  • Text fails to import to a spreadsheet when the field begins with an equal sign.
  • The .csv file that contains double quotation marks in a cell is truncated after imported into Lotus Symphony.
  • The top alignment attribute for text in text box is lost when opening a .pptx file in Symphony.
  • Users should be able to navigate only between all unprotected cells in a spreadsheet by pressing the Tab key.
  • When opening a .pptx file in Symphony which contains text with default font style, the font size becomes larger.
  • The chart and graphics display as a line if the grouped rows are expanded when opening a spreadsheet file.
  • The connector line changes its position automatically when changing the color of the connected shape.
  • The attributes of Numbering in presentations cannot be obtained by the accessibility tool UnoInspect32.

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Known Issues

Installation fails if the path contains double-byte characters on Windows

When installing into a target path that contains double-byte characters and when the character encoding does not match the operating system language settings, installation fails and rolls back. This limitation of the third party tool is documented here: http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=4947220. To workaround this problem, set operating system language the same as the double-byte characters contained in the target path.

File type association can change after first launching on Linux

On Ubuntu or SUSE operating systems, after launching Lotus Symphony for the first time, the .odf file format association is changed to the Lotus Symphony application. Users who has installed both Lotus Notes and Lotus Symphony expect the Lotus Symphony embedded in Lotus Notes to be associated with .odf files. To configure the file association, edit the Notes preferences page.

SmartSuite files cannot be opened

SmartSuite documents are not supported by Lotus Symphony

Limitations of VBA support

Currently, Lotus Symphony support some VBA Excel APIs, Events, Form control APIs and Events. The following list includes limitations:

  1. Cannot support all of the VBA APIs and events currently. We support most of common control APIs and events: CheckBox, ComboBox, CommandButton, Frame, Label, ListBox, OptionButton, SpinButton, TextBox, ToggleButton, UserForm, and so on. Support some APIs and events of MultiPage. The following control APIs and events are not supported currently: Image, Checkbox List, RefEdit, ScrollBar, TabStrip, TreeView, and so on.

    The most frequently-used Excel VBA APIs that are supported include: Application, Global, Workbooks, Workbook, Sheets, Worksheets, Worksheet, Range, Window, Names, Name, Font, Validation, Borders, ChartObjects, Dialog, Dialogs, Format, FormatCondition, FormatConditions, HPageBreak, HPageBreaks, Interior, OLEObject, Outline, PageSetup, PivotCache, PivotTable, Shape, ShapeRange, Shapes, Styles, Tab, VPageBreak, VPageBreaks, WorksheetFunction, Constants, XlMousePointer, Button, GroupBox, ColorFormat, FillFormat, LineFormat, PictureFormat, and son on. The following APIs are not supported currently: AddIn, AddIns, Border, PivotField, PivotItem, AutoFilter, and so on.

    For Excel VBA events, partial events are supported, such as: Worksheet_Activate, Worksheet_BeforeDoubleClick, Worksheet_BeforeRightClick, Worksheet_Change, Worksheet_Deactivate, Worksheet_SelectionChange, Workbook_Activate, Workbook_Deactivate, Workbook_Open, Workbook_SheetActivate, and so on.

  2. Lotus Symphony allows you to edit the VBA codes in the Lotus Symphony BASIC IDE, but you cannot save the changed VBA codes.
  3. Syntax interoperability issues exist with Excel VBA syntax, for example:

    Not supported: if Not a = "Hello" then

    Supported: if a <> "Hello" then

    Not supported: DoEvent: DoEvent

    Note: Multiple VBA commands are not allowed to be placed in one line separated with colon.

See the detailed information about Lotus Symphony VBA interoperability at http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/dw/lotus/Symphony/vbaapi3/ind ex.html

Cannot copy cell formula from Symphony spreadsheet to Microsoft Excel

When copying a spreadsheet cell formula from Lotus Symphony to Excel, the formula value and not the formula is what is copied to Excel.

Graphics with text cannot be copied to other applications

In a spreadsheet document, after inserting a graphic and inputting text into it, if you copy the graphic to another editor or to Lotus Notes, the text inside the graphic might be lost.

Pictures cannot be inserted into custom shape

Pictures are not allowed to be inserted into custom shapes. Therefore, when opening a Microsoft Word document, the picture inside custom shape is lost.

Change on master page does not apply to the normal view of a .pptx file

When editing a file in PowerPoint 2007 Document Format (.pptx), any change made to the outline style does not show, no matter whether you are in the master view or the normal view. To workaround this problem, set the character style to the Default Formatting. The modification made to the outline style in the master view also takes effect in the normal view.

Spellcheck does not support user dictionaries for some languages

Spell check does not support the user dictionaries of the following languages:

  • Group1:Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese and Korean
  • Group2:Thai, Turkish and Hebrew
  • Group3:Bulgarian, Croatian, Hungarian, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Ukrainian and Icelandic

Save unsupported document type can cause data loss

Unsupported document types can be opened by altering their file extensions, but it can cause data loss when the file is saved back. For example, changing a .html file into a .swx file and opening it, can result in the document content being lost when subsequently saving the file.

Lotus Symphony fails when working with Edit menu on the Print window

Lotus Symphony freezes when working with Edit menu on the Print window. For example, click File->Print, and then click the PDF button in the bottom left corner and select Edit Menu. Click the + button, and then click Cancel in the Open window, and Lotus Symphony freezes.

Hyphenation does not work

In Lotus Symphony, hyphenation does not work

Duplicate formatting does not work well in some scenarios

Continuous duplicate formatting does not work well on text in the text box by double-clicking the Duplicate Formatting icon on the toolbar. Sometimes duplicate formatting might not work well in cell editing mode in a spreadsheet.

