This page last changed on Nov 24, 2008 by rackley.

Use this page to troubleshoot any problems you may have with the Office Connector.

On this page:

Error formatting macro: toc: java.lang.NullPointerException

Support and Troubleshooting

If you have a problem, please take a look at the limitations and known issues described below. If you do not find a solution to your problem, please file a support request on the Atlassian Support System.

Prerequisites

Your System Administrator can enable or disable the Office Connector or parts of it. The Office Connector options can appear in different places on your Confluence page, depending on the themes and configuration of your Confluence site. Please refer to Configuring the Office Connector in the Confluence Administration Guide and discuss any configuration problems with your administrator.

Please refer to Office Connector Prerequisites.

Limitations

Limitations when Importing Office Documents

The formatting of the imported content is constrained by the capabilities of HTML and Confluence's wiki text. You may need to manually fix some complex formatting after the import. Features of Word that will be imported:

  • Tables will be imported but cell/row merging will be removed. Also, nested tables will be flattened to one table.
  • Lists will be imported. Multi-level lists are supported. Paragraph breaks between list items will restart the list numbering in Confluence. All list numbering is converted to Confluence's list numbering (1.,2.,3.,4.,...). All list bullets will be converted to Confluence's bullet character.
  • Heading styled text is imported as headings in Confluence. Other paragraph formatting is not supported. This includes indentation, space before, space after, and text alignment.
  • The following text formatting is imported:
    • bold
    • italic
    • superscript
    • subscript
    • color
    • underline
Limitations when Editing an Office Document

When converting a wiki page to an Office document, the Office Connector does not attempt to convert:

  • Macros — The macro will appear original form with curly brackets, such as '{children}'.
  • Wiki links to other pages — External links and bookmark links will appear on the same page.
  • Emoticons — Smileys and other emoticons will appear as their plain text equivalent, such as '\'.

Known Issues

Troubleshooting and Specific Known Issues

Error formatting macro: toc-zone: java.lang.NullPointerException
Error appears when attempting to import, display or edit Microsoft Office 2007 documents.

Microsoft Office 2007 file formats are not supported. (See reported issue WORDDV-101)

Pages are not saved back to Confluence after editing in Word.

Ensure that your Confluence server's base URL is set correctly. (Check it by going to the 'General Configuration' screen in the Confluence Administration Console, as described in Configuring the Server Base URL.) When a user edits a wiki page in Word and then uploads the page back to the Confluence server, the base URL determines where the document will be saved. If the base URL is incorrect, the documents may be saved to a different Confluence server.

Special characters in page names cause an error.

Special characters in page names cause an error when attempting to edit the document in Office. (See reported issue WORDDV-153.)

I get the error 'Unable to create an ActiveX object to open the document. This is most likely because of the security settings for your browser.'

First, try lowering the security settings in your browser. Namely, you want ActiveX controls to be enabled. The default security settings should be fine. You may see this error if you have changed them from the default settings.

If that doesn't work, there may be a configuration problem with the SharePoint client controls. The Office Connector uses these for the integration between IE and Office. Follow the steps outlined in this article to fix the problem.

Errors occur when the Office Connector is running behind IIS

This issue is currently being tracked as WORDDV-130.

The Attachment Checkout plugin is not compatible with the Office Connector.

The Attachment Checkout plugin is not compatible. Please ask your System Administrator to disable the [Attachment Checkout plugin.

Read-only problems: When I try to edit an attachment displayed with the {viewfile} macro, it always opens in Microsoft Office as read-only.

This is caused by a bug in the WebDAV plugin versions 1.2.1 and later. To fix the problem, you will need to revert to version 1.2 of the WebDAV plugin. A System Administrator can do this by uninstalling the WebDAV plugin and then downloading and installing the following plugin jar:
http://svn.atlassian.com/svn/public/contrib/confluence/webdav-plugin/jars/webdav-plugin-1.2.0.jar

Read-only problems: When attempting to edit in Word, the page opens up as read-only in Word 2007 and I am running Windows Vista.

You can work around this problem by installing a web folders update from Microsoft and setting Word 2007 to run in Windows XP Compatibility mode. You can download the web folders update here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=17C36612-632E-4C04-9382-987622ED1D64

There are two ways you can put Word 2007 in compatibility mode. The first way is to download this .reg file and apply it to your registry. Warning! The .reg file assumes that your Office installation directory is 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12' If this is not the case you will need to edit it before installing it. If you are not comfortable with doing this, we strongly recommend the alternative method described below.

The alternative to applying the .reg file is to follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to your Office installation directory. (Default is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12.)
  2. Right click on 'WinWord.exe' and select 'Properties' in the dropdown menu.
  3. Select the 'Compatibility' tab in the Properties dialog.
  4. Select the option titled 'Run this Program in Compatibility Mode'.
  5. Choose Windows XP from the dropdown menu.
Read-only problems: When attempting to edit in Word, the page opens in read-only mode. None of the above 'read-only' cases apply.

