Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Issues installing under the Mac OSX - X11 - Aqua
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MonsterMash
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Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by MonsterMash »

I've encountered major issues with OpenOffice since upgrading the Mac to Big Sur.

At first OpenOffice 4.1.7 or 4.1.8 simply wouldn't open and would crash immediately. This was resolved by removing the User data and signing up from scratch.

However...

OpenOffice crashes when opening a docx file.

It also crashes when trying to install the Word Count extension.

Any ideas why this may be happening?
OpenOffice 4.1.8 on Mac
John_Ha
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Re: Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by John_Ha »

Strange problems are sometimes fixed by resetting the user profile - see Resetting the user profile.
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Villeroy
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Re: Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by Villeroy »

https://libreoffice.org/ is the actively developed successor to OpenOffice. It shows the word count on the status bar. It handles most docx files much better than OpenOffice. However, docx should never be used with either program. Open docx from external sources, save your own working copy in the native ODF format as you would do with any other software. PDF is the best export format when the receipient of your work is not a co-editor. In case of co-editing you save a docx from your working copy.
-----------------
MS Office can open ODF text and spreadsheets (but possibly not as well as LibreOffice handles docx and xlsx). Likewise, a user of MSO would store his working copy of an ODF text document as docx and send back an ODF copy of his finished work.
Please, edit this topic's initial post and add "[Solved]" to the subject line if your problem has been solved.
Ubuntu 18.04 with LibreOffice 6.0, latest OpenOffice and LibreOffice
MonsterMash
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Re: Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by MonsterMash »

Thanks. The issue remains even after resetting the User Profile and the big problem with LibreOffice at the moment is that, with Big Sur on a Retina-screened Mac, the text is blurry. The devs at LibreOffice are looking to fix this.
OpenOffice 4.1.8 on Mac
John_Ha
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Re: Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by John_Ha »

Try a test by booting in Safe Mode. Does AOO still crash?
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.
De_Sa
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Re: Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by De_Sa »

Have the same problem. Safe Mode doesn't fix it. It is strange that there are not so many complains about the issue.
MacOS 11.01, Open Office 4.1.8
rooobz
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Re: Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by rooobz »

I recently updated Mac OS to Big Sure and now OO crashes every time I try to open an xlsx file - either straight from download, dragging from finder, double click opening on finder or opening using File menu from within OO

Please help!
OpenOffice 4.1.8
Mac OS Big Sur
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RoryOF
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Re: Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by RoryOF »

Go back to the earlier version. There is a fix in the pipeline for OO on Big Sur, but I have no definite release information, except that it will be soon - days/weeks, not months.
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
MyHeartSwells
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Re: Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by MyHeartSwells »

Exactly same problems as Monstermash... for both OOo and LOo.

What a nasty 2020 ! Happy New Year !
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Villeroy
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Re: Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by Villeroy »

Do yourself a favour and install LibreOffice.
Please, edit this topic's initial post and add "[Solved]" to the subject line if your problem has been solved.
Ubuntu 18.04 with LibreOffice 6.0, latest OpenOffice and LibreOffice
MonsterMash
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Re: Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by MonsterMash »

Have you tried LibreOffice on a Retina screen Mac? The fonts are blurred. It’s practically unusable.
OpenOffice 4.1.8 on Mac
MyHeartSwells
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Re: Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by MyHeartSwells »

This phenomenom appeared in a similar situation before (update of macOS -Mojave ?-) and was solved without knowing how.. let us wait...
So far I use OO for everything and LO for docx and xlsx...
Macbook - OpenOffice 4.1.8
Jeff1851
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Re: Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by Jeff1851 »

Same issue here with cutting and pasting. The paste in a spreadsheet crashes.
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Re: Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by Villeroy »

Please, edit this topic's initial post and add "[Solved]" to the subject line if your problem has been solved.
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MyHeartSwells
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Re: Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by MyHeartSwells »

I looked at the tutorial, many thanks, there are things I did not know about and will be helpful for me at occasions. Nothing worked yet for me yet, but I guess a solution would have been found by someone if there would be.
How strange that the users of OpenOffice are welcome to use LibreOffice when the latter recommends me to use OpenOffice...
And I follow their mutual recommendations !
Happy New Year !
Macbook - OpenOffice 4.1.8
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RoryOF
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Re: Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by RoryOF »

MyHeartSwells wrote:ow strange that the users of OpenOffice are welcome to use LibreOffice when the latter recommends me to use OpenOffice...
We concentrate on getting a User's problems solved as soon as possible, by whatever means, so that they can get back to doing some useful work.
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Villeroy
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Re: Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by Villeroy »

Could it be that AOO 4.1.8 has some nasty bug which makes it unstable on MacOS? In this case you have to install an earlier version of AOO (which does not make a big difference) or install the real thing (which is LibreOffice).
 Edit: unless it is a problem with the OS viewtopic.php?f=17&t=103837&p=503789#p503789 
Please, edit this topic's initial post and add "[Solved]" to the subject line if your problem has been solved.
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Jeff1851
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Re: Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by Jeff1851 »

Villeroy wrote:Could it be that AOO 4.1.8 has some nasty bug which makes it unstable on MacOS? In this case you have to install an earlier version of AOO (which does not make a big difference) or install the real thing (which is LibreOffice).
I also ran 4.1.1 (and 4.1.8) and had the same issues.
OpenOffice 4.1.1 on Mac OS Big Sur 11.1
MonsterMash
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Re: Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by MonsterMash »

As I’ve mentioned, LibreOffice has its own Big Sur problem: blurred fonts.
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Villeroy
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Re: Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by Villeroy »

At least they are working on it.
Please, edit this topic's initial post and add "[Solved]" to the subject line if your problem has been solved.
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MonsterMash
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Re: Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by MonsterMash »

Cool. Hope they solve it. That would provide the perfect solution.
OpenOffice 4.1.8 on Mac
John_Ha
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Re: Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by John_Ha »

MonsterMash wrote:As I’ve mentioned, LibreOffice has its own Big Sur problem: blurred fonts.
See Bug 138122 (blurry_text) - LibreOffice text blurry on Retina displays on macOS 11
I try to recap what we know about this problem:

- It is only visible on Retina screens. It's not important if this screen is built-in or external. The fonts get blurry.
- The print preview in Calc is fine, i.e. it is *not* blurry - for what ever reason.
- macOS 10.14 added some breaking changes, which caused this bug. What this changes were exactly - no idea.
- macOS 10.14 also added some "legacy compatibility mode". If an application was build or at least pretends to be build with the SDK for macOS 10.13 or earlier, it would "revert" this breaking changes for that application. The workaround in bug 122218 made LibreOffice look like an old macOS 10.13 application. So it fixed this bug "for now".
- macOS 11 dropped this "legacy compatibility mode". So you have to adapt to the new way of doing things, or you get blurry text.

The problem is that we do not know what should be changed in LibreOffice, or what exactly the legacy stuff is LibreOffice is using, which was changed in macOS 10.14. Maybe it has something to do with the "Layer-Backed Views" described in the macOS 10.14 Release Notes

https://developer.apple.com/documentati ... acos_10_14

Or maybe it's something completely different.
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.
rooobz
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Re: Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by rooobz »

RoryOF wrote:Go back to the earlier version. There is a fix in the pipeline for OO on Big Sur, but I have no definite release information, except that it will be soon - days/weeks, not months.
thanks!
OpenOffice 4.1.8
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Bidouille
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Re: Issues with OpenOffice 4 crashing on Mac

Post by Bidouille »

Read: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=104069
Try to test AOO 4.1.9
Feedback is welcome
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