[Solved] Catalina Gatekeeper stops OpenOffice 4.1.9

[eleanorb]

I recently applied the Catalina technical upgrade to my Mac system, then I downloaded OO v 9, but I get the unidentified developer error and the usual methods of overriding this are not available. Anyone else have this problem?

[John_Ha]

Have you tried the methods in the Tutorial: Mac FAQ? Especially the Gatekeeper settings in Q05?

[eleanorb]

i am the original poster. I finally called Apple Support, was referred to a Senior advisor, who took half an hour to fix this for me. I'm not sure what all he did, but at the end I could open the downloaded v. 9, and since it only needs to be opened once for the error to be cleared, I'm content. However, I can't be sure what caused the problem — I think it was something in the recent 10.15.7 Security Update 2020 to Catalina, and the Senior advisor believes it is some problem introduced with OO v. 9! We're as bad as the politicians!
— Eleanor

[John_Ha]

I think it was something in the recent 10.15.7 Security Update 2020 to Catalina ...

Semi correct. 4.1.9 is new so Catalina doesn't know about it and needs to be told it is OK.

... the Senior advisor believes it is some problem introduced with OO v. 9!

In the immortal words of Mandy Rice-Davies, "Well he would, wouldn't he."

[eleanorb]

But how is the gatekeeper supposed to be told 9 is okay? I thought that was what the normal procedure did (Ctl - click on the file and get the option of open it anyway). My problem was that ctl click didn't bring up that option. E.