Re: Brian Barker re Is there a limit to page number correction values in OO?

[PCS]

Dear Brian,

You have initiated broader discussion, so I shall respond.

Your "Are you perhaps for some reason prejudiced against OpenOffice?” sounds 
like an equivalent of my father’s “If you can’t afford a Dodge, dodge a Ford” 
when he owned a 1928 Dodge (our first family car) and his “If you can’t afford 
a Ford, dodge a Dodge” when he subsequently owned a 1953 Ford Customline, i.e. 
it demonstrates the tribalism of belonging or ownership, the same phenomenon 
seen in football fans, religious bigots (including aggressive atheists), 
political party faithful, and “my country, right or wrong” nationalists. And 
Trump supporters.

Everything is limited, except God, if he is real, including computer apps, no 
one app does everything, even one suite does not do everything, it is always a 
matter of 'horses for courses'. Having said that, I have found no significant 
limits in OpenOffice and LibreOffice in relation to what they are intended to 
do, except that I gave up trying to get the Data Base to work years ago (I was 
spoiled by the old easy to set-up and use AppleWorks DBs), but even choosing 
between OO and LO is a matter of 'horses for courses’, they are functional 
equivalents but support slightly different ways of working and have some other 
minor differences, and if you want to write a book or a play or a collection of 
poems or short stories or academic treatises, no conventional WP is the best 
horse for that course, you really need an application like Scrivener, by 
Literature & Latte, for that. And if you want to write a concerto you need 
something else again.

Pride of ownership really is a bit silly, Brian, each of us needs to find the 
best ‘horses' to ride to our particular destinations, whether they be a 
Lambretta scooter, a Hummer 4WD, or an Outback Road Train. Or OO or LO or MS 
Office, or PageMaker, or Scrivener, or Bible Study, or whatever.
 
PCS. 


> On 25 Mar 2023, at 5:00 am, Brian Barker  
> wrote:
> 
> At 18:30 24/03/2023 +0100, Amin Jack Pedziwiater wrote:
>> On Fri, Mar 24, 2023, 18:28 Joana Ottenbacher wrote:
>>> I am currently trying to split my work in separate pieces to decrease 
>>> saving and usage lags. I want to pick the page count up from where I split. 
>>> So I set the count correction to "+925". That doesn't give me any page 
>>> number back. Is this a known issue or do I do something wrong here?
>> 
>> Yes, there is a limit. OpenOffice is limited.
> 
> No, there is no limit. What may be limited is your understanding of 
> OpenOffice.
> 
> Are you perhaps for some reason prejudiced against OpenOffice?
> 
> Brian Barker 
> 
> 
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Re: Recovery of documents

[PCS]

Dear John,



I do not recommend replacing the HDD in your new computer with the one salvaged 
from your old computer as seemed to be suggested by one person, much better to 
leave the new computer as it is and just copy your data across to it from the 
backup drive, or from the salvaged HDD using a docking station like Andrew P. 
suggested or a cheaper converter like the one I use (see attached pic).

Copying from your old backup drive would be the best way to go, unless your old 
computer was not fully backed up when it failed, in which case using the 
salvaged HDD might allow you to restore more data.

I have an earlier version of the simple USB to SATA converter shown in my pic, 
(USB type A instead of type C as shown), bought initially to copy data from a 
HDD removed from an old no longer working computer (sound familiar?) and used 
occasionally since then to access other SATA HDDs without enclosures, and it 
has always worked well.

By the way, this is for 2.5” SATA, which I assume your HDD ex Win 10 will be, 
but there was an older bigger SATA drive, so before you buy a converter, if you 
need to, please check its size to ensure you get the right size SATA connector, 
or get the docking bay recommended by Andrew, which takes both sizes.

PCS.


> On 20 Mar 2023, at 3:28 am, Andrew Pitonyak  wrote:
> 
> If you're hard drive has already been removed from the computer, you might be 
> able to use something like this
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-External-Enclosure-Docking-ST0014U-D/dp/B01J4XNLN6
> 
> Don't just buy the thing I linked, but understand first, is your hard drive 
> that was removed from your old computer SATA that would work with that 
> particular device. The advantage of the device I linked to, is that if you 
> have a hard drive and you don't want to put it into an enclosure or install 
> it in your computer, you can just push it into place plug everything in and 
> things will generally just work.
> 
> I have an older version of that and I use it all the time. When people say 
> hey. Can you get something off this hard drive.
> 
> note that there are probably cheaper solutions, like simply plugging it into 
> your existing computer if you have any ability to do that.
> 
> Yes, I know that there are more permanent external drive enclosures that 
> don't leave the hard drive exposed. And if you want to use the drive off and, 
> that would be a better solution.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ⁣Get BlueMail for Android ​
> 
> On Mar 19, 2023, 1:04 PM, at 1:04 PM, John Thomas  wrote:
>> I am 88 and not so swift anymore. My Win10 desktop computer power
>> supply
>> went out. I was able to save the HDD and an external drive backup. I
>> have needed medical and legal records I need to recover. I have a new
>> Win11 desktop. How can I get these documents? Please, please give meme
>> help! Thank you. John
>> 
>> 
>> --
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Re: new version of OO?

[PCS]

I have just received the official update notification. It says the update is 
for MacOS_x86-64. Is that compatible with an M1Mac Mini running OS 12.6.3 or is 
it only for Intel Macs? I had some glitches in the previous OO update so have 
been using LibreOffice instead of OO for the past couple of months (some pros, 
some cons), and I’m wondering if the OO problems might have been 
incompatibility with the M1 chip, or if it would be worth trying this OO update?

PCS.



> On 27 Feb 2023, at 9:39 am, David Robley  wrote:
> 
> Expect it within 24 hours.
> 
> On 27/02/2023 09:35, PCS wrote:
>> When will the new version of OO be released?
>> 
>> PCS
>> 
>>> On 26 Feb 2023, at 9:49 pm, Matthias Seidel  
>>> wrote:
>>>  I will have a deeper look later after we released the new version of 
>>> OpenOffice.
>>> 
>>> Regards,
>>> 
>>>Matthias
>>> 
>> 
> 
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Re: My file is gone - did you not backup?

[PCS]

 at 
present, because for alternate TM backups both drives need to be connected, so 
with two TM backups you wont have a backup in the fireproof safe unless you 
also have a manual backup.

By the way, if you don’t have much data that needs to be backed up, cloud 
storage might work for you, but I’ve got too much data on my computer and our 
ADSL connection is too slow, so I only have a few of our most important files 
in the cloud, and even with cloud backups a Mac user should also be using Time 
machine.

PCS

> On 2 Mar 2023, at 6:33 am, Seckin Uzun  wrote:
> 
> Hi there,
> 
> I lost my file when I clicked the discard button accidentally.
> 
> I checked the box showing autosave in every 15 minutes as marked, but I
> couldn't see where to restore the file on my Macbook Air.
> 
> Can you help me with this?
> I had so many hours of studying in that document
> 
> Thank you
> 
> Seckin I Uzun

Re: new version of OO?

