Certain .doc files not opened w 4.1.4, reinstall 4.1.4 or 4.

Issues with installing under all versions of MS Windows
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raik
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Certain .doc files not opened w 4.1.4, reinstall 4.1.4 or 4.

Post by raik »

I prepared an 18 page .doc file with two clip arts in change record mode. Over the last several months this worked ok and last night the saved file can no longer be opened. No error message; activity bar stops half way and after a few seconds 4.1.4 shuts down and restarts with recovery, but not of the file I wanted to open. It gets stuck again when a blank untitled file is recovered or not and repeats.

The .doc file opens on other computers and MS word without problem. When resaved on those computers as .doc, the new files still does not open with 4.1.4

In the Windows task manager 4.1.4 builds up files each trial on "processes at secondary level" until at about 10 or 12 such files, 4.1.4 stops to load and respond altogether.

Reinstalling 4.1.4 does not work even after those second level processes have been terminated.

4.1.5 does not even download, only gets to downloading the first setup file: "open_office_3732693078"

Any suggestions will greatly help. Thank you, Rainer
OpenOffice 4.1.4 on Windows 10
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Hagar Delest
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Re: certain .doc files not opened w 4.1.4, reinstall 4.1.4 o

Post by Hagar Delest »

Hi and welcome to the forum!

If you can't even download 4.1.5, there may be a problem with your machine.
As a first step however, you can try to reset your OpenOffice user profile.
LibreOffice 7.6.2.1 on Xubuntu 23.10 and 7.6.4.1 portable on Windows 10
Bill
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Re: Certain .doc files not opened w 4.1.4, reinstall 4.1.4 o

Post by Bill »

raik wrote:I prepared an 18 page .doc file with two clip arts in change record mode.
"Change record mode" sounds like a mode used to change a record ("change" is a verb and "record" is a noun). Did you mean that the option Edit > Changes > Record ("changes" is a noun and "record" is a verb) has been enabled? I don't use that option, but I think other users have had problems with it. If you have that option enabled, have you ever accepted and/or rejected the recorded changes in the months that you have been using the file?
AOO 4.1.14 on Ubuntu MATE 22.04
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RoryOF
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Re: Certain .doc files not opened w 4.1.4, reinstall 4.1.4 o

Post by RoryOF »

Quite a number of corrupted files that need fixing (XML errors) are using Record Changes, sometimes covering multiple rewrites. While I appreciate that this facility is convenient in certain circumstances, I suggest that it is undesirable (from point of view of stability of an ODF file) and unnecessary to retain changes back over multiple revisions.
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
John_Ha
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Re: Certain .doc files not opened w 4.1.4, reinstall 4.1.4 o

Post by John_Ha »

If you think about it, keeping Record Changes ..., set to ON is very silly because the .odt has to keep track of every key stroke ever made while the document was being edited. Every time you type a new character, Writer has to work out what to do with it compared with all the other key strokes it has recorded.

1. Stop AOO.
2. Kill all the soffice.exe, soffice.bin and swrite.exe processes in TaskManager.
3. Restart AOO. File > Open > New text document. Insert > File ..., and navigate to the problem file. Save the resultant document.

Does that fix it?
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
John_Ha
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Re: Certain .doc files not opened w 4.1.4, reinstall 4.1.4 o

Post by John_Ha »

If you think about it, keeping Record Changes ..., set to ON is not very sensible because the file has to store and keep track of every key stroke ever made while the document was being edited. Every time you type a new character, Writer has to work out what to do with it compared with all the other key strokes it has recorded. The file gets hopelessly and grossly over complicated.

See [Tutorial] Differences between Writer and MS Word files for why you should always work in and save files as .odt and never save your work as .doc files.

1. Stop AOO.
2. Kill all the soffice.exe, soffice.bin and swrite.exe processes in TaskManager.
3. Restart AOO. File > Open > New text document. Insert > File .... Navigate to the problem file and insert it. Save the resultant document as a .odt file.
4. Edit > Changes > Accept changes. Accept all changes.

Does that fix it? If not, upload the file to a file share site so someone can have a look at it.

As a new poster you will find much useful information in the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials, the up to date Writer guide and the Writer Manual. May I suggest you bookmark the pages.

Press F1 to access the Help screen and search for your problem

The chapter headings in the manual are:

1 - Introducing Writer
2 - Setting up Writer
3 - Working with Text
4 - Formatting Pages
5 - Printing, Exporting, Faxing and E-Mailing
6 - Introduction to Styles
7 - Working with Styles
8 - Working with Graphics
9 - Working with Tables
10 - Working with Templates
11 - Using Mail Merge
12 - Tables of Contents, Indexes and Bibliographies
13 - Working with Master Documents
14 - Working with Fields
15 - Using Forms in Writer
16 - Customizing Writer – Keyboard shortcuts.

When a pop-up window opens, click the Help button for extensive help on that function - it is often more comprehensive than the manual.

If your problem is solved please view your first post in this thread and click the Edit button (top right in the post) and add [Solved] in front of the subject.
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
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