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[Solved] FireFox Tells me I have to UNZIP a Template File...

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 8:16 am
by Nala
Hey all,

I am a novice Open Office user and have used the Templates in the past without a problem.

I installed the New version on my Sisters laptop that is running Windows 8.1. She asked me to help her write a fancy letter this evening and I obliged her. We sat down and I told her that we needed to find a template to match what she wanted closely. We went looking and found what she liked and I clicked the DOWNLOAD button and went through the various dialog boxes that came up. I told it to save the template file in a separate directory where nothing else was so I could find it easier and so could my sister. When I got to the folder there was a pink dialog box over the address bar telling me that I needed to UNZIP the file. I thought this was strange and had never seen anything like it before, but I went along. After it unzipped the file I went and looked for the Template file. To my surprise, there wasn't a single template file. There were 3 or 4 new folders and 6 or 8 new files to go along with it. NONE of them would open in Open Office and nothing about any of them even resembled a Template file.

At this point I was totally confused and thought that something must be wrong with that particular template. SO I went back and picked another template and saved it again. The exact same thing happened

I done it with template for draw and the CALC program, same thing again.

WTF is going on here? OO used to be such a simple and great project and now it's not.

I came here and read through a couple of posts that were talking about the same things as I had seen and everyone chimed in and said it's because the user was using Internet Explorer and that's what caused the problems. Well in this case, I am using FIREFOX. I don't use any other browser other than Firefox.

So...can you all tell me what is going on now? Do I have to ditch my Windows 8 system and install ubuntoo or whatever its called to be able to use Open Office now?

There is no and was no opportunity to go in and rename a file to the proper file extension. When you download it....or open it....it changes it and then informs you that you have to UNZIP it.

Why in the world did they have to change the whole thing around with the templates? There's a totally new website and when you download it, some other site opens up now with all kinds of Open Office freebie offers plastered all over it. Could they not just leave it how it was where you could just RIGHT click on the USE IT NOW icon and be done with it....no muss no fuss? Was there something wrong with that easy approach?

Am I going to have to get an Office 365 subscription for my sister now?

Can anyone help me with this and fix this lunacy so I can use templates on my new laptop with the OS that came on it?

Thank you for your time

Nalajr

Re: FireFox also Tells me I have to UNZIP a Template File...

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 8:40 am
by Nala
OK...

I figured out the problem. Firefox wasn't set as the DEFAULT browser for all web extensions and links. Even though I was using Firefox when I would select the Get Templates Online in the initial Open Office dialog box where all the different programs are listed....that link would open in IExplorer. I didn't notice it cause these browsers on here are stripped down so that the only thing that is visible is the window in which the content appears and very few indications of what browser is running is showing. Besides, I never check each time I open a web link to see what browser is running. I just assumed it was Firefox. Well, it wasn't.

When I discovered my problem, I fixed it and went back and tried to download the template again and this time, everything worked fine.

My apologies for my earlier rant.

Nalajr

Re: FireFox also Tells me I have to UNZIP a Template File...

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 8:44 am
by RoryOF
It often happens with internet Explorer as browser that it silently renames OpenOffice template and extensions to type .zip. If the template/extension files are arriving on your computer with names like template.zip, at operating system level rename them to type .oxt (if extension) or .ott (if template). Then install in the normal way.

Re: FireFox also Tells me I have to UNZIP a Template File...

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 4:16 pm
by Bill
Nala wrote:...I told it to save the template file in a separate directory where nothing else was so I could find it easier and so could my sister. ...There is no and was no opportunity to go in and rename a file to the proper file extension.
You could have renamed the file with the proper extension on the same dialog where you chose the directory.

Re: FireFox also Tells me I have to UNZIP a Template File...

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 5:03 pm
by Villeroy
RoryOF wrote:If the template/extension files are arriving on your computer with names like template.zip, at operating system level rename them to type .oxt (if extension) or .ott (if template).
There are extensions containing templates. :geek:
After you installed such an extension you have new templates under menu:File>New>From Template... [Ctrl+Shift+N]

I think there is no need to do anything special with zip archives. Just open them with OpenOffice.
I can rename a template from .ott to .zip and when I open the .zip with OpenOffice I get a new document from that template.
I can rename an extension from .oxt to .zip and when I open the .zip with OpenOffice the extension manager prompts me to install the extension.
I can rename any document from .odt, .ods, .odg, .odb to .zip and when I open the .zip with OpenOffice the text, spreadsheet, drawing or database gets loaded.
When OpenOffice tries to open a .zip containing an arbitrary collection of files, OpenOffice shows me the infamous "Filter Selection" dialog because it does not know what to do with this archive.

All you need to do is choosing the right application for that zip archive regardless of the file name extension.
The right application for "office related zip archives" is soffice or soffice.exe on Windows. soffice can "sniff" into a zip archive and decide what to do with it.

There are at least 2 methods how one can open any file with any program:
1) Start the program first and then call File>Open... to open the file.
2) In your file manager there might be an option to open a file with a program other than the default "double-click application". Usually you perform a right-click>Open With... and then choose the program you want to handle this file right now. Caution! MS WIndows checks the option to always use the chosen program which needs to be turned off since we want to open a zip with OpenOffice this time only.

If OpenOffice shows a "Filter Selection" dialog, then you know that this archive is neither an office document nor office extension. Look what's in it. May be it is an archive of office documents and/or extensions or something completely different.

How to detect if a zip archive is an office document or an extension:
When you open a zip archive with your favourite zip tool or file manager, a typical office document or template contains a file named "content.xml" whereas an extension contains a file "Addons.xcu".

Re: FireFox also Tells me I have to UNZIP a Template File...

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 8:01 pm
by RoryOF
@Villeroy: the reason I recommend renaming the extension to .oxt is because the default file association for .zip files is the system archive manager. In general terms it is not good for an inexperienced user to change this, if indeed he can. Should he change it, it may be storing up trouble for him down the road, when he has to handle a .zip file for some other reason. As you know, many users shy away from opening files (of whatever type) by /File /Open, preferring to double click on them and let the default association take over.

Re: FireFox also Tells me I have to UNZIP a Template File...

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 8:09 pm
by Villeroy
Oh no! Sitting in front of a Windows box, I see that Windows checks the option to "aways open this type of file with the chosen program" when you try to specify a different, unsuggested application. You need to choose OpenOffice and then UNcheck that nasty option because you want to use OpenOffice only this time.
Anyway, you can open OpenOffice first and then choose the zip file to be opened and let OpenOffice do the rest.

Re: FireFox also Tells me I have to UNZIP a Template File...

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2015 12:12 am
by Nala
At that point I had no idea to rename it to the extension that was usable. I didn't know to use the OO extension. That would've certainly made it a whole lot less painless, but still painful.

I won't have to deal with it any longer now that I made sure on her computer that FIREFOX is the DEFAULT browser and opens up on any link clicked. That was my problem last night after I discovered that it was an IExplorer problem.

Thanks again to the community for helping.

Nalajr