[PCS]

When will the new version of OO be released?

PCS

> On 26 Feb 2023, at 9:49 pm, Matthias Seidel  
> wrote:
>  I will have a deeper look later after we released the new version of 
> OpenOffice.
> 
> Regards,
> 
>Matthias
> 

Re: Hi, I'm wondering about ODF in comparison to DOCX

[PCS]

Microsoft’s exclusivity is good reason for everybody to get rid of MS Office 
and use a productivity suite like OpenOffice or LibreOffice that has file types 
that are widely accessible - MS Office is no better than OO and LO, perhaps it 
has more features theoretically but I never found anything I wasn’t able to do 
in OO or LO, and it is definitely not worth the subscription pricing, I had it 
for several years because our school system requires students to use MS Office, 
it is possible to use OO or LO instead of MS Office but is a bit inconvenient, 
so because the children had an education licence that we didn’t have to pay for 
we used MS Office, but I was glad to be rid of it when there were no more 
students in the house, it is slow to boot, a huge pain when a file 
automatically opens in MS Office because you forgot to tell it to use OO or LO, 
and it is inconvenient to use c.f. OO and LO, perhaps just a matter of 
familiarity but I think MS Office really is more clunky than OO and LO, so when 
the children finished High School I uninstalled MS Office even before the Ed. 
licence ended.

However, I’ve almost entirely moved on from word processors, I only use OO or 
LO for spreadsheets and use Scrivener for almost all of my writing. But I 
hardly do any business writing these days, you would need a WP for that.

PCS. 

> On 17 Feb 2023, at 3:58 am, W. Robert J. Funnell, Prof. 
>  wrote:
> 
> Nikhil -
> 
> Microsoft have done their best to make it impossible for others to create 
> .docx files.
> 
> Apache OpenOffice can save files in the older .doc format. LibreOffice 
> (www.libreoffice.org) can save files in the .docx format, but the process 
> isn't perfect. It usually works fine for simple documents.
> 
> If you save your files as .odt or .doc, users of MS Word will be able to open 
> them.
> 
> - Robert
> 
> From: Nikhil Kartha 
> Sent: February 16, 2023 08:53
> 
> The reason I installed OpenOffice is because my dad recommended it when I
> was facing an issue with the copy of MS Office that we had. It is quite an
> annoyance however that the DOCX files when opened with OpenWriter have to
> be converted to ODF inorder to be saved. We typically use Windows and MS
> Office is just shipped with it usually. I want to guess that this is also
> an online compatible filetype as GMail and Whatsapp are able to open it.
> However, I have not had the chance to test ODF and would like to know why
> the software forces this conversion and ontop of that states there will be
> loss of something when saving in this format.
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Re: Recover Deleted File

[PCS]

Yes, there is a way to recover a deleted file on the Mac.

Enter Time Machine, scroll back from Today / Now to the last time the Mac was 
backed up before you deleted the file (up to an hour before you deleted it, if 
your Mac had been on for a while that session, or the previous time you used 
the computer if the file wasn’t backed up during that session), then locate the 
file on TM and and open it. If I remember correctly you can then save the file 
back to your computer for normal access, but if I’ve missed a step you might 
have to read the Help file to get that right, it’s a while since I've needed to 
do this.

This assumes that you have set up Time Machine of course. If you haven’t then 
you should do so now, so that you are ready for the next time something like 
this happens.

I also have a few very important documents backed up to iCloud (i.e. off site), 
and I do a manual backup every few months, or after any important changes, and 
I keep the manual backup disks in a small fireproof safe (about $200 at 
Bunnings if I remember correctly), but TM is my primary backup, it works well, 
it keeps backups for a long time back (how long depends on the size of your 
backup disk) and it is easy to recover files from it, even if you haven’t done 
so for a while and have forgotten how to.

If you are keeping business records etc. you should use TM as your primary 
backup, because it backs up every hour (if the place catches fire unmount the 
backup disk and grab it and and run, and your backups will be no more than an 
hour old, and will be easy to restore on your replacement computer), and you 
should also make a daily or weekly manual backup and store it in a safe place 
away from the computer, e.g. in a fireproof safe on site, and a have weekly or 
monthly backup kept off site (e.g. in a bank safety deposit box), rotating the 
backup disks (e.g. portable HDs or SSDs, or USB flash drives), never overwrite 
the most recent one, overwrite the one before that, so you don’t lose your most 
recent data if you have a copying glitch while backing up, and you always have 
two manual backups, the latest and the one before that, in case of a failed 
disk.

I’m guessing you probably don’t need that level of backup security, if you did 
you’d have it already and wouldn’t be asking how to recover your file, but 
every Mac user should at least have Time Machine set up, it is invaluable for 
little problems like your file loss and it would be a life-saver if you had a 
major data loss.

PCS


> On 22 Jan 2023, at 7:43 am, eeirv...@gmail.com wrote:
> 
> I was requesting a Print Page Preview of my  Spreadsheet File. When it opened 
> it looked ok so I clicked on the red button in the top left corner of the 
> Print Preview Screen (Mac Pro late 2012) and it asked me if I wanted to save, 
> Discard, Cancel. I thought it was speaking about the Print Page Review Screen 
> and not the File it self. I hit discard and it deleted my spreadsheet file. 
> Maybe it should have asked me if I wanted to delete the file after I selected 
> the Discard button.
> 
> Is there a way to recover my spreadsheet fie?
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> Edwin Irving
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Re: Take a cell value from a spreadsheet into another

[PCS]

Dear Richard,

I think you will find that if you copy the cell in the original spreadsheet 
normally, then in the spreadsheet you want to paste the information into use 
the Paste Special command in the Edit Menu instead of doing a standard paste, 
and in the window that opens select what you want to be pasted, e.g. in this 
case (if I have correctly understood) “Paste Value”, or maybe it’s “Paste 
Number”, I’m going from memory here, and I’m currently using LO, and OO and LO 
do it a little differently, so the details may not be exactly as I have 
outlined, but the fundamental is to use Paste Special instead of a normal 
paste. And it is not limited to copying single cells, you can copy a selected 
group of cells. This works not only between OpenOffice spreadsheets and between 
OpenOffice and LibreOffice, I also routinely paste data from Google Sheets to 
OO or LO using Paste Special to get it from another person’s Android phone to 
my records.

If I’ve understood your problem correctly I think this should solve your 
problem.

Peter.


