Brian, Dave, Martin: Thank you all so much for your e-mail replies. I appreciate that you took the time to get back to me, and that you put up with my expletive-laced rant. Please forgive me if I burned any sensitive ears.
(Brian: not to worry — I didn’t give anyone money for the copy of OpenOffice that I use. I was kind of making a joke about free software.) (Oh, I also have a collegue who uses OpenOffice, and tells me that he has no troubles saving OpenOffice files from his desktop . . . so I am aware that this issue is probably specific to my own computer set-up or configuration.) So, down to cases: I am on a Macintosh machine running Mac OS 10.11.6 El Capitan. I am running OpenOffive 4.1.3. I am familiar with ‘invisible’ locked files from my use of InDesign, which creates a visible locked file when it opens. (I am able to open and save InDesign files from my desktop without crashing issues.) The OpenOffice crashes that I suffer occur when I have opened an OpenOffice file that resides on my desktop and then attempt to “Save-As” . . . see the attached screen shot for the resulting error message. (As a side note, I do not experience this behavior with any other type of file.) If I move the same OpenOffice file into a folder — even a folder that is on my desktop — open it, and do a “Save-As” into its location . . . the file saves, without any problems. However, if I try to save the same file to my desktop — OpenOffice crashes. It appears that OpenOffice does not like my desktop. So . . . foul language aside, is there something I can do to circumvent this crashing-behavior? (That is, besides the obvious “Don’t put OpenOffice files on your desktop or try to save them to your desktop.”) :-) Mark Neukom Preflight Department Wallace Carlson Printing 10825 Greenbrier Road Minnetonka, MN 55305 Direct: (952) 277-1229 Office: (952) 545-1645 Fax: (952) 546-8755 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> [cid:FD27C9E9-A891-4F71-AC09-E04B0A47E5D8] Dear Mark, As a Pre-Flight specialist I assume that you have checked that OpenOffice is the tool for your printing company On 24/10/17 6:09 AM, Preflight wrote: Sirs: I would like to use a lot of foul language here to express my irritation frustration with this application that crashes if the file is worked on while it resides on the desktop. Most crashes happen when you have a power glitch or when you shut down your system when it hasn't completed the saving process. (Polite language used) However, I understand that foul language might not be the best way of getting my issue heard and responded to. So, I will refrain from using foul language to describe how I feel about this application (regardless of how much money I have spent to use it), or its faults. I don’t understand why someone would make an application that could not work when the file is placed on the desktop (foul language removed). I don't understand this statement as OpenOffice works on a copy of the file until you save it. (Polite language used) Is there a reason someone would do this (foul language removed)? There is no reason someone should do this, therefore it hasn't been done. [All foul language has been removed from this e-mail by the sender . . . and that took MUCH longer to do than the writing of this missive . . .] I appreciate your time in letting me vent (foul language removed). I would love to receive a reply. You probably get a better reply if you give us more details on what you did when the crash happened. For example in the subject you say that you can't save the file, while in your description you say that the application crashes. Hi - Sorry you have run into an issue. Please let us know what version of OpenOffice you are using and what Operating System. Also which type of Openoffice document you are working on. Do you have the same problem if you have the file in your document folder? Regards, Dave Sent from my iPhone On Oct 23, 2017, at 5:56 PM, Brian Barker <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: At 14:09 23/10/2017 -0500, you wrote: I would like to use a lot of foul language here ... I'm glad you didn't. I'm also sorry that you are so frustrated; let's consider ... ... to express my irritation frustration with this application that crashes if the file is worked on while it resides on the desktop. Well, that's simply not true for me and for literally millions of other generally satisfied users out there. I can edit documents that are saved on the desktop with no problem ever. You must be doing something wrong: I wonder what. However, I understand that foul language might not be the best way of getting my issue heard and responded to. That's very likely so! So, I will refrain from using foul language to describe how I feel about this application (regardless of how much money I have spent to use it), or its faults. Hold on: what's that about money? OpenOffice is a *free* product, available from www.openoffice.org<http://www.openoffice.org> - the only official source - at no charge. You may have spent money on your internet service in order to download it, and you may have spent money on third-party teaching materials or a course in how you use it (none of which are payments to OpenOffice itself, of course), but you definitely should not have paid for the product itself. Some third party operators take the free product and sell it on, either unmodified or else with changes. If you have paid such an organisation, your beef is with them, not with OpenOffice itself. And since those versions can include malware, you are strongly advised not to use them. If you have done this, I suggest that you start by removing that modified product from you system and downloading and installing the Real Thing instead, from www.openoffice.org<http://www.openoffice.org> . You may then want to try to claim a refund from whoever you paid. I don't understand why someone would make an application that could not work when the file is placed on the desktop ... Good. Neither do I. And nobody did: Open Office does not behave like that. Is there a reason someone would do this ...? No. (And nobody did.) I appreciate your time in letting me vent ... No problem! I would love to receive a reply. It's very difficult to say what is happening here. As I say, this is not general behaviour of OpenOffice, so there must be something wrong on your system. You imply that the problem occurs only with document files on your desktop, so this is really a matter for your operating system, not for OpenOffice. The details then are dependant on what operating system you are using - which you have kept a secret; oh, but I think I can guess that you are using a Mac system? In order to edit a document file, you will obviously need permission to modify files in whatever folder (such as your desktop) that it is in. But you will also need permission to create files there, as OpenOffice creates a lock file in the same folder when you open a document file for editing in order to prevent simultaneous access by more than one user. This lock file is deleted when you close the document file. Note that you will probably not see this lock file, since it is intentionally given the "hidden" property. Folder permissions are a matter for your operating system, of course, not for an application such as OpenOffice. Do remember also that there may be other hardware or software problems with your computer. If your main use is or the heaviest demands on your computer occur when you are editing document files in OpenOffice (as may well be the case), the effects of such problems may show up then. But that doesn't mean that OpenOffice is the problem. You may have corruption on your hard disk, or problems with memory, or a fan problem causing overheating of the processor. Here are some ideas - but they are necessarily only guesses: o Run your computer's diagnostic routines to check for any obvious problems with your system's hardware. o Run your system's desk-checking routines, to check that your hard drive (which includes your desktop, of course) has no problems. o Check the permissions on your desktop folder. o As you use OpenOffice, your settings and configurations are saved and updated in an OpenOffice user profile. It's possible that your OpenOffice user profile has become corrupted. If you delete or rename your user profile (so as to disable it), OpenOffice will create a clean copy next time to you open it. If you are using Mac OS: + Close OpenOffice. + Click somewhere in the desktop to make the Finder active. You should see the word "Finder" as the second menu header (right next to the Apple logo) on your menu bar. Don't click this! + Further along the menu bar, you should now see a Go menu header. If you click this Go menu header (while the Finder is active), you will still not see what you need. But if you hold down your Option or Alt key as you click the Go menu, you will now see an enlarged Go menu, including Library. + Click Library from the enhanced Go menu to open the Library folder in the Finder. + Within the Library folder, browse to .../Application Support/OpenOffice/4 + Rename the "user" folder you find there (which contains the actual profile) in order to disable it. (Alternatively, you could just delete it.) + Restart OpenOffice, which should create a clean copy of the profile for you. o You could remove and reinstall OpenOffice, in case the installation itself is somehow corrupt. Version 4.1.4 has just been released, so it would be a good idea to upgrade to that anyway. I'm not suggesting that this new version has corrected a bug that relates to what you say, but installing a copy afresh might just cure something. (Note that user profiles are intentionally preserved across reinstallations or upgrades, so as to maintain your settings - so doing this will not obviate checking your profile as above.) o Otherwise you may need a local expert to have a hands-on check of your system. I trust this helps. Brian Barker - privately