This usually means there is something interfering with the WebDAV conversation that needs to happen between Confluence and Microsoft Office. This could be caused by a Single Sign On (SSO) solutions like CAS or Siteminder, incorrect server configuration, custom Confluence authenticators, or corporate proxy/firewall servers. Please check your WebDAV. If that does not work, let us know what may be interfering with WebDAV when filing a support issue on our Support Site.

How do I get the Office Connector to work in Firefox?

See Installing the Firefox Add-On for the Office Connector.

How do I get the Office Connector user interface to show up in Adaptavist's Builder theme?

See Adaptavist's documentation on Integrating WordDAV or Office Connector .

The following will work in Builder 2:
Use the following wiki text to add the 'Doc Import' menu item to a menu of your choosing:

{menulink:webui|location=system.page|key=importworditem}Doc Import{menulink}

We have also created a macro for the builder theme called {editinwordlink}. This macro allows you to add the Edit-in-Word button to the Title area of the page (or somewhere else). For example, the title panel of your builder theme with the {editinwordlink}
macro could look like this:

{builder-pagetitle}
{builder-show:context=page,blogpost|mode=view}{table:cellspacing=0|cellpadding=0|border=0|width=100%
|class=pageEditInfoOptions}{table-row}{table-cell}Added by {page-info:created-user}, 
last edited by {page-info:modified-user} on {page-info:modified-date}{builder-labels}{table-cell}
{table-cell:align=right|class=greyLinks}{*}{editinwordlink}{*}{builder-favicon}{builder-watchicon}
{table-cell}{table-row}{table}
{builder-show}
The text in a PowerPoint presentation looks very different when I use the {viewfile} macro

You may have created your presentation on Windows with Microsoft-specific fonts (Arial, Times New Roman, Courier New, etc). If you are running Confluence and the Office Connector on a non-Windows server, the fonts will not exist when the preview is created and a substitute font will be used to render the text. If you want the preview to match the original as closely as possible you will have to install the missing fonts onto your server.

The easiest way to do this is to copy the True Type font file (extenstion .ttf) for any missing fonts to your $JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/fonts directory on the server running Confluence and the Office Connector.

When copying fonts from a computer running Windows, the font files will typically be located in c:\windows\fonts. You can also download the Microsoft Core fonts from sourceforge.

The text in an image from a spreadsheet or document looks very different when I do a document import or use the {viewfile} macro

See the answer to the previous question.

When I try to install the plugin from the Plugin Repository, I get an 'Object Error' message.

This is most likely due to a packet size limitation on MySQL. Set the max packet size and restart the database.

Why does the Office Connector ask me to enter my password?

You will be prompted for a username and password unless you are using browser cookies to store credentials. Usually, if you select "Remember me" when logging in, this will solve the problem.

List of Unresolved Issues from our Issue Tracker

Below is a list of the open issues for the Office Connector, drawn from the Atlassian issue tracker.

  • Before reporting a bug or requesting a new feature, please take a look to see if it has already been reported.
  • If you find a likely-looking issue, click the link to find more information and possible workarounds.