> On 16 Nov 2022, at 9:19 pm, Amin Jack P©dziwiater 
>  wrote:
> 
> Dearer Sir
> You struggling because you misunderstand the OO Suite's construction. There 
> are the different programs with different engines to do different functions 
> for create and manage different forms of documentation within one compatible 
> System itself. Results of formulas are counted and displayed only on 
> subprograms they created. That's idea of open source software. I seem, I 
> cannot help you with your problem anymore.
> A.J.P.
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: Richard Gill [mailto:richard.gill1...@gmail.com] 
> Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2022 11:23 AM
> To: users@openoffice.apache.org
> Subject: Take a cell value from a spreadsheet into another
> 
> Dear Sir
> 
> I am struggling to find a way to display the results of a formula when
> editing into a different document. It picks up the formatting, but not the
> results.
> 
> Can you help please?
> 
> Richard Gill
> 
> 
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Re: need help, please

[PCS]

Dear Marie,

I’ve had the 'do you want to reopen' or 'do you want to recover' messages from 
time to time, but the recovery has always worked for me so I’ve never had to 
fix your problem. But I offer the following suggestions:

1.   Have you tried restarting your Mac to see if that clears the problem? 
My apologies for stating the obvious, but just in case you are an ‘always on’ 
person and that slipped your mind.

2.  If the app is really stuck and nobody else offers a better solution, I 
would uninstall OpenOffice (i.e. drag it from the apps folder to the trash) and 
then download and install a fresh copy of the app. (And hope that the problem 
doesn’t carry through in any settings or extensions that weren’t replaced when 
you replaced the app.) I’m still using ADSL internet so it takes a while to 
download a new copy of an app, but it’s probably better to just do that than to 
spend even more time and personal energy chasing a ‘better’ solution.

3.  In the unlikely event that installing a virgin copy of OpenOffice 
doesn’t fix the problem, I would try replacing OO with LibreOffice, on the 
chance that might fix it.

I haven’t been down into the engine room of a Mac since OS-X replaced the 
Classic OS, but simple work-arounds like these usually work for me when I have 
a problem that has to be fixed and I don’t know how to fix it. It may be 
equivalent to using a sledge hammer instead of precision tools, but if it works 
without doing any damage, then why not use it?

Peter.


> On 13 Nov 2022, at 7:49 am, mastill2...@mchsi.com wrote:
> 
> Hi -- I can not use my home computer (I Mac OS X) past several days because 
> the OpenOffice is stuck. It won't open or close.  
> A box appears with this note
> The last time you opened OpenOffice, it unexpectedly quit 
> while reopening windows.  Do you want to try to reopen its windows again?
>   Don't ReopenReopen
> 
> It won't change, no matter which little box I click at the bottom.  
> Please help me,  Thanks you!Marie Still
> 
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Re: Calc Spreadsheet Questions (Linda)

[PCS]

1.  Make the font size bigger, then make the row height bigger, to fit the 
selected font size, or select optimal height to have the spreadsheet 
automatically adjust the row height for the text size, and also to auto-adjust 
for multiple lines of text in a cell if you use text wrapping, and finally 
adjust the cell width to fit the larger text or to determine where to wrap it.

•   If it is possible to change the default font size I don't know how, but 
if you create a template with the settings you prefer and save it as stationery 
you can open a new document that is ready to use without having to change font 
sizes etc.

2.  I don’t know how Windows deals with this but I believe OO and LO are 
pretty consistent across platforms (they certainly are on Mac and Linux, that 
is one of their ’selling’ points), so try copying the data in the Word document 
and using Edit / Paste Special / Paste Special… (in the first Paste Special 
menu), and in the next dialog box select “Use text import dialog”, then OK. 
Using LO on the Mac (I’ve recently switched from OO) that placed a group of tab 
or return separated numbers (see below) from a text document into different 
cells in the spreadsheet and made them able to be used in it (a simple copy and 
paste does not do this, it ignores the tabs and puts a whole row of numbers 
into a single cell). I’m pretty sure OO did the much same on the Mac and it 
should be pretty similar on Windows. Expert users probably have a better way of 
doing this, which could be worth learning if you are doing it often, but if you 
only do it occasionally and this works for you why waste time and effort 
learning to become an expert, just use the tools that you already have to hand.

123 456 789
987 654 321

This group of numbers was pasted into a spreadsheet as described above.

123 456 789 
1368
987 654 321 
1962





111011101110
3330





And these calculations were performed on them (the imported text size has been 
adjusted to be the same as the other text in this document).

•   If I have misunderstood and you are copying from a Spreadsheet to a 
text document, a simple copy and paste should work, though some text resizing 
and tidying up may be required. To copy largish portions of a sheet you could 
make a screen pic of the portion you want to use and insert that into your text 
document, but it will be displayed as a graphics object instead of being 
integrated into the text. If all that you want is a particular sheet or a 
selected portion of a sheet, with no other text or data that is not in the 
spreadsheet itself, it may be better just to save the selected portion of the 
spreadsheet as a PDF document, e.g. my wife operates a very small business and 
I do her monthly invoices that way and email out the PDF documents, because we 
can’t justify the cost of proper invoicing software for such a micro-business.

3.  Sorry, I’m not sure what’s happening there, maybe a Windows issue or 
maybe an OO setting that I’ve forgotten exists, or maybe something else 
entirely.

I hope some of this may be of use to you,

Peter.


> On 7 Nov 2022, at 4:03 am, Linda Hull  wrote:
> 
> I'm on Windows 10, Open Office 4.1.11.
> 
> I'd like to:
> 
> 1. Make the cells and text in a Calc spreadsheet larger, easier to read.
> 2. Put data on a spreadsheet that appears in a Writer document.  I send
> simple letters, don't know page styles etc.
> 
> Are there directions somewhere or can someone explain the steps?
> 
> 3. In the past, when I've saved and reopened a spreadsheet, the headings I
> put in appear lower down.  Is there a way to make them stay at the top?
> 
> Thanks so much!
> 
> Linda

Re: Constant crashes

[PCS]

Possible work-arounds?

Dear Susan,

I have no idea why OpenOffice is not working for you, unless perhaps your 
computer’s OS is too old or too new for the version you have installed, or you 
have caught a virus, but maybe it would be worth uninstalling OpenOffice and 
trying LibreOffice, they are very similar. I used OpenOffice for many years, 
enough that I forget how many (maybe 10 or 12?), until recently, when the 
latest upgrade seemed to introduce some glitches. None of them were serious 
enough to cause me to drop OO if the LibreOffice alternative had not been 
available, but I decided to switch. I have used LibreOffice occasionally on 
Linux for about as long as I was using OpenOffice on the Mac, and have now 
switched to LibreOffice on my Mac. Some features of LO are better than OO and 
others not quite as good, and there are a few slightly different ways of doing 
things in the latest LO on the Mac that I’m still having to come to grips with, 
there can be a learning curve even with similar apps. I'm not sure which of the 
two open source productivity suites is better, but there’s not enough in it to 
be worthwhile for me to change back to Open Office at this stage. I had to 
choose one of them though, because with different upgrade status you get 
annoying wrong version notices that you have to keep dismissing if you have 
both, and also some default app fluidity. I suspect you may have bigger 
problems than OO v/s LO, but it may be worth trying LibreOffice before you give 
up on the free software.

