[Dropped] OpenOffice 2 won't open any document!

[Whiteser]

Can anybody help me? I just tried to open a document created in 2021 (last used this app on my MacBook). A flashed small message comes on screen for a second about cannot open. Then a page of coding process path identifier etc... cannot upload screen shot as attachement here as message says file too big.
If I deleted and tried to reinstall open office would it help? What is the difference between open office and libre office? I have so much important stuff on my iMac in open office but how to open the docs?

[RoryOF]

Are you certain this file is a text file - .odt, .doc, .txt?

[Whiteser]

All the documents are out

[Whiteser]

That should be odt

[Hagar Delest]

Do you mean that the files are .out instead or .odt? or do you mean that in your post "out" should have been odt? You can edit your post with the pen button top right of the message. It is less ambiguous than such correction.

Can you crop the screenshot and make it smaller than 128KB?

Are you able to create a new document, save it and open it?
NB: OpenOffice 2 is really deprecated by now. Can't you upload to a more recent version (latest is 4.1.14).

Abou tLibreOffice, see [Tutorial] Considering a Switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice? Some Useful Information. It is under much more active development than AOO. But if the files are wrecked, it may not be able to open them (like any other application anyway).

[RoryOF]

How did you Save your documents as .odt? Did you perchance /File /Export as PDF, then add the .odt extension?
.

Edit:  Have these files been transferred from an older computer? If so, how was that done?

[MrProgrammer]

OpenOffice 2 won't open any document!

The current version of OpenOffice is 4.1.14, released in February 2023. What do you mean by OpenOffice 2? I doubt if a current release of MacOS will run OpenOffice version 2 since the latest release of that (2.4.3) was 14 years ago.
Mac FAQ Q22/A22: How do I tell what version of OpenOffice I have?
Mac FAQ Q03/A03: How do I install OpenOffice on a Mac?
Many common Mac problems have solutions in the Mac FAQ tutorial.

I just tried to open a document created in 2021 (last used this app on my MacBook). A flashed small message comes on screen for a second about cannot open. Then a page of coding process path identifier etc... cannot upload screen shot as attachement here as message says file too big.

We don't want the screen image. We just want to know the exact text of the message. Don't guess. If the message display is brief, open the document multiple times until you can learn the exact message text. We also want to know exactly what steps you are taking to open the document.
• Do you launch OpenOffice and use its File → Open menu?   This is the best way when you're having trouble
• Do you attempt to open the document using Finder? With double-click? With Finder's File → Open?
• Some other method? What specifically?

You are more likely to get the problem resolved quickly when you attach the document demonstrating the difficulty (remove confidential information then use Post Reply, not Quick Reply, and don't attach a picture instead of the Writer document itself).

What is the difference between open office and libre office?

You can find several topics about that in the Beginners forum.