Jira Issues
Type Key Summary Reporter Status
Support Request WORDDV-204 documents formatting when using office connector Rayone Moyer Open
Bug WORDDV-203 Word docs containing Hyperlinks surrounded by quotes causes "viewfile: java.lang.NullPointerException" errors David Yu Open
Improvement WORDDV-202 Add a preview link in rss feed to get html preview of attachments Ryan Ackley Open
Improvement WORDDV-201 Add preview thumbnail image for Office docs in recently updated, attachments, attachments-macro, search Ryan Ackley Open
Improvement WORDDV-200 Add keyboard bindings to the flash slide viewer for controlling the slides. Ryan Ackley Open
Improvement WORDDV-199 Disappearing menu bar for the slide viewer control Ryan Ackley Open
Improvement WORDDV-198 Create hit areas on the left and right of the slide viewer. When clicked, the will advance the slideshow or go back. Ryan Ackley Open
New Feature WORDDV-197 Add a preview ability for Office files to new media browser in Confluence 3.0 Ryan Ackley Open
Improvement WORDDV-196 Better Cache/Queue management Ryan Ackley Open
Improvement WORDDV-146 Make the flash viewer be resizable Adnan Chowdhury Open
Bug WORDDV-136 Null Pointer Exception for viewfile macro on old version of page Jeremy Largman Open
New Feature WORDDV-129 Create a "Import Doc with Formatting" menu item Michael Spoonauer Open
New Feature WORDDV-116 enhance the {viewfile} macro to support the rendering of content from external locations like SharePoint and Documentum Ryan Ackley Open
Bug WORDDV-172 Textual changes to Office Connector Configuration Screen Sarah Maddox Open
Bug WORDDV-169 Cancel button would be nice on Import Advanced Options screen Sarah Maddox Open
Bug WORDDV-95 New lines disappear when opening in OpenOffice James Roper Open
Bug WORDDV-186 cannot have edit in word enabled in default and alternative themes simultaneously John Parlane Open
Bug WORDDV-152 viewfile macro does not observe the 1904 epoch flag in Excel documents when calculating dates Matthew Jensen Open
Bug WORDDV-64 Edit in word button not working for news item Ken Yagen Open
Bug WORDDV-154 Add zoom to viewfile flash control Ryan Ackley Open
New Feature WORDDV-134 Support Microsoft Project files in the viewmacro Adnan Chowdhury Open
Bug WORDDV-132 Doc import seems to intermittently fail on some cluster instances Ryan Ackley Open
Bug WORDDV-127 import doc to News causes ClassCastException Ivan Benko Open
Bug WORDDV-187 viewfile: java.io.IOException: Unable to read entire block; 1 byte read before EOF; expected 512 bytes Matt Hodges [Atlassian] Open
Bug WORDDV-176 Text on Office Connector plugin modules panel in Administration Console Sarah Maddox Open
New Feature WORDDV-133 Support Visio Files in the viewmacro Adnan Chowdhury Open
Bug WORDDV-138 Document causes a weird unknown image exception on import Ryan Ackley Open
Improvement WORDDV-157 Investigate improving conversion speed for large or hard to convert ppt background images Ryan Ackley Open
Improvement WORDDV-76 For first time users of viewfile macro, it is difficult to explain the need to hover over the top of what is being displayed to expose the grey edit bar. Steve Dantzer Open
New Feature WORDDV-110 Support Microsoft Office on the Mac Matt Hodges [Atlassian] Open
Bug WORDDV-112 ViewFile of the attached PDF Fails to fully load David Van Ronk Open
Improvement WORDDV-101 Please add support for new Office 2007 file formats .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx Tim Speer Open
Improvement WORDDV-109 Workaround for authentication login prompt when editing Microsoft Office files Emily Fort Open
Improvement WORDDV-183 Office Connector edits not recorded in user access logging Ryan Ackley Open
Bug WORDDV-168 Doc Import screen needs a better title Sarah Maddox Open
New Feature WORDDV-124 Enable "Click-to-Edit" capabilities on attachments Bill Arconati Open
Bug WORDDV-162 Problems previewing PDF Ryan Ackley Open
New Feature WORDDV-161 word/dav selective activation Ken Savich Open
New Feature WORDDV-125 Export Entire Space into one document with split feature Bill Arconati Open
Bug WORDDV-180 Firefox plugin should be signed by Atlassian not Benryan Sarah Maddox Open
Bug WORDDV-194 List numbering is off for a particular Word document when viewed through the viewfile macro Ryan Ackley Open
Improvement WORDDV-142 Make download link for excel and word files more intuitive, larger, more graphical with an icon Adnan Chowdhury Open
Improvement WORDDV-190 Support of OpenDocument in viewfile macro. Jean-Baptiste Catté Open
Improvement WORDDV-130 Make office connector work with IIS Jeremy Largman Open
New Feature WORDDV-3 Add an API for doing bulk imports of Documents Ryan Ackley Open
Bug WORDDV-38 Word/DAV does not honor EDIT locks Scott Open
Improvement WORDDV-135 Need a message for Doc Import when a user hasn't browsed a document yet but clicks "Advanced" or "Import" buttons Matthew Keeneth Open
New Feature WORDDV-175 Remove worddav prefix from image attachments from word documents Matt Hodges [Atlassian] Open
Bug WORDDV-195 Text box not rendering correctly for viewfile macro Jeremy Largman Open
Bug WORDDV-170 Capitalisation should be consistent on Import Advanced screen Sarah Maddox Open
Bug WORDDV-184 Office Connector - viewfile macro - graphics in a MS Word Drawing canvas not viewable Roy Hartono Open
Bug WORDDV-185 PDF export does not show Powerpoint Timothy Chin Open
New Feature WORDDV-75 Display Excel with viewfile that respects filters as last saved. Could also display spreadsheet as last saved as Excel does. Steve Dantzer Open
Improvement WORDDV-139 Add alignment param Jonathan Nolen Open
Improvement WORDDV-119 Create and include GIF and PNG versions of an icon for the "importworditem*" web-items Michael Spoonauer Open
Bug WORDDV-98 Importing a Word document as "new page in current space" has problems when the filename matches the first header Carl W. Hunt Open
Improvement WORDDV-155 Improve error handling for importing MS Word Docs with missing embedded images David Yu Open
Bug WORDDV-140 Axis labels do not display the correct format David Yu Open
Bug WORDDV-131 Viewfile macro fails to generate footnotes for Word docs Damon Rand Open
Improvement WORDDV-137 XLS Graphs rendered with viewfile do not export to pdf Jeremy Largman Open
New Feature WORDDV-108 Request to add other file types Carl W. Hunt Open
Bug WORDDV-193 Viewfile macro displays hidden PowerPoint slides. It shouldn't behave this way. Jay Simons Open
Task WORDDV-191 Document compatibility with SSO solutions Jeremy Largman Open
New Feature WORDDV-123 Add support for editable equations by displaying them using Latex markup language David Soul Open
New Feature WORDDV-188 Allow user to specify where in the page tree a document is imported when using the Doc Import feature Matt Hodges [Atlassian] Open

RELATED TOPICS

Working with the Office Connector

Configuring the Office Connector in the Confluence Administration Guide

Take me back to Confluence User Guide

Document generated by Confluence on Dec 03, 2008 15:17