By the way, OO and LO are alternatives for Microsoft Office (word, spreadsheet, 
drawing, etc.), and in my opinion they are better (at least for what I have 
used them for), regardless of price (MS Office is slow to launch and is not as 
user friendly in my opinion), but they are not alternatives for any Adobe app I 
have used. I’m not an Adobe expert or fan, far from it, but I wonder if you are 
trying to do something with OpenOffice that it is not programmed to do, and are 
crashing it. That would be extremely unusual, but perhaps may be worth checking.

From the way you say you are working around your problem, I have the impression 
you may just want a writing app, not a full office suite. The best writing app 
I know of, if you only want writing, not spreadsheet etc., just a sort of super 
word processor and project organiser, is Scrivener. It's not free but it's very 
reasonably priced, a one-off payment, not subscription, and a discount price 
for the occasional major upgrades, and a free trial period so you can try 
before you buy. I can’t remember how long I’ve been using it, and I can’t 
imagine how I would cope without it, and I only use a small fraction of its 
full capability, so it might be worth considering if you are a writer. In case 
you are wondering, I seldom use the WP in my productivity suite any more, 
Scrivener has been my normal writing app for several years, but I use the 
spreadsheet in the productivity suite a lot and the drawing application 
occasionally for simple stuff that doesn’t need CAD software.

I fear this response may not be genuinely helpful, and I apologise if that is 
the case, but I’ll send it through on the chance that it may offer you 
something.

Regards,

Peter.


> On 20 Oct 2022, at 9:04 am, S P  wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I've come to loathe the scammy Adobe and WORD services.  I've paid them
> thousands and they just keep wanting more. and more and more $$  So, I
> decided to give Apache Open Office a try.
> Unfortunately, even with the latest version, every document I attempt to
> create crashes and loses info, even after saving.  Everything is fully
> updated.  It just randomly crashes and I have to recreate.
> 
> In addition, finding simple functions, like adding page numbers is not at a
> intuitive and editing documents is a nightmare; make such a mess of things,
> I actually print, edit by hand, and scan back in, so I can complete my
> work, adding on needless hours of labor.
> 
> So, I guess I will have to go back to the 2 biggest extortionists because
> Apache Open Office has is slowed my work flow to a halt.
> 
> Frustrated and tired of being fleeced,
> 
> Susan
> greatoutdoors...@gmail.com


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Re: Help!!!!!

[PCS]

I use locked files as a work-around for stationery because Mac OS hasn’t done 
that right since the classic OS, i.e. since before OS-X. I don’t remember how 
locked OpenOffice files could be unlocked (I haven’t used OO recently), but 
locked (i.e. Read Only) LibreOffice documents have an “Edit Document” button 
just below the top RH corner that unlocks them. When you try to type into a 
locked RTF document it opens a small menu panel, maybe OpenOffice did it that 
way? But if there is no convenient way to unlock a document after you have 
opened it you can, on the Mac, right-click on the document’s icon, select “Get 
Info” in the pop-up menu, and untick the “Locked” box, then the document will 
no longer be locked. I don’t know how to do this on Windows, but I’m sure it 
must have some equivalent procedure.

Peter.


> On 19 Oct 2022, at 1:49 pm, colh...@bresnan.net wrote:
> 
> Thanks!
> 
>   -From: "Alan Pearce" 
> To: users@openoffice.apache.org
> Cc: 
> Sent: Tuesday October 18 2022 1:02:35AM
> Subject: Re: Help!
> 
> I sometimes find that a file opens as "Read Only" by closing it and
> re-opening it reverts back to normal.Hope this helps,Alan.
> 
>  Original message 
> From: colh...@bresnan.net
> Date: 18/10/2022 04:36 (GMT+00:00)
> To: "'users@openoffice.apache.org'" 
> Subject: Help!
> 
> I have somehow set my spreadsheet to READ ONLY and cannot figure
> outhow to reset it so that I can update it. I have gone
> toFILE/PROPERTIES and have Record Changes checked but it is grayed
> out.Help!Thanks in advance for any help you can
> provide.Phil


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Re: Problem

[PCS]

Dear Hugh,

You say that Microsoft [Office] has taken over all your OpenOffice files. That 
suggests it is the default productivity application suite. If you genuinely 
have "no use whatsoever" for Microsoft office, uninstalling it should free you 
from it and cause your documents to be opened by another app, e.g. OpenOffice 
or LibreOffice, provided that a suitable app is available, but I can’t remember 
if the available or selected app automatically becomes the new default app or 
if you have to set the default.

I say uninstalling MS Office "should free you from it" because I do not know if 
a MS Windows computer will allow you to uninstall MS Office, perhaps Mr Gates 
may insist that you keep MS Office so that he can keep billing you for it 
because you have to use it because it keeps preventing you from using any 
alternative. I had MS Office on my Mac under an Education licence for a few 
years, because it was required for my children’s schoolwork, but I uninstalled 
it when they no longer needed it (and I was glad to be rid of it), but I don’t 
know if you can uninstall it from a Windows computer.

However, you should not have to uninstall MS Office unless you really do want 
to get rid of it, you should be able to open your documents with any available 
alternate application. On the Mac this is done by right-clicking on the 
document’s icon, then scrolling in the selection window to “Open With” and 
selecting the app you want to use from the list of available applications, or 
selecting “Other …” to open the Applications folder if the app you want to use 
is not listed in the initial selection window, or selecting “App Store …” if 
the app you want is not installed, then download and install the app, or in the 
case of OO or LO go instead to the download website to get the app.  

The previous paragraph outlines how to open a document on the Mac with a 
non-default app (unless the default app is the only one available). I assume 
that Windows must offer some equivalent procedure. It is a long time since I 
have reset the default app for a document on the Mac, so I would probably have 
to look up how to do it now, which I assume you should be able to do as easily 
as me, and if you are using Windows it will almost certainly be a different 
procedure anyway, so there would be no point in me telling you how to do it on 
the Mac, but surely Windows cannot be so inferior to the Mac that it doesn't 
let you set a default app when more than one of your installed apps is able to 
open a document? I prefer the Mac for its desktop, dock, and filing system, the 
OS itself is all but irrelevant, because whether you use Mac, Linux, or Windows 
they all do pretty much the same thing, they just go about it a bit 
differently, so what you can do on one you should be able to do on another.

In the unlikely event that you discover that your problem actually is in 
OpenOffice rather than in the OS’s default app configuration, you could try 
LibreOffice, a popular alternative to OpenOffice. I have used OO routinely on 
the Mac for many years, and I occasionally used LO on Linux (their documents 
are interchangeable), and I have recently switched from OO to LO on the Mac 
because the last OO update seemed to introduce some glitches. Some features are 
implemented better on OO than on LO, and some are better on LO than OO, and a 
couple of LO’s ways of doing things still annoy me even though I should be used 
to them by now, but LO is at least as good as OO overall, so if you are having 
problems with OO it could be worth trying LO, but I doubt that your problem is 
in the app, you will almost certainly find it is in the default app selection.

