Open Office help please

[Heather Positive Thinker]

After my puter crashed Ive somehow managed to reload windows and am reloading programs but I seem to have lost my works XP program. Ive therefore put on the old Works 2000 I had with previous puter but I dont really like it. Ive downloaded open office.

Id luckily backed up my docs back to 2004 on a disc a couple of days ago and phew, they have reappeared under my documents BUT some are word and some are works (dont really know what Im talking about, but some were created on my last program and some on the previous puter). Id like to be able to open them all in open office, but when I click on some a "filter" comes up from Open Office asking me what I want to use out of all the programs listed. Ive no idea. Can anyone advise please?

[sunday picnic]

Heather what is the extention on the files that you want to open. .doc .xls ??

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Oh gawd sunday, not sure, doc I believe

[sunday picnic]

Ok, there are a few ways to do this - right click on the .doc file then go to 'open with' - then choose open office. If open office isnt there, then choose 'choose program' - and then select openoffice. and in future all you .doc proggies should open with - open office.

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Really? Thing is, its the other way round on here. I click on the document and open office opens a huge list to "filter". Ive tried clicking on the one in the list which appears to be right for the document but apparently not. Ill have another go. Im most grateful for your help :)

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Nope, Im getting too confused here Im afraid. If I click on my documents they open in the old Works 2000, Id like open office to be the default and they all open there but I cant see how I do this.

Oh, the one that I cant open is .wps


Ive gone to my list of documents and chosen a recent one. Right clicked on it and then clicked on open with and then clicked on Open office 2.3 and nothing appears to open. BUT when I go back to the list, click on the document it says, "read only xxxxxxxx is locked for editing by another user" Oh helpppppppppp

[sunday picnic]

Ok a few things to try, as always...

Right click on the document that comes up as 'read only' - and click on properties and then look down the bottom and it should say 'read only' and make sure it is UNTICKED.

Go to explorer and look at the top at the 'tools' button. Click on file types, then go thorugh and make sure .doc, .wps etc is set top open with Openoffice. (or goto windows help and search for file association if you dont understand what i'm saying)

If your docs dont have 'read only' attribute, then they should open with the program you tell it to. Docs shouldnt have 'read only' if you dont want alteration of them. So it means what it says - read only.

YOu can also look into your 'works 2000' settings. make sure you untick any file assocations.

Your docs will only do what they are told to do. So, As you want OpenOffice to be the boss, you need to let your documents know this, and this is done by 'file association'.
OPenoffice opens does open .wps files, as it has the option.

Some or all of this you probably know, but just double check, and play around a bit.

Let me know.

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Thanks sunday, not sure if Im up to it :) Go to explorer? where is that please? You dont mean IE do you? Nothing called file types in the tools there.

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Somehow I found the explorer you meant - by going to programs - I clicked on the file types and then I tried to add wps but it came up saying this type of file is already associated with works program, do you want to disassociate it? So I just cancelled and left as I didnt know what they may mean :(

[sunday picnic]

Yep, you wanting your docs to open with 'openoffice' - so, as you said above - disassociate the works program, and enable openoffice.

You are on the right track, go back to where you where when you cancelled it. Then click 'change' and scroll down on the new window and click on 'openoffice'. Click, apply/ok etc.

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Nope, sorry, Ive done that but it still isnt opening in open office when I click on a document

[sunday picnic]

Uninstall word.

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Oh picnic, just saw this BUT Im scared to do that - I dont really understand open office properly yet. Ill have a fiddle with it shortly to see if I can follow it.

[Margaret N]

I wonder if the problem is related to the fact that you have put Works version 2000 onto your PC. An older programme cannot read 'Forward' but a new Programme can of course read backwards if that makes sense.
This is because when version 2000 was created it was not possible to see into the future and what the next version would contain. It is possible that Open Office is too new to open older files.
If I was to put Windows 95 on this PC I would not be able to read my present work.

[John-Nihon]

Sorry, I've not really read this thread properly BUT -

1) With regard to Margaret's last post - She has a very good point. If you can, I would try and obtain the latest possible version of Works or find someone to open your .wps file and convert it for you.

2) I'm not sure that Open Office will open .wps files. There is a possibility that Oxygen Office (based on Open Office) may open .wps files but I don't think that you really want to go down that route at this stage.

I'm sure that someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Thanks guys - strange thing is, it will open the older - 2004 files which were on Works 2000 but not the latest ones! I cant seen how I lost my works program anyway when I restored :(

[Margaret N]

Heather, I have discussed this with a friend today who is a semi professional photographer and he downloaded the latest Open Office last week. He told me that a file is missing from the latest version and he not been able open any type of file at all. He 'googled open office' and found a download to correct the situation but he is running windows 98 still.