Documents

[jchsr49]

For the last 2 days, when opening any document in Open Office when they open it just shows a whole mess of random symbols. I finally got a way to view the actual document. But It still opens with the symbols. Any spreadsheet or other I have created and need to add information to, says it is now a read-only document. I have also noted in The toolbars on the documents, I now show it as a PDF document, which they are not. So I can do no work on them. I have the McAfee Total Protection Package that shows no evidence or malware. I do not want to have to reboot the entire system and lose all my information and probably hundreds of hours of work, and so my documents. Does anyone have some advice?

Frustrated in Chico

[FJCC]

Can you upload one of the files? To do that, click Post Reply and look for the Upload Attachment tab just below the box where you type a response.

[RoryOF]

In OpenOffice what does /File /Properties show as the file type when you open one of these documents? What is the three letter extension shown in /File /Properties for the files in question?

[irvingvm]

I had Version 4.1.5 and then changed to 4.1.6. When I try to open a document that is already there, I get a box that asks for a character set. I've tried several but there isn't an actual English one and the closest is Western Europe, but I just get a bunch of jargon on my screen. Can you help me?

[RoryOF]

A file that opens as ### is damaged - possibly because of over-hasty power off of the computer before the internal buffers in the hard drive had written to disk.

You may be able to recover a previous version of the file - see [Tutorial] How to find and un-delete AOO temporary files for detailed instructions on how to

a) use Previous Versions (W7 and later) to recover previous versions of the file ;

b) recover your file as it was when you last opened or saved it, or as it was when it was last saved with AutoRecovery;

c) find previous versions of the file in the folder it is located in, but which have since been deleted;

d) un-delete the temporary files AOO wrote while you were editing the file, and then deleted. This will recover your file as it was when you last opened or you last saved it.

Experience shows that you should not waste any time with your existing file - it will have no usable content. Concentrate on the recovery methods outlined in the tutorial.

If the file is of type PDF (as told by the three letter extension) it will open in OpenOffice as mixed characters. That is because it is being opened with the wrong application - it should be opened with a dedicated PDF reader, and the File Associations should be set to tell the operating system which application is to open it - on older Windows, usually Adobe Reader; I cannot say for Windows 10.