Regards,

Peter.


> On 18 Oct 2022, at 10:34 pm, Hugh McEachern  wrote:
> 
> Attn: Open Office,
> 
> We are unable to access our open office files on our computer. It keeps 
> giving a error message.
> I have downloaded the latest open office but it still wont work.
> Microsoft word seems to have taken over all our open office files and I have 
> absolutely no use
> whats so ever for Microsoft.
> 
> Thanks
> Hugh McEachern
> HMIC Canada
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> Virus-free.www.avast.com 
> 
>  

Re: Starting Header and Footer on a page other than number one

[PCS]

I use OpenOffice / LibreOffice for general productivity, but I strongly 
recommend Scrivener for manuscripts, especially large ones, it is well worth 
the low up-front cost (not subscription like a certain major software 
provider). I’ve used Scrivener on the Mac for many years, never any problems, 
and I believe the Windows version is now as good as the Mac version, though I 
haven’t tried it myself.

Peter Schaper.


> On 12 Sep 2022, at 11:22 am, Julian Thomas  wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> On Sep 7, 2022, at 17:34, tenderbastard tenderbastard 
>>  wrote:
>> 
>> Can it be said how a header Book Title and footer Page Number footer can
>> begin on the first page of the text and not the first page of the
>> manuscript? This is for a novel manuscript submitted fully formatted, as
>> the book pages will appear in print.
> 
> Start the text in a new section with the header and footer redefined.
> 
> —
> jt - j...@jt-mj.net
> 
> O, what a tangled web we weave, / When first we practise to deceive! - Walter 
> Scott 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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Re: Paul Collins, Compare 2 decimals (weight) expressed as % (weight gain or loss}

[PCS]

Dear Paul,

If you haven’t already got a better solution perhaps my attached work-around 
might be suitable. I generally abide by the KISS principle, I do have a few 
moderately complex formulae but I’m not a maths genius so I generally I find it 
easier to calculate in simple steps that are easier to create and easier to 
fault-find than large complex formulae (or that provide an alternative to 
formulae that I don’t even know exist), then I just hide the columns (or rows) 
with any interim steps that clutter the page or that I don’t need to have 
visible.

I’ve made some notes in the spreadsheet. You probably won’t need most of them, 
but I’m providing them just in case you do.

Good luck,

Peter.




Possible work-around.ods
Description: application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet



> On 1 Sep 2022, at 10:42 am, Paul Collins  wrote:
> 
> I’m setting up a spreadsheet to monitor weight gain or loss following recent 
> illness. Can anyone tell me the syntax I need to compare decimals (Kg weight) 
> to a fixed decimal (F1) and express the answer as a percentage.
> 
> This will enable me to monitor daily weight gain or loss, please? Below is a 
> screenshot
> 
> The constant (original weight) is in cell F1.  I wish enter each day’s weight 
> in Column B and have that weight compared to original weight and expressed as 
> a +/- %. 
> 
> 
> 
> I am using digital bathroom scales, calibrated to kilograms (and decimals 
> thereof). The scales can also be calibrated to ‘pounds / stones’. 
> 
> Since Australia decimalised, I am now able to understand most (but not ALL) 
> metric measures.
> 
> Yours faithfully, Paul Collins,
> 



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CORRECTION, post upgrade glitch is still serious

[PCS]

CORRECTION, the Extension Update glitch froze a spreadsheet I had put aside in 
the Dock and forgotten was open when I tested with a couple of new documents. 
It was successfully recovered but it is still a serious glitch.




I have used LibreOffice on Linux fairly often over the past 12 years and 
occasionally on the Mac (my main computer), but I prefer OpenOffice on the Mac.

LO seems to be more fully featured than OO and some of its features are better 
implemented than the same ones in OO, but overall I find OO easier to use (for 
what I use it for, others may disagree) despite a couple of annoying issues 
(the worst is the RH side panel popping out unwanted if you happen to click on 
its opening button when scrolling up or down or when resizing a window: the 
activator should be out of the way, in the top menu panel, or at least have an 
option to move it out of the way, maybe some people actually like the 
Jack-in-a-box). The less frequent updates of OO is a plus also, obviously we 
all want to be up to date with security but other than that I see no need for 
frequent updates of a bread-and-butter application that does the job you need 
it to do, unless there is a genuine improvement, like stopping the RH panel 
from being a Jack-in-the-box, or if it needs to be updated for compatibility 
with an OS update.

So overall I am content to stay with OO rather than move to LO (I do have LO 
installed, but I rarely use it), and unless OO and LO can be successfully 
merged, with options to allow users to configure the merged app to work the way 
they want to work, I would not want to see OO “wound down and shuttered”.

All Flaviu Tamas needs to do, after all, is to uninstall OO and use LO, problem 
solved for him without denying others what for them is a useful alternative. 
Who is he anyway, to try to dictate that we should all use the app he prefers? 
That seems pretty arrogant to me, he should not assume that he knows what is 
best for me better than I do. He is probably like my father, who used to say, 
when he owned a 1928 Dodge, “If you can’t afford a Dodge, dodge a Ford”, then 
changed it to, “If you can’t afford a Ford, dodge a Dodge” when he bought a 
1953 Ford Customline, i.e. "I am such an expert that whatever I buy / have / 
use is automatically what everyone else should buy / have / use. Flaviu should 
just use the app he/she prefers and let others continue to have access to the 
one they prefer, and I am surprised that nobody else has told him/her that 
already.

There is an annoying glitch in the recent OO Mac update that seems to make the 
case for not updating without good reason. When an OO document is opened now, 
the green update arrow appears in the main menu bar, but when you click on it 
it doesn’t work properly. For a while it opened an initially transparent 
Extension Manager window offering a Spelling dictionary when you clicked it 
visible, but clicking on it froze the application and it had to be Force Quit 
and reopened. The app's data recovery feature minimised data loss, but it was 
still a nuisance. I have been ignoring the green arrow to circumvent the 
problem, but have just tried it again (with a new document, so as not to risk 
compromising a real one), and now the problem seems to be half fixed, clicking 
on the green arrow in the main menu bar doesn’t do anything, not even offer a 
genuine extension update, so at least the app no longer freezes. But this is a 
good example of why I am normally a late updater, because new updates of the OS 
or an app often have glitches in them that I would much rather have discovered 
by other people than discover myself, hence my dislike of LO’s much more 
frequent updates, I haven’t had problems with them, but the more frequent they 
are the greater is the risk, so I prefer less frequent and better tested 
updates, and the glitch in recent OO update is a significant disappointment.

