Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Hi!
I finally got myself a new MacBook Air (2017), changed HD to larger and had El Capitán installed (as previously) MacOS X 10.11.6. I have been using OpenOffice for years and am very happy with it. I have made sure Mac would accept it on the new computer, and Writer works fine so far.

But Calc give my formulas an error 509 in all those columns in my book-keeping file!!!
What must I do? (I'm not terribly good at these techy things!)

Cheers!
Christine

Hello Christine,
Save our time, could you please post the formula?
Even better, upload the spreadsheet if it doesn't contain confidential information.

The formula is simple (and no, can't upload confidential information)
=sum(E128-F128+D127)
=sum(W1:W14)

/Christine

No sense, why use SUM?
Just enough with:

Same result, I'm afraid! Terribly frustrating.

Start by checking your data types - turn on /View /Value Highlighting; text will show in black, formulae in green, numbers in blue.

That's correct, but it doesn't perform

Can you open a new spreadsheet, and perform some simple arithmetic in it? That will help isolate the problem either to the specific spreadsheet or to the new OpenOffice installation.

I've done a short testing sheet. Sometimes the cell is empty!

IN a16, b16, c16 change =a1:A14 TO =SUM(a1:a14) and similarly for B16, C16; all should then be OK. The error in A16 (etc) propagates to the lower cells.

That is the way it was on the old laptop. I just checked, as it is still intact. On the test sheet, there is no difference when I change it back to SUM (or summa, in Swedish).
I did back-up and transferred all my files from the old to new new laptop. On the old one, it worked just fine...

In your sample file I surrounded the cells invoking the ranges (A1:A14 etc) with =SUM() and all was well.

Have you remembered to prefix the SUM (or SUMMA) with = (equals sign)?

Yes, as is shown in my test sheet.

Sorry, in the test sheet I had changed it to = only, as suggested. But when I do use SUM I click the Sigma sign and it turns out without the SUM! Why?
Should i update McOS? AOO available for Mac?

Attached is your sample file, with ranges modified to use SUM; if you locale is Swedish, you might need to change SUM to SUMMA.

And when I open it, it looks just the same as before: Err:509...

Should I perhaps delete and reinstall AOO????

Have you changed the SUM to SUMMA?

Yes. I have tried various formulae:
=summa(E3:E15) and =SUM(E3:E15) When hitting the Sigma sign, it only comes out as = and the cell says Err:509
=E3:E15 When I hit the = sign, the cell is blank (only shows in the upper row, don't know what it's called)

So incomprehensible!

Strange that functions are in lowercase.
Provide a screenshot to get what you see.

Here's what it looks like.

Hi again,

As no-one seemed to have a clue as to what had happened, I deleted AOO and then reinstalled. Now it is working!
I also assume that the formula =SUM(A12:A18) is necessary when more than two cells are involved, but if the operation is simple it works with just =
My book-keeping file looks normal again!

So thanks for your efforts, at least I know where to turn for expert advice.

Cheers!
Christine

Sum is best used when there is a contiguous range: =SUM(A1:A5) is clearer than =A1+A2+A3+A4+A5; besides, if typing a long sequence one can sometimes omit a term.