Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Hello. Are you allowed to post questions about the beta versions here or is it only for released versions? I cannot set my 3.0 as the default to open .doc files. Can anyone help?

1. Yes
2. This OpenOffice.org 3.0 is not a beta yet
3. The answer depends on your operating system. Which is it? Do you currently have a program associated with .doc? The lack of file associations is intentional. Part of the reason is that this product really is unstable and can mess up your documents. For example, recently I used a OpenOffice.org 3.0 developer snapshot, and it ate the formatting of all my bulletted lists.

Of course, all versions are supported.

See here for example:
[Solved] Changing all MS file extensions to open in OOo.

BTW: what OS? Please read the Survival Guide for the forum.

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

NB: moved your thread to the Setup & Troubleshouting forum.

Dear AndrewZ
My OS in XP. If I run the setup program (repair or modify) it does give the option for making ooo-dev 3.0 the default program for MS word documents, spreadsheets, etc, but if I set this it continues to open with MS Word (or ooo2.4 which I took off when I installed ooo-dev 3.0). No document I have is sooo critical that I would be too bothered if the dev version messed it up!

Spinnekop wrote: If I run the setup program (repair or modify) it does give the option for making ooo-dev 3.0 the default program for MS word documents, spreadsheets, etc, but if I set this it continues to open with MS Word (or ooo2.4 which I took off when I installed ooo-dev 3.0).

Yes, I think this is intentional.

No document I have is sooo critical that I would be too bothered if the dev version messed it up!

Just be prepared to lose the document altogether.


To set a file association manually in Windows XP, it's something like this (I'm trying from memory)

* Right click on .doc document
* Choose Open With
* Choose Other Program
* Browse to c:\program files\ooo-dev3.0\program\soffice.exe
* Select the box "Always use the sleected progarm to open this kind of file"
* Click OK

It will not let me select either soffice or swriter. BUT, it did let me select simpress and guess what? it opened in writer. It works but I would hardly call it a [solved]

PS I will re-install 2.4 and if I have any critical docs will edit them with that!!

Spinnekop wrote:It will not let me select either soffice or swriter. BUT, it did let me select simpress and guess what? it opened in writer.

Same thing here.

You could try to report it if it hasn't been done yet: [Tutorial] Reporting bugs.

Another solution for those who want to associate writer files with Writer, and so on:
Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Folder options -> File types
Then enter the extension (if it's not in the list, click New, enter the extension and click OK)
Click Advanced (if there is no Advanced button, click Restore first), and look for the 'open' or 'edit' command in the list.
Open the Edit... dialog for the command you want to use to launch OpenOffice, and change the program path into <OpenOffice>\program\swriter.exe (or scalc.exe).
Go back to the Folder options dialog by clicking OK twice. Now you should see the appropriate program in the Open With... dialog.
(note: I'm using Windows XP SP3)