Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

I prepared a slideshow 3 years ago. I haven't used Impress since then, so I've slid down the learning curve quite a ways, but now I want to use this pre-existing slideshow again. However, whenever I start it up, it looks fine initially, but then on the first mouse click, I get an error message that looks like this:
I do have Firefox 28.0 installed on my Macbook Pro. I can't even figure out what this error message is instructing me to do. Can someone please help me with this? Thanks!

I don't know how to do this on Mac (if it even can be done), but I'd suggest ensuring that Firefox is recognized as the default browser.
In most Windows systems, I could give you detailed steps on how to do this, but I have no idea with a Mac,
The suggestion, even without the steps, is, in my opinion, a good one, anyways.

Thanks for the suggestion, RusselB. On a Mac, you have to use Safari to set the default browser from the Preferences/General menu. For default settings such as this one, Safari must always be kept installed on a Mac, even if you're going to use a browser other than Safari as the default. But I double-checked, and my default browser is set as Firefox 28.0.

Since posting my query, I've discovered that the error message pops up only if the cursor is in the interior of the slide when the mouse button is clicked. If I keep the cursor in the border of the slide, or outside, I can go straight through the slideshow without a problem. But I would still like very much to know what's causing the error and what the error message means.

Thanks again.

crevier wrote:But I would still like very much to know what's causing the error and what the error message means.

The error message is saying that you do not have a program designated as your default browser.

In Windows, and no doubt the same in Mac, when a program wants to open a browser, the program looks at the system variable Default_Browser = Some Program (I forget what it is actually called but you get the idea) to see what the user has specified as the default browser. If the user has not specified a program to be the default browser, then this value is empty, and the program throws up the error message as it cannot find a browser even though you might have several installed.

I have no idea why it works or doesn't according to where you click.

Thanks very much for the suggestion, John_Ha. But I'm afraid that not having a default Web browser designated is NOT my problem. In the Mac OS X operating system, designation of the default browser is handled in Safari, in the Preferences/General menu, right at the top. And when I check mine, it says very clearly that my default Web browser is "Firefox (28.0)." So you see why I can't make much sense out of the OpenOffice 4.0.1 error message.

Putting slideshow into a folder triggered the "... web browser..." message
I created a slideshow with some slides that had links to files on my MacBook Pro. It worked. I moved it into a folder. Once I'd done that, all worked except the links, which caused the "... web browser..." message. Recognizing that moving it into the folder had been the likely change to blame, I moved it back, out of the folder. Even so, the links still didn't work.
Recovery
Fortunately, I had a backup taken prior to the move. From that I was able to copy any slides that had links and use them to replace their equivalents in the non-working version. If you have a backup you've specially taken or have one from Time-machine, you can do the same.
Default browser
I've not found an explanation for why this message occurs but it suggests that setting a default browser is the remedy. In my case, the default browser is already set so I'm bewildered.
FYI: Chrome and Firefox each offer from their Preferences making it the default browser; Safari does not. However; Apple --> System Preferences --> General offers Default web browser as the 11th field down.