PCS



> On 23 Jun 2022, at 5:16 pm, Frank McIsaac  wrote:
> 
> Well said FC
> 
> Regards
> Snapafun - Frank
> Rock'n'Rolling Forever
> 
> On Thu, 23 Jun 2022, 6:20 pm Fernando Cassia,  wrote:
> 
>> On 22/06/2022, Flaviu Tamas  wrote:
>>> Why hasn't OpenOffice been wound down & shuttered?
>>> 
>>> The existence of the website makes users assume that OpenOffice is
>>> still actively being developed
>> 
>> It is.
>> 
>>> when those users would be much better
>>> served migrating to LibreOffice.
>> 
>> Speak for yourself. I for one wouldn' t touch LO with a 10ft pole.
>> 
>>> I've seen this conversation several times over the past few years in
>>> various open source communities.
>> 
>> Cows see a lot of trains pass by while pasturing, and that doesn' t
>> make the cows train engineers.
>> 
>>> At the very least, a prominent notice that users should use
>>&

Re: Winding OpenOffice down + post upgrade glitch

[PCS]

I have used LibreOffice on Linux fairly often over the past 12 years and 
occasionally on the Mac (my main computer), but I prefer OpenOffice on the Mac.

LO seems to be more fully featured than OO and some of its features are better 
implemented than the same ones in OO, but overall I find OO easier to use (for 
what I use it for, others may disagree) despite a couple of annoying issues 
(the worst is the RH side panel popping out unwanted if you happen to click on 
its opening button when scrolling up or down or when resizing a window: the 
activator should be out of the way, in the top menu panel, or at least have an 
option to move it out of the way, maybe some people actually like the 
Jack-in-a-box). The less frequent updates of OO is a plus also, obviously we 
all want to be up to date with security but other than that I see no need for 
frequent updates of a bread-and-butter application that does the job you need 
it to do, unless there is a genuine improvement, like stopping the RH panel 
from being a Jack-in-the-box, or if it needs to be updated for compatibility 
with an OS update.

So overall I am content to stay with OO rather than move to LO (I do have LO 
installed, but I rarely use it), and unless OO and LO can be successfully 
merged, with options to allow users to configure the merged app to work the way 
they want to work, I would not want to see OO “wound down and shuttered”.

All Flaviu Tamas needs to do, after all, is to uninstall OO and use LO, problem 
solved for him without denying others what for them is a useful alternative. 
Who is he anyway, to try to dictate that we should all use the app he prefers? 
That seems pretty arrogant to me, he should not assume that he knows what is 
best for me better than I do. He is probably like my father, who used to say, 
when he owned a 1928 Dodge, “If you can’t afford a Dodge, dodge a Ford”, then 
changed it to, “If you can’t afford a Ford, dodge a Dodge” when he bought a 
1953 Ford Customline, i.e. "I am such an expert that whatever I buy / have / 
use is automatically what everyone else should buy / have / use. Flaviu should 
just use the app he/she prefers and let others continue to have access to the 
one they prefer, and I am surprised that nobody else has told him/her that 
already.

There is an annoying glitch in the recent OO Mac update that seems to make the 
case for not updating without good reason. When an OO document is opened now, 
the green update arrow appears in the main menu bar, but when you click on it 
it doesn’t work properly. For a while it opened an initially transparent 
Extension Manager window offering a Spelling dictionary when you clicked it 
visible, but clicking on it froze the application and it had to be Force Quit 
and reopened. The app's data recovery feature minimised data loss, but it was 
still a nuisance. I have been ignoring the green arrow to circumvent the 
problem, but have just tried it again (with a new document, so as not to risk 
compromising a real one), and now the problem seems to be half fixed, clicking 
on the green arrow in the main menu bar doesn’t do anything, not even offer a 
genuine extension update, so at least the app no longer freezes. But this is a 
good example of why I am normally a late updater, because new updates of the OS 
or an app often have glitches in them that I would much rather have discovered 
by other people than discover myself, hence my dislike of LO’s much more 
frequent updates, I haven’t had problems with them, but the more frequent they 
are the greater is the risk, so I prefer less frequent and better tested 
updates, and the glitch in recent OO update is a significant disappointment.

PCS



> On 23 Jun 2022, at 5:16 pm, Frank McIsaac  wrote:
> 
> Well said FC
> 
> Regards
> Snapafun - Frank
> Rock'n'Rolling Forever
> 
> On Thu, 23 Jun 2022, 6:20 pm Fernando Cassia,  wrote:
> 
>> On 22/06/2022, Flaviu Tamas  wrote:
>>> Why hasn't OpenOffice been wound down & shuttered?
>>> 
>>> The existence of the website makes users assume that OpenOffice is
>>> still actively being developed
>> 
>> It is.
>> 
>>> when those users would be much better
>>> served migrating to LibreOffice.
>> 
>> Speak for yourself. I for one wouldn' t touch LO with a 10ft pole.
>> 
>>> I've seen this conversation several times over the past few years in
>>> various open source communities.
>> 
>> Cows see a lot of trains pass by while pasturing, and that doesn' t
>> make the cows train engineers.
>> 
>>> At the very least, a prominent notice that users should use
>>> LibreOffice on the main OpenOffice site would be nice.
>> 
>> Please, go away,
>> 
>> FC
>> 
>> -
>> To unsubscribe

Re: Recovery of lost info

[PCS]

OO backs up every few minutes in the background and it normally offers to 
restore any lost data on relaunch, e.g. after a power failure caused data loss. 
If this did not happen you will probably need to restore the data from the most 
recent computer backup. My Mac automatically backs up every hour (or manually 
when I tell it to). I can recover individual documents from the most recent (or 
any previous) backup, i.e. no need to do a full data restore. I seldom use 
Windows but I assume it works similarly. If the lost data was added after the 
last backup and OO didn’t give you opportunity to recover it, you will probably 
have to recover it from your own bio-memory instead of from the computer’s 
memory.

PCS

> On 29 Apr 2022, at 3:56 am, Laura Jimenez  wrote:
> 
> Hi!  I lost some info and was wondering if there is a way to recover it?  I
> recovered the document but it was missing a lot of information.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Laura


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Re: PLEASE Help. I cannot open an Open Office file saved to my desktop.

[PCS]

My apologies if I am stating the obvious, but maybe it can be opened by another 
application. If you are using a Macintosh, right-click on the OO document and 
select "Open With” and try one of the non-default apps in the list. I have 
found that you can usually get usable text if you open an inaccessible document 
with TextEdit, though you may have to strip out a lot of formatting characters 
to make it easily readable, then copy it to and reformat it in a new WP 
document. If you are using Windows I assume it must have some equivalent of the 
Mac’s “Open With”.

