My documents will not save...?

[Kjetils]

Welcome beginner. What is your question or comment?
Please try to briefly and clearly tell us: What you want, What you tried, and What happened.
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(I'm not an advanced user of OOo (or computers at all as a matter of fact), so please bear with me)

It seems I'm unable to save any document I create in OOo, be it calc, writer, impress etc, into anything other than what appears to be a "file".

If I for example create a document in Writer and want to save it, I go to "File" - "Save as" - "ODF Text Document (.odt)" at desktop. But when I go to desktop and try to open the saved document, the icon where it is suppose to show the OOo Writer Document icon, there appears a white icon with no name, and when i put the cursor over the icon it says: "Type: File", and not: "Type: OpenDocument Text" as it's suppose to.

This olso go for all other types of documents I can save to; MS Word, MS Excel, PDF, MS Powerpoint etc etc. Everything saves as a "white file".

This means that I cannot attach any of these documents to any mail I send, as the reciever will not be able to open it.

I have removed OpenOffice and reinstalled it. The problem is still there...

What to do?

(please reply in simple terms, as I am not especially good with computers)

[Hagar Delest]

-> [Solved] I can not save a file as an .odt, .ott, doc, .pdf.

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

[ccseng01]

I have a similar or related problem in Write or Calc, 2.4.1, Windows XP Pro, SP2, on a workstation, not a laptop. The typical Write file saves either as .odt or .doc when created, just fine. Calc files save as either .ods or .xls when created, just fine. They save OK all day long. I can switch back and forth. These documents are not odd or unusual -- no graphics, no jpegs, no attachments, no imbedded links, no odd fonts, nothing unusual, etc.

BUT -- if I leave them open for hours or overnight, the exact same file will not save the next day. I don't have an exact time test but it may be related to XP going into "standby". I don't use "sleep" or "hibernate" (always had trouble with those modes). I am now running a test with "standby" off (set to "never").

The odd thing is that OOO didn't do this when first installed. It seems to have only done it since update to 2.4.1. I have to copy, open a new document, paste, then save over the old file name -- and I am good to go, again, until the next time, when it does it, again.

I also run OOO under Ubuntu and have not seen this problem (yet).

Anyone else have this problem?

Thanks.

[Phil]

Sounds quite strange. Indeed, it may have to do with the standby mode. But if you have disabled it, it should not occur anymore.
So have you already tested with disabled standby mode? I am not quite clear in this point.

Regards, phil

[Hagar Delest]

Perhaps that after the wake up some temporary files are removed by Windows. In OOo, Tools>Options>OOo>Paths, try to set another folder for the temp files (in a dedicated area in your documents for example) and try the standby again.

[kdoak]

I ran into this problem while using Open Office Writer at work. I resolved it this way, hope this works for you:

1) Open the document through Open Office Writer.
2) Go to File -> Save As.
3) Underneath the File Name and Save as Type boxes, there are three lines with check boxes next to them.
Check the box that says "Automatic file name extension".
4) Choose a file name for the file. If you're saving into the same folder that the original file is in, you will have to rename it.
For example, if the problem file is "WontOpenFile" you can call it "WontOpenFile_2".
I tried saving it as the same file name, but it saved as a white random "file" file that I couldn't open.
If you want to, you can go back later and delete the old file and rename the new one.
5) Click "Save".
6) Close Writer, go to the location you saved the file and check to see if you can open it.

[boogiebabys]

HELP
I cannot save my calc document, it just does nothing, I click it does nothing??

I havent seen any answers on how to resolve this so it would be great if one of you techies that works here gives us an answer please.... otherwise I will have to go with microsoft, OH MY GOD, lol. xxxxx

Please help as I am trying to create an invoice and need to send it off today, it seems a shame as its a very good programme.

Many thanks
Kerry

[Phil]

Hi Kerry and welcome to the forum!

I suspect that your problem might be slightly different from the others discussed here, and thus we need some more details to help you.

Does it happen when you open an existing Calc file or if you create a new one?

If you open Calc with an empty spreadsheet and enter some sample text, and you then click on the save button (or go to the menu and choose File > Save), is there no dialog box prompting you for a filename?

Regards, phil

[boogiebabys]

Hello there thank you so much for your speedy reply.
I was able to create them before, but its when I open a new doc and also when I open an existing doc??? its really weird, I click on save as and it just blinks, no prompts come up or anything, so I have tried to just do save and it still doesnt save.

xxxxxxxxxx

[Phil]

You're welcome!

How do you tell it does not actually save? Have you closed the document and reopened it, and the changes were lost?
Have you tried to completely restart your computer?

[boogiebabys]

I know it does not save because it does not prompt me for a file.
When I search for untitled1 it does not come onto my pc
and I log off every night so it gets rebooted every day.

This is how I know.xxxx

[Phil]

OK, that really seems weird.

The only thing I can currently think of is that your user profile may be corrupt.

So you could try to create a new one. This is automatically done by OpenOffice if you rename the profile folder.

This is done as follows:
At first, close OpenOffice altogether (also end the quickstarter in the system tray if active).
If your windows user name (login name) is "phil" and your system drive is C:, then your OOo user profile folder is
C:\Documents and settings\phil\Application data\OpenOffice.org2
Now rename the profile folder to e.g.
C:\Documents and settings\phil\Application data\OpenOffice.org2.old
and start one of the OpenOffice applications again. Then a new folder is created.

You could also delete the folder, but renaming it allows you to rename it back in case this does not help (bringing you back your old settings which are lost when a new folder is created!).

Regards, phil

[boogiebabys]

Hello phil,

sorry to be a pain, but I have all my customer and data information in office base, is there a possibility that I could lose all that information? If so I cant really take the risk.??

Sorry I know you must be very busy xx

[Phil]

sorry to be a pain

No problem!

Normally, your documents and base files should not be saved in your profile folder.
Moreover, if you rename the folder (instead of deleting it) as I have described, you should not run any risk, as you can revoke that change!

If you have important data on your system, I would urgently recommend that you make backup copies of them anyway, e.g. on a floppy disk or on an external thumb drive (USB memory stick).

Regards, phil

[Hagar Delest]

Have you tried to use the OOo dialogs? MEnu Tools>Options>OOo>General, Open/Save dialogs.

[nicco]

Mid-afternoon, while prepping for back-to-school Monday (I'm an ESL teacher living in Korea), I noticed that at some point, the files I was writing (saving as .doc) were no longer associated with OO. To make matters worse, when I clicked on "properties," they were only described as "file" . I spent an hour panicking. Debated whether or not to uninstall OO. Then finally found the sense to look through this forum where sure enough, a simple solution to my dilemma had already been posted. Thanks Hagar de l'Est - you've just made the beginning of my school term that much less stressful.