Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 96594
MSOffice file association
Last modified: 2010-11-19 17:57:11 UTC
Please do reinstate the file associate feature in next new OpenOffice 3.x release, as I couldn't double click to open any MSOffice document in my PC.
reassigned
This is a must have. Check out the OO Community Forum and do a search for file association - this is a very big issue with the users. If it worked the way it used to in 2.4.x where it asks if it should make the file associations during the file installation that would be great. If it could also have an option to repair those associations if they get poached by some other app, that would be even better.
+1 on what thegurkha said.
Agreed, this capability must be restored. Issue http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=89097 states the request to skip the association step, and the comments following reinforce the community's desire to restore this capability. It was not good to reduce the functionality of the previous version in this regard.
Had voted at issue 89097 but, as advised, this seems a better place to get this issue fixed. So to repeat ... IMHO an app should NEVER change file assocs without first asking the user. This is my first look at OOo and I specifically wanted to use OOo 3.0 to open MSOffice 2007 files on a laptop which did not have Office, but did have MS Works installed. Because I did not get the option during installation to select which file types to associate, now everything is hooked into OOo. Not too impressed!
I have around 50 users with Open Office on new laptops who cannot open MS Office documents by double clicking because we rush deployed Oo3 assuming it would behave the same way our testing with 2.4 did. The associations where not made even though no MS Office install existed on the laptops. There is now no easy way to repair them. The users are not happy and I don't have time to manually edit the associations on all 50 laptops. This one issue may have put the process of our organization switching away from MS Office in jeopardy.
mfurr: Try to deploy the registry here which will give you file associations http://wpkg.org/OpenOffice.org_3.x
In my opinion, mfurr should not have to do so because it was not necessary in the past. It is my opinion that it is not good to remove a feature from a product (in this case, the ability to establish Microsoft Office file associations using the installer) without providing some other way to accomplish what is needed.
@abqbill: Sure, I completely agree. It is exactly what this issue is about, and I wonder that still no target is defined despite the fact that there are 39 votes. However, I assume aziem proposed the solution not to resolve this issue, but rather as a workaround to solve the problem of mfurr in a short time frame.
Hi phil_, agreed, modifying the registry apart from the OOo installer is only a workaround until the OOo team fixes the installer.
Thanks for the reg file aziem, worked like a charm. I looked and looked for something like that on the intertubes but I guess my google = fail this time. This really seems like something that should be in the program so the average user can control it. Perhaps an extension could be thrown together in the interim that would provide a simple checklist and registry edit like the installer did? Any programmers out there?
This caused considerable embarrassment , when upgrading a user from 2.4 to 3 by talking over phone. Please allow association during instal
This has to be re-implemented. Many PCs are shipping with a trial of MS Office, which causes a default file association, so anything that skips the association dialogue based on what is associated in the registry means that no association with OpenOffice occurs. I agree with the proposal to keep the dialogue, and default the checkmark state based on the registry.
@ fl: Should we think about a new strategy of the MSI setup behavior? Something to discuss on the UX list?
We could add another checkbox (only one!) to the last installer page, which asks if the setup should add a desktop link. Or we could add another page with 30 or more boxes for all the different file types. Or ... Definitely something to be discussed. One problem is that there are three choices, to force registration for an extension, to register only, when not in use and to not register at all. A checkbox has only two states. Perhaps something like 'Force ...' or two boxes with 'register' and 'even when already in use by some other application'
The issue to me is associating MS Office types or not, so that would be only two states. Returning to the previous way of associating would be an option as well. However, if people want to associate by individual file extensions, something along how the image viewing program Irfanview would work. One button associates all image formats with Irfanview, but one can check the individual components as well. That dialogue is also available from the options menu, which would also be a nice feature in OpenOffice
Excellent suggestion by tschrock. A dialog showing all the possible associations that can be made, with an option to say Yes/No to all of them, with the ability to deselect certain ones would be perfect.
The installer should provide a declarative approach to modifying the machine. I think the current 3.0 behavior of attempting to determine the user's (or administrator's) intent is not preferred. Giving the user/administrator the ability to declare an intent (whether to associate or not) is the correct/preferred behavior.
I am a first time user of OOo and I found the behaviour totally weird and still does not understand if the lack of file association should be considered a feature or a bug. At least I expect the software to ask what I want to do...
I disagree w/ the statement about 3 choices. There are only 2 states: make OOo the *default* application or not. "Not register at all" doesn't make sense as a choice. If there is not already an association for a given type, the checkbox should default on. If there is an association already, the checkbox should be off. But for *all* supported filetypes, OOo should associate as an *available* application so that OOo at least appears under "Open With ->". The normal user is installing the app to open the file types it supports. Experts can completely dissociate the app from filetypes when listing the app under "Open With ->". The current behavior already puts swriter under OpenWith, so all we're asking for is a checkbox to make OOo the primary app for the filetype. There definitely should be a checkbox for each filetype. I may want to keep MS 1st choice for .ppt but not OOo for .docx. The UI doesn't really need to be in the installer. Tools->Options would be just fine, but the UI needs to be somewhere or nontechnical users will be unable to fix.