PCS


> On 25 Apr 2022, at 3:11 pm, george bornyek  wrote:
> 
> 
> Hello,
> 
> Since having computers Open Office is all that I use.  This malfunction has 
> never happened before.  What went wrong?
> 
> I crafted a very special letter to Elon Musk on Open Office, saved it and 
> there is nothing that I can do to open it.
> 
> I create my email and other memos etc on Open Office then copy-paste it to 
> where I will use it.
> 
> Please help me.
> 
> 6192237737 born...@att.net
> 
> George Bornyek
> 
> 
> 
> 
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Re: Formula

[PCS]

I’m not a power user, I’m a ‘work-around’ person, and I've done something 
roughly similar to this before. Here are my work-arounds for this situation:



Calculation work-arounds.ods
Description: application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet


PCS

> On 9 Apr 2022, at 2:31 pm, rcrmon...@wi.rr.com wrote:
> 
> My pay is basically done by the minute. When I record the hours I worked, it 
> is expressed 11:55 or 11 hours, 55 minutes. When I record my hours in 
> OpenOfficecalc, I currently convert the minutes into fractions of an hour--ie 
> 55 minutes=.916--which I'm not sure is accurate. Is there a way to 
> multiply 11:55 by a dollar amount--say 9.75 to get the exact dollar amount 
> earned or am I doomed to always converting the minutes to decimals?
> 
> Dennis
> 
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Re: download

[PCS]

Ref. the attached security override info from Apple Support:



I thought I had to enter an Admin password to authorise the app the last time I 
did it, but this doesn’t seem to mention that so maybe I’ve misremembered, but 
it should be obvious when you do it.

Long time Mac user.


> On 6 Apr 2022, at 10:37 am, Jacquelyn Rook  wrote:
> 
> Dear Sirs; 
> 
> I tried to download Open Office to replace the incredibly aggravating Pages 
> program, but the computer won’t let me. That is, it’s theoretically 
> downloaded, but a message comes up that says I can’t open it because the OS 
> can’t verify that it’s free of malware. I tried to look on your website to 
> get help there, but I couldn’t find anything to help me.
> 
> Can you help me do this? Pages has ruined all my files and now I can’t open 
> them, incredible amounts of work and data I can’t retrieve unless I get some 
> help. I have OS 10.15.5.
> 
> Thanks for any help you can offer me,
> Jackie Rook
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Re: Lost Files

[PCS]

My apologies for stating the obvious (if you are using a Mac), but if you have 
been using Time Machine you should be able to recover your lost files there, 
because TM is a backup app that also functions as an archive. Just go back to 
the last date before you lost the documents, i.e. select 'Enter Time Machine’ 
(from its icon in the menu bar) and scroll back to the required date, locate 
the files you've lost, and restore them. Warning: I’ve never had to do a bulk 
restore, I’ve only ever copied an older version of a file that I wanted to 
refer back to, so you should check the Apple Help to ensure you restore only 
what you want to, e.g. a selected folder?, without reverting other stuff to 
previous versions (you should be able to look up how to do that as easily as I 
can).

If you haven't been using Time Machine you really should start using it now, so 
you have access to preserved copies of files if you need them in future.

PCS


> On 29 Mar 2022, at 3:20 am, Rory O'Farrell  wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 28 Mar 2022 17:58:54 +0100
> Rory O'Farrell  wrote:
> 
>> On Mon, 28 Mar 2022 12:39:31 -0400
>> Larry Lineberry  wrote:
>> 
>>> Many of my saved have recently disappeared for my Open Office software. To 
>>> my knowledge I have done nothing to erase my files which include medicine 
>>> files and my chechbook tabulations from previous years 2021, 2020, 2019, 
>>> 2018. The way I found this problem was when I went to give a doctors office 
>>> a list o my meds I couldn’t find the file. 
>>> 
>>> So my question is am I completely screwed, and the list of meds can be 
>>> regenerated but the check books data cannot. 
>>> 
>>> I need help, advice whatever. I thought this was reliable software. How can 
>>> this happen. I need answers and not some boilerplate that says and/.or 
>>> solves nothing.
>>> 
>>> LL Lineberry, Jr
>>> 
>> 
>> OpenOffice does not - repeat _NOT_ - erase files.  They can be lost from the 
>> Recent Documents list, but that is only a list of shortcuts to recently used 
>> files; the files still remain in the disk in the folders in which they were 
>> saved.  
>> 
>> It is likely that a Windows update may have erased your files.
>> 
>> But before deciding that, use your operating system file search to look for 
>> one file whose name you remember.
>> 
>> -- 
>> Rory O'Farrell
> 
> On inspecting the Headers of your message I see that you are using a Mac.  
> Have you, in recent years, upgraded your Mac operating system?
> 
> 
> -- 
> Rory O'Farrell 
> 
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Re: Formatting for USA Telephone Numbers

[PCS]

Setting the cell format to “Text” and entering the number exactly as you want 
it to look should do the trick, though the use of brackets (and maybe some 
other characters?) will give an invalid formula correction warning to which you 
will have to respond “No”. The resultant text does not have to be left 
justified, you can select the justification you want in the top menu bar, as 
normal. However the number entered as text will be text, you will not be able 
to do any numerical operations with it.

You can also enter a number as text without setting the cell format to text by 
typing ="123 456” (with your number of course, not 123 446)

PCS


> On 24 Feb 2022, at 12:33 pm, Vince@Verizon  
> wrote:
> 
> Hi:
> 
> How do I format cells for entry of USA Telephone Numbers, as: 1 (###) 
> ###*-*
> 
> whenever, for example,I have typed a ten-digit number, e.g., 1234567890 (no 
> spaces, no negative/minus sign, no parenthesis, by use of the number keypad 
> (NumLk is enabled).
> 
> Yes, I want the "1" prefix, the area code to appear within parenthesis, and a 
> negative/minus sign between the 3rd digit and the 4th digit. A space follows 
> the prefix "1" and a space follows the closing parenthesis.
> 
> I have tried to set a user defined number-format, but am getting strange 
> results with apostrophes and/or double quote markings mixed in when viewing 
> the Format Cells dialogue, e.g., (#") "###"*-*". And, I don;t understand 
> why that is. I was hoping to find a pre-defined/default format for use when 
> entering USA telephone numbers. I am flexible; I can probably do without the 
> "1" prefix and/or the parenthesis.
> 
> Should I be formatting these cells as "text" (left-justified) rather than as 
> numbers (right-justified)?
> 
> Regards,
> 
> VinceB.
> 

Re: HELP WITH MAC VERSION & MORE

[PCS]

I do not have the technical expertise to be able to decipher the error messages 
generated by the system, and I believe they are intended to enable developers 
to find bugs and fix them in future versions, not to enable you to be provided 
with feedback, so for a glitch like you have described I would quit the app and 
re-launch it, or Force Quit and re-launch it, if necessary, though that appears 
to have happened already in your case.

