Powerpoint closes Impress

[flowerlady]

When I bought my HP laptop, it did not have Microsoft Office. (Oh, it's Windows 10) So I downloaded all of OpenOffice. I liked it and used Impress to create many slide presentations. Then from my many mailing lists I would sometimes receive word processor attachments that were not saved in the universal code that OpenOffice could open. So, I downloaded and installed Microsoft Office. Sadly, Powerpoint cannot show my beautiful slide programs.
Is there some way that I can remove Microsoft Powerpoint and use Impress to show and create slide programs?

[FJCC]

There is no need to remove PowerPoint. You can use Impress independently. Please explain what you have encountered that you think you need to remove PowerPoint. If it is that double clicking on a file leads to PowerPoint opening it, you just need to change which program is the the default for .odp (Impress) files. A web search for
Windows 10 default programs
should lead to instructions on how to change that.

[flowerlady]

Thank you, FJCC. I found this: http://www.howtogeek.com/223144/how-to- ... indows-10/
It looks really good, but I can't figure out what to do.
Any help is appreciated.

[FJCC]

I'll try to condense those instructions but I've never used Windows 10.
1. Click on the Windows button at the lower left of your screen.
2. Click on the Settings button.
3. Click on the System icon on the screen that appears.
4. Scroll down through the list on the left and select Default Apps.
5. You will now have a LONG list of file extensions on the left. Scroll down to .odp and select it.
6. In the list on the right find Impress and select it. It might be listed as Apache OpenOffice Impress or OpenOffice Impress or just Impress.

That should do it. Take notes as you work through that list so that if you don't get the desired result, you can explain exactly what you did and what happened.

[flowerlady]

Hi, FJCC
I "think" I did what you said. Your directions were very clear. At any rate, several times I have successfully opened different presentations that I created last year before I got Microsoft Office. The presentations open with Impress allowing me to set it to slide program. Then I can click and see 6 or 7 slides before it crashes. I get a message that says Open Office 4.1.1 Fatal Error. It also says SEH Exception: Access Violation.
Do you have any clues about what is happening?
Thanks.

[FJCC]

Crashes are often caused by a corrupted user profile. To reset your user profile, first shutdown OpenOffice. Open any folder and type
%appdata%\openoffice\4
in the address bar at the top. This will take you to a folder that contains a folder named user. Rename that folder to user_old. Restart OpenOffice and see if it is more stable.

[flowerlady]

What do you mean when you say "Open any folder"? Such as what kind of folder and where and how?

[FJCC]

By "Open any folder" I mean access any location on your computer where files are stored. A simple way to do that is available if you have a Windows key on your keyboard. It will be down by the space bar. Hold down that key and press the E key. You can get the same thing by double clicking on the icon labeled Computer on your desktop. In either case, you will get a new window, the top of which should look something like

Enter the text I previously posted in the address bar near the top of the window. In my image the address bar shows the word Computer between little triangles. That should take you to a location that looks like

except there will not be a folder called userold. Right click on the user folder, select Rename and enter a name such as userold. You can the restart OpenOffice.

[flowerlady]

FJCC , you are working so hard and doing a great job. The problem is on my end: Windows 10, which came already installed on this laptop, no longer looks like other versions of
Windows. The older versions were sooooo much better and easier.
What you last directed me to do sounds so easy, but I need for those directions to relate to Windows 10. Do you know anyone with Windows 10 who would allow you to adjust your directions to it?
Thanks for your patience.

[FJCC]

I have found a Windows 10 computer. I hope I can access it some time tonight and grab some images.

[flowerlady]

Good luck, and thanks.

[FJCC]

First, shutdown OpenOffice. Click on the Windows icon at the lower left corner of your screen and a window will pop up that looks something like this:

The windows icon is in the lower left corner of the image and a bit above that there is a button for File Explorer. Click that and a window will pop up that looks like this:

Many of the details may be different in your case. The key is the long box that says Quick access. No matter what it says in your specific case, click on it and enter
%appdata%\openoffice\4
After you press Enter the window will change to display the location of the user folder. In my case that looks like

I have chopped off the bottom of the image but you can see the user folder. Right click on that and select Rename. Type the name userold and press Enter. Restart OpenOffice. You should get a Welcome to OpenOffice window because you will appear to be a new user. I hope your crashing problem will be solved.

[flowerlady]

FJCC, I could weep! I was sure all your efforts would solve the crashing problem, but they didn't. I opened the OpenOffice folder and opened one of the Impress presentation programs I had previously created. Sadly, the crash came sooner than before these last changes.
I'm leaving tomorrow to visit my elderly father, and he wants to see some of my photography work. The Impress programs would be great, but, alas.
If anyone else has a suggestion, please speak up.
If I uninstall Microsoft Office, wouldn't it still be on my laptop so that I could re-install it when I return home? If so, where would I find it?

[FJCC]

A work around for showing your slides to your father is to export the file as a PDF. Open the file and select the menu File -> Export As PDF. I believe you will lose any animations.

If you are willing to send me one of the files, I'll check if it works on my system. I'll send you a private message with an email address if you want to do that.