[Solved]OpenOffice locks up when opening select dialog boxes

[Only1KW]

I apologize if this question has already been asked. It seems like it would be common enough, but I find nothing in my searches.

When I choose select menus in OpenOffice (So far: Writer->Format->Character... and Writer->Format->Paragraph), the title bar greys out and the application no longer accepts any input. I'm forced to kill Writer from the Task Manager to get it to shut down. Any ideas why this is happening?

Based on previous experience, my best guess at this point is that the dialog box is appearing, but is showing up off screen. I did use to have multiple monitors on my laptop but don't at the current time. However, I've verified that all monitors except for the primary are disabled in the Dispaly Control Panel and I've even tried rebooting without any additional monitors attached, but with no luck.

I'm running OpenOffice 2.4 on Windows XP.

[Villeroy]

Code: Select all

Based on previous experience, my best guess at this point is that the dialog box is appearing, but is showing up off screen.

In this case hitting the escape key should reactivate the document.

[Only1KW]

Hitting escape does return control of OpenOffice to me, so I'm probably right about the dialog box. Only question in that case is now what can I do to get it back on my screen. Please note that I won't be able to hook up my second monitor for another week as I'm currently traveling.

[Villeroy]

I have no Windows at hand, but I remember that there are keyboard shortcuts to move a window. Test the shortcuts with a visible modal dialog (a dialog that steals the focus like the one in question) before you try with a hidden dialog.

[Only1KW]

I looked around and found the ALT+SPACE shortcut keys which seems to have done the trick. Thanks. Hopefully though, OpenOffice will fix this problem in future releases to not make the shortcut necessary.

[Hagar Delest]

This is a problem linked to your configuration because all XP users don't have such issue!

Try to rename your OOo user profile (\Documents and settings\<user>\Application data\OpenOffice.org2), a new one will be created with new configuration files.

Thanks to add '[Solved]' at beginning of your first post title (edit button) if your issue has been fixed.

[Villeroy]

The profile is not broken. It had stored a dialog position (on another screen) which was no longer available. The OP was able to move the dialog back into the visible area by using shortcuts.