Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

While I was working on my MS Win. 10, with Op.Off. 4.1.5, I must have forgotten to close my OpOff. and start changing my laptop setting to "local",
all my OpOff files were lost or cold not be found on the PC; I went to OpOff help, learned that I need a Java software. I got that. Now I don't know
how and where to install, and what to do to find all my lost files. Help please.

You don't need any Java software for most parts OpenOffice. What makes you think that Java is a problem?
What exactly are you doing?
What exactly happens when you do so? Error message? Which one? Crash? Something else? What exactly?

I doubt that for this you will need Java. Were you working with your files directly on some remote server in the Cloud? If so, setting your laptop to "local" probably has broken the connection to them and you need to re-establish such a connection.

If you were not working direct to a cloud server, then your files should be on the computer in the folder in which they were originally saved, but may have been erased from the "Recent Documents" list in OpenOffice for any one of a number of reasons. If a system file search cannot locate one of these documents, then you should download Recuva or PhotoRec (only one needed) and let it search for deleted files; any such files of approximately the correct time and date may need to be renamed at system level to the correct extensions (typpically .odt, .ods etc) before attempting to open them in OpenOffice. They may or may not contain usable data. There is no guarantee that you will recover any data, but it is worth trying. The sooner you do this the better.

cbsshinn wrote:While I was working on my MS Win. 10, with Op.Off. 4.1.5, I must have forgotten to close my OpOff. and start changing my laptop setting to "local",

Did you create a new local account? Does your computer now have two accounts, one local and one Microsoft? If so, then you need to transfer the files from the Microsoft account to the local account.