Too much memory is used when opening a file with many fontwork objects

If there are many fontwork objects in a document, a lot of memory is allocated because a large number of polygon objects are created. To workaround the problem, try to remove some fontwork objects from the document.

Cannot load pictures linked by HTTP

When loading pictures that are linked by HTTP in the following scenarios, the pictures might not display.

  1. Copy one picture from a web page by pressing Ctrl+C, and paste the contents to Lotus Symphony applications. The picture cannot be displayed. To workaround the problem, right-click the picture and select Copy Image.
  2. Load a document that contains a picture linked to a HTTP location, the picture cannot be displayed. To workaround the problem use the local image file instead of linking to external web pages.

Files on network-share are opened in read-only mode on Mac OS

When opening a file on a network-share (smb://server/share) on Mac OS, Lotus Symphony loads it in read-only mode and prompts with the following error message: "This document is already opened in other applications. Lotus Symphony will load it as read-only mode with the same file name." Click OK to view the file in read-only mode, or click Cancel to close it. To workaround this problem, copy the file from the network-share to your local workstation, and then open it with Lotus Symphony.

Some hotkeys do not work on Mac OS X system

The following shortcut keys do not work:

  1. Cmd+H Align text to center
  2. Shift+F10 Context menu
  3. Shift+F11 Show style list dialog
  4. Shift+F12 Start a bullet list

To workaround the problem, access the function through the main menu or context menu.

Cannot drag document to the Home page to open it on Mac OS X

You cannot open a document in Lotus Symphony by dragging it to the Home page. To workaround the problem, drag the file to the Lotus Symphony icon on the Application list, to the New button, or to the empty tab in Lotus Symphony to open it.

UI labels might be truncated with an ellipsis at the end

UI labels might be truncated with an ellipsis (...) at the end. The workaround is to hover your mouse over the truncated label text, and the full text is displayed as a hover tip

UI language changes with the operating system locale on Mac and Linux

On Linux and Mac operating system, if the UI language setting is not changed from Preferences, the UI language is the same as the operating system locale.

TOC hyperlink in Word document does not work

When a Microsoft Word document with a table of contents is opened by Lotus Symphony, the TOC hyperlink does not work as expected. To workaround the problem, select the TOC, launch the context menu, select Update Index/Table. The TOC hyperlink is enabled.

Document with revision record from Word might display incorrectly

Open a Microsoft Word document in Lotus Symphony. If there are revision records on floating objects, such as graphics, shapes, textboxes and so on, the document might not display correctly.

Chart is incorrectly refreshed when a column is deleted from a data range

Create a spreadsheet, and enter data in a cell range. Select the cell range and create a chart. When you delete a column that is in the data range of the chart, the chart is refreshed and the deleted column is still in the chart.To workaround this problem:

  1. Double-click the chart to enter chart edit mode.
  2. Right-click the chart and select Data Ranges.
  3. Re-select the data range from the "Data range" picker and click OK.

Previous preference settings cannot be migrated when upgrade

Personal user data, such as preference settings, cannot be kept and migrated when upgrading from previous Lotus Symphony releases. The location of the user data storage is:

  • Windows: %USERPROFILE%\IBM\Lotus\Symphony
  • Linux: $USER/.lotus/symphony
  • Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Lotus Symphony Data

Backup user data and delete default user data before upgrading. If you need to roll back to previous versions before Symphony 3.0.1, you must restore using the backed up user data.

You cannot install multiple releases of Lotus Symphony on the same computer by default. If you want to install multiple releases on a same Windows computer, refer to the instruction at http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/lswiki.nsf/dx/08212009062500AMWEBE8P.htm. Limitation: When clicking the shortcut icon of Lotus Symphony, double-clicking a file or using the Open With Window to open a file in Lotus Symphony, the latest installed release is launched. To open a file using previous Lotus Symphony versions, drag the file to the main window of the previous Lotus Symphony version, which is launched by clicking %Symphony_Install_Path%\symphony.exe.

Pinning is not supported on Windows 7

Pinning either the Lotus Symphony process or icons is not supported on Windows 7

Fails might occur when comparing a document with special contents

Lotus Symphony Document might fail when performing the following steps:

  1. Create a document using Lotus Symphony documents.
  2. Select Tools > Compare Document
  3. In the Create File window, select one document that contains charts that were created based on a table.
  4. Lotus Symphony might fail.

In some rare cases error occurs when upgrading on windows

Lotus Symphony might fail to upgrade from a previous release, and the error message is "provisioning_rc not found" or "RCP Base Plug_in not found". The problem is that the user Data or files are corrupted or locked by other programs. To workaround the problem, uninstall previous version, and then install the new version again. Ignore any error messages during the uninstallation process.

Only numbering and bullets promotion or demotion of a .ppt file is improved

The promotion and demotion of numbers and bullets in a .ppt file is improved in this version. The behavior of a .pptx file is not changed. When promoting or demoting numbers or bullets in a ppt file, the following rules are used:

  • The paragraph uses the Numbering and Bullets style of the previous paragraph if it is empty at that level.
  • The previous paragraph also can use the Numbering and Bulltes style that is added by following paragraphs.

Problems with inconsistent workplaces

In rare cases, users might not be able to start Lotus Symphony normally. This problem might be caused by upgrading, adding patches, or by a failure of Lotus Symphony. Sometimes, it cannot be resolved after reinstalling Lotus Symphony. To workaround this problem, use the new installer, which is enhanced to clean up the workplace in a clean installation process.

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