If that hasn’t fixed the problem I would shut down and restart the computer, 
then try the app again, and if that doesn’t fix it I would uninstall the OO app 
(just move it from the Apps folder to the trash initially, and leave it there 
until you’ve sorted the problem, “just in case") and download a virgin copy of 
the app and install that to see if that fixes the problem, then empty the 
corrupted copy of the app from the trash if the app re-install fixes the 
problem. This is only a user work-around, not a technician’s fix, but it has 
worked for me on occasion in the past.

My apologies if I am stating the obvious and you have already done what I am 
suggesting.

Unfortunately, if that doesn’t work I don’t have any idea how to fix the 
problem, other than to suspect a possible glitch in the OS requiring it to be 
fixed or reinstalled, or you could update instead of reinstall if you have not 
got the latest version (I generally defer major updates until most of the 
glitches are sorted out by the early adopters), but I have never had to do an 
OS reinstall, other than the time I corrupted an OS update by doing something 
stupid part-way through the install process and turned the computer into a 
paperweight. I have some gripes with Apple Computer but I have always found the 
Mac OS to be stable and reliable.

If you do suspect the OS may have a glitch, do NOT just go ahead and do a 
reinstall, that is a tedious, time consuming job. Instead begin by booting into 
the Mac’s diagnostics at startup, i.e. press the power button and immediately 
hold down the D key until diagnostics begins. I have not used that since the 
time I turned my MacMini into a paperweight, quite a few years ago now, and I 
don't have time to check it now, so I can’t promise it will enable you to solve 
your problem, but if all else has failed it could be worth looking at the 
diagnostics before you go as far as reinstalling the OS. But be careful, bad 
things might happen if you do the wrong thing there. However I would be 
surprised if the things I first suggested don’t fix your problem, I can’t 
recall ever having had an app problem that was caused by the OS.

Regards,

PCS.


> On 24 Feb 2022, at 8:46 am, Donald Taylor  
> wrote:
> 
> SEE BELOW ERRORS; TALKED WITH APPLE SUPPORT THEY SUGGESTED SENDING ERROR 
> MESSAGE DIRECTLY. THIS MESSAGE HAS BEEN SENT BY OPEN OFFICE CLOSING SEVERAL 
> TIMES AND SENDING ERROR MESSAGE TO YOU…  
> 
> SEE ATTACHED ERROR MESSAGE/>
> 
> PLEASE, HELP FIX THIS PROBLEM, I HAVE BEEN USING OPEN OFFICE SINCE 2000; 
> PREFER TO CONTINUE USING. I RECOMMEND TO ALL THIS APPLICATION, IT IS MUCH 
> BETTER THAN APPLES OR MICROSOFT'S STUFF...
> 
> 

Re: Apache OpenOffice for iPad & Mac comments & suggestions

[PCS]

I can’t comment on iPad, I use an Android phone, but I’ve used OO on the Mac 
since Apple killed off AppleWorks (ex ClarisWorks) because I no longer trust 
Apple's productivity apps.

A few decades ago Apple killed off the Apple II AppleWorks without providing 
convenient ongoing access to archived data, including some Uni assignments of 
mine (I had a major job recovering them), and when they killed off the Mac 
AppleWorks a decade or two later they did the same thing, left me without 
convenient access to archived AW data files, so I anticipate that when Apple 
decides to kill off its current productivity software, Pages etc., the same 
thing will happen, no convenient access to archived data files, so I no longer 
use Apple productivity software, because I don’t trust the company to do the 
right thing. Perhaps I am over-reacting, but I am not giving them a third 
chance to muck me around.

The Mac is a great computer, by far the best UI and desktop for the way I work, 
which is the way I want to work, not the way Microsoft programmers have decided 
I should, one of the major advantages of the Mac is that it lets you configure 
it to suit yourself (Linux Maté is the nearest equivalent I’ve found, but it 
doesn’t really compare with the Mac for anyone working with an extensive filing 
system), but the Apple computer company does not always look after its long 
term clients as well as it should, too busy chasing pretty novelties and new 
clients I think.

So I strongly recommend the open source apps (OO and/or LO) over the Apple 
ones, where available, because they are probably less likely to leave you 
without access to archived data than Apple’s apps are, and they seem to be more 
powerful, my only complaint with them is the lack of a data base that I can 
make work for me, I routinely used DBs in AppleWorks (it was an excellent 
productivity app, good balance of features, power, and ease of use) but I have 
not even one DB in OO, I haven’t been able to work out how to set one up, it is 
too different from AW, so all I have now is contacts, which is very limited.

For anyone else with old Mac AppleWorks files, I know that LibreOffice now 
opens them, I opened and converted some AW spreadsheets in it recently. 
OpenOffice does not open AW spreadsheets properly.

Peter S.

P.S.  Learning difficulties:  I have used Pages and Numbers on the Mac 
occasionally to quickly do stuff that doesn’t need to be filed for future 
access, and they seem to be pretty straightforward, so if they are all that is 
readily available on iPad and you are familiar with a more powerful Office app 
like OO or LO or MS Office they should not be difficult to learn. If you are 
concerned about possible loss of future access, as I am, it might be worth 
saving them as PDF docs as well as in their native format, PDF has been around 
long enough that I think we can trust it to stay around.


P.P.S.  If anyone out there knows how to contact OpenOffice developers, could 
you suggest that they:

1.  Move the sheets access in spreadsheets from along the bottom of the window 
to a LH panel like in PDFs, Scrivener, Browsers, etc. Along the bottom is okay 
for just a few sheets, but when you have many sheets the tabs become too small 
to read the names in them, so vertical access via a large number of rows would 
be much more convenient than horizontal.
2.  Access & close RH (& LH) panel(s) from top menu bar instead of using dots 
halfway down the panel, they really are a jack-in-a-box nuisance if you’re not 
watching the pointer closely.
3.  Remember the last window configuration of each document, instead of the 
last one used.
4.  Set the default entry position after 'Copy Down' to the pasted row, not the 
original row, or allow user to select which row to edit in Preferences. I 
usually want to edit the copy, not the original, but I keep messing up the 
original row because the cursor stays there.
5.  Show the current colour in the selection box (e.g. with a bold outline), so 
you can see exactly what colour it actually is, the underline under the access 
point doesn’t work for me, and I doubt that I am totally unique (in fact I know 
I’m not, in the early 1980s I had two doppelgängers, one of them even driving a 
car identical to mine, to the great confusion of my friends).

PCS.


> On 21 Feb 2022, at 2:32 am, Julian THOMAS  wrote:
> 
> I can too. I clung to AOO  for a few years after going from OS2 to Mac. I 
> still use OO for some stuff but have switched to pages & keynote for new work 
> - partly because at the time there was no OO option for my iPad.
> 
> Different folks - different strokes. 
> 
> Sent from JT's Ipad 
> 
> 
>> On Feb 20, 2022, at 10:59, Matthias Seidel  
>> wrote:
>> 
>> And Rob made it clear that he is not willing to "learn" Pages and Numbers.
>> 
>> I can understand him.
> 
> --