[DESKTOP] Random Paste from Clipboard into LibreOffice Writer

[philthane]

I often work on an LO document for several days, leaving it open in the background while I do more pressing or more interesting things, then go back to it. For some time, I think since I upgraded to KDE 4, when I go back to the document I sometimes find random snippets of text inserted at various points. Most are recognisable as things I've copy and pasted into other documents or into a browser search bar. I think some are just links I clicked.

The problem is, it is very hard to pin down. I've tried several times creating a test document then leaving it open while I deliberately copy and paste, but I can't make it happen. There has to be some unusual set of actions that causes it. On at least one occasion it caused some embarrassment when a bit of text appeared in a long document I finished but not sent, and I didn't go back and check it before sending later in the day. It could be a security issue too I suppose, depending on what is inserted where and who gets to see it. Given it's so hard to repeat there's no point filing a bug report. Has anyone else found the same, and got any idea how it happens?

I currently run Kubuntu 15.10 and LO 5.x, but this goes back at least to Kubuntu 14.x and LO4.x

[Rod J]

That's certainly an odd problem and I've never heard or seen it myself.

You may have tried this yourself: One way to spot if the document has been changed inadvertently would be to save it just before you go off and do something else. You will see that the Save icon at the top changes to a lighter shade when the document has been saved. Then, when you return to the document later check to see if the Save icon has changed to the darker colour indicating that something has changed in the interim. Mouse over the Undo icon to see what has been changed.

It would be tricky trying to figure out what could cause this to happen. It's a long shot but maybe try running Memtest86+ in case there's some memory error there.

[Qqmike]

(@Rod J: pretty clever idea you have there; just checked it here to see how that would work )

[philthane]

It's a long shot but maybe try running Memtest86+ in case there's some memory error there.

I'll do that when not so busy. Thanks.

[Feathers McGraw]

It's quite easy to accidentally copy+paste by clicking the middle scroll wheel, and because the action affects whichever window you're hovering over at the time you might be pasting into the document by accident.

Here's quite a quick+easy thing you can try: disable scroll wheel click on your mouse.

You can do this by creating a config file in your home directory called .Xmodmap:

echo "pointer = 1 6 3 4 5 2" > ~/.Xmodmap

And then log out and back in again.

If you want to revert the changes just delete the file:

rm ~/.Xmodmap

I found that tip here and have been using it for a while:

https://www.maketecheasier.com/disab...ux-quick-tips/