At 15:58 23/08/2019 -0500, Jonly Wonly wrote:
I've been using Open Office for quite a while and it seemed to be
working well. A few weeks ago, I tried to open one of my
spreadsheets and it wouldn't open, my computer kept trying to open it in Excel.
Your operating system keeps "associations" by which it remembers
which application it thinks you want it to use by default for files
of certain types when you double-click these outside any application.
You have kept your operating system a secret, but you appear to be
using Windows 10. Microsoft's updates have sometimes been known to
modify these associations to point some file types back to Microsoft
Office products instead of what you are used to. You may have a trial
version of Microsoft Office (including Excel) installed - or vestiges
of it - that came with your system when supplied.
You can very easily open a document file in any application you
choose that is capable of handling it. If you wish to open your
existing document in OpenOffice, first start OpenOffice - using a
desktop icon you may have or certainly the programs list obtainable
from the Start button (bottom left corner of screen). From *within*
OpenOffice, use File | Open... to browse to and open your document
file. If this doesn't work, your document file is corrupted.
Tried again today, same thing, so I reinstalled Open Office.
Since your problem is with your operating system attempting to use an
inappropriate application, the problem cannot be with OpenOffice. So
no need for or purpose in reinstallation.
I am still unable to open this file.
Try from within OpenOffice, as explained above.
Question: Is there a way to retrieve the file I'm trying to open
from a previous save?
Go back to your most recent back-up copy of your document and
continue working from there. Because problems can happen at any time,
you need to keep regular, reliable back-up copies of all your files
on some external device - perhaps a flash drive or an external drive
or somewhere in the cloud. Put simply, any document of which you have
only one copy you don't really have at all. You may want to keep
hard-copy back-ups too, so that any document could be reconstructed
if absolutely necessary.
But try this:
o In OpenOffice, go to Tools | Options... | OpenOffice | Paths.
o Make a note of the path shown for Backups.
o Outside OpenOffice - using your operating system's facilities (File
Explorer in Windows 10) - navigate to that folder.
o Is there a file with the same name as your document file but with
the .bak extension?
o If so, *make a copy of this in one of your own folders*, rename the
copy to change its extension to the original (.ods?), and open this
file in OpenOffice. Continue working from there.
If there is no back-up file present, it may be that you do not have
this option selected. Go to Tools | Options... | Load/Save | General
| Save, and tick "Always create a backup copy". That will be no help
for the present problem, of course, but might help in the future.
If I'm right and your problem is with changed associations, you can
reset them easily:
Either:
o Right-click a file of the relevant type and choose Open with >.
o Select OpenOffice (or browse to it if necessary).
o Before clicking OK, tick the "Always use this app ..." box.
Or:
o Go to Start | Settings | Apps | Default apps | Choose default apps
by file type.
o Select your preferred application for each relevant file type -
identified by its file name extension.
I trust this helps.
Brian Barker
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