Problem with Swriter in OpenOffice 3.2

Topic

New Reply

I work with Calc and Presentation with no difficulty, that is, if I double-click an *.xls or a *.ppt file, the appropriate part of OO3.2 shows up and loads the files happily. (I save all files in the MicroSoft format,) When I double-click a *.doc file, I get rejected with an “Access Denied” message. I am working in XP SP3 on an HP desktop, and am the absolute owner of all files on the machine. What am I missing or doing wrong? BTW, if I go to the OO3.2 icon, there is no difficulty in loading these files directly from the desktop icon. Help! Note: I have the same problem with “Access Denied” when trying to use Sandboxie.

Reply | Quote

Replies

When I double-click a *.doc file, I get rejected with an “Access Denied” message. … BTW, if I go to the OO3.2 icon, there is no difficulty in loading these files directly from the desktop icon.

There may be a glitch in the registry for .doc files. Can you find a way to force OOo to re-register itself as the default handler for .doc files?

Reply | Quote

I have no copy of MS Word on my machine, so OOo has to be the default handler of *.doc files, unless, somehow, Wordpad is interrupting. I save all documents in the available Word 97/2000/etc format.

As mentioned above, if first I load OOo, I can open all the *.doc files by searching for any specific document within OO. That nuisance seems to be avoided for *.xls and Presentation files, which open automatically by the usual double-clicking. It might be some sort of a path problem, but I haven’t figured that one out yet. I had the problem in earlier versions of OO, so I have had to reload the complete OO package several times, each time freshly downloaded.

Reply | Quote

See whether this article on the OpenOffice.org Community Forum helps: [Tutorial] Setting the default program for MS Office formats.

Reply | Quote

See whether this article on the OpenOffice.org Community Forum helps: [Tutorial] Setting the default program for MS Office formats.

I tried using the suggested utility, but it didn’t change the situation! Is my problem one to be referred to the creators of OOo? Is it conceivable that it might be a bug in HP’s dialect of Windows XP SP3? Does is signify anything that I have the “Access Denied” with the Sandboxie program?

I have been slow with my replies because I have lived with the situation so very long. Thanks for trying to help.

Reply | Quote

Does is signify anything that I have the “Access Denied” with the Sandboxie program?

That could be an important clue, but I’m not sure I understand it. Is OpenOffice.org configured to open in Sandboxie? Or?? Can you explain in more detail?

Reply | Quote

I removed Sandboxie entirely, to avoid any complications, but still have my basic problem of “Access Denied” when I double-click on a *.doc file. There is the same problem when I double-click on an .rtf file. That is, unless I load OOo first and then open these files from within OOo itself. I can live with that, but what troubles me is that .xls and Presentation files don’t exhibit the same problem.

Remember that I had “Access Denied” when opening the browser Firefox from within Sandboxie, before I removed Sandboxie. Perhaps that is a clue.

JLL

Reply | Quote

I also use OpenOffice.org 3.2 Writer on an HP XP SP3 desktop, but have not had the same problem.

The only thing I can think of is that you say the DOC opens in Wordpad, and to my knowledge Wordpad is a watered down version of MSWord 6.

I would suggest trying the right click on a DOC file, select Open With, browse to your OpenOffice.org Writer exe file, select it and make sure you check the box for “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file”, then click the OK button.

It seems like your file associations have gotten screwed up somehow.

Reply | Quote

To close out this thread: I did nothing at all, simply faithfully applied Microsoft XP patches. The problem solved itself. Now, when I double-click on an OO swriter file (saved as a *.doc), it now behaves normally and brings up the swriter file from any location on the computer. As you may recall, I used to get an “access denied” message.

This confirms my impression that the particular HP dialect of XP SP3 which I have is a little peculiar. For example, I have a USB external drive which cannot be partitioned by standard Microsoft hardware.

Thanks for all the attempts at help.

Reply | Quote