Regarding the comment "The UI doesn't really need to be in the installer": This may be problematic for those of us who rely on Windows Installer (MSI) features (such as transforms or properties specified on a command line) to manage application installations. My opinion is that it makes the most sense to provide this capability from the installer. If this capability is not available in the installer, it can make managing multiple OpenOffice.org installations more difficult (unless the association management tool can change associations for multiple machines over a network). Since the installer can already associate Microsoft Office file types (as the 2.4 installer did), I think it makes the most sense to simply restore this capability to the installer (and no doubt this is also the simplest solution to implement).
Workaround - involves reinstallation via "setup.exe", with special command line parms. Worked for me with version 3.0.1. I had installed MS Word Viewer, and it hijacked handling of .doc files on me. I was running OO (Novell) 2.4.1 and needed to upgrade anyway. My first install of OO 3.0.1 didn't reclaim .doc file handling so I (IIRC) uninstalled it, then did the following procedure: - Launch the downloaded installer (OOo_3.0.1_Win32Intel_install_wJRE_en-US.exe) and it begins by asking where to unpack the files, choose your folder and proceed with the unpacking until it's done. - Now cancel the installer. - go to the folder you unpacked into and drop to the command prompt and execute this command: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- setup.exe SELECT_WORD=1 SELECT_EXCEL=1 SELECT_POWERPOINT=1 REGISTER_ALL_MSO_TYPES=1 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- (AIUI: the SELECT_WORD, etc parms work only for OO 2.4.x, and only REGISTER_ALL_MSO_TYPES works for 3.0.x, but I put 'em all in just to be sure) - Then just proceed with the install as normal. Thx to OO developers for all your work, but removing control of file associations at install time was, um, maybe not your best work : )
Yes, please give us an easy way to associate both Open Office and MS Office file types to OOO. This is both essential for adoption and for the needs of a small but growing population of Open Office users - the portable apps population. I recently found that OOO had been made portable, so I can now carry both my data and my apps from one computer to another. So moving to a new computer is a matter of 1. copying over the portable apps, and 2. setting the file associations, and I'm up and fully productive in about 5 minutes. The copying is easy, but the file associations are the annoying part, and it would very very much help if I could set all of the Open Office associations right from within the program. Also helpful would be the ability to set them back to the original, but that's not an essential feature, just a nice touch for when I have been borrowing a machine for some months and am handing it back. Thanks for all of your hard work, and I hope this isn't difficult to put back in!
Hi folks, OO is a great effort, and I am a happy user. But aside from that, this issue now has 52 votes, it's been open since November, it seems that it mostly involves putting a feature back in that was removed (hence it seems that it would involve not much new code), and still there's no target release? I wanted to recommend OO to a friend this morning, but they're not that computer savvy, and I couldn't see having them wind up without the file associations when they finished installing it. It definitely impedes my desire to recommend this fine suite of software. Can this get scheduled in? Please?
Yes, this problem currently has 52 votes, and if you count the votes in http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=89097, which has 13 votes, this brings the total to 65 votes. (It would seem that 89097 should be closed as a duplicate of this item.)
I had previously voted at Issue 89097, but I was advised that I was inadvertently voting for skipping the file association step. I favor returning the file association step to the installation process.
Issue 89097 is for another situation and is not a duplicate. The spirit of 89097 is to skip the file association but activating it automatically when there is no MS Office on the machine. So if OOo detects that the user doesn't have MSO, then, OOo should automatically open the .doc, ... files. Hence, just don't ask the user about that. But if MSO is installed, then let the user chose and keep asking him at OOo install. Simply removing the option was a big mistake that hasn't answer anything (with opposite consequences!).
Without the option to associate Open Office with standard .doc, .xls etc, and to give the user the option under windows to use the 'new' command on right mouse click, I cannot introduce OO in my organisation. I admit the .odf seperiority, but compatibility is more important.
Hi hagar_de_lest, I agree that issue 89097 is not technically a duplicate of this one. I still think it should be closed, however, since 89097 is the current OOo Windows installer behavior -- it already works this way, hence it should be closed. This issue was created to address the bad decision made in 89097. Regards, Bill
Basically, everyone who's commented in favor of restoring this functionality is right. It's a matter of the user being able to control the program, instead of the program making assumptions about what the user wants. In my book, assuming that all users want some a program to behave in some specific way is often one of the worst things software can do. It seems to me that these are the basic requirements of what we need regarding file associations: -User must be able to control whether OpenOffice becomes the default application -It must be possible to control this with the installer for silent installations -The ability to control the file associations within the program itself, after it's installed. The last one isn't really a requirement, but it would be very useful to me and, I suspect, other users. I much prefer OpenOffice, but occassionally someone I'm submitting work to requires a Microsoft file. I love OpenOffice, but when you need to draw pictures and do other out of the ordinary things, saving a .doc file with OpenOffice just doesn't work. When that kind of situation arises, I'm forced to install MS Office to do that work and save it. When I'm done, I like to uninstall MS Office and get it off my system. Recently, this has left me with no easy way to restore the file associations that I originally chose when installing OpenOffice previously. I could uninstall/reinstall OO, but I'm worried about losing settings and templates. For this sort of situation, where a third party (a program or person) changes the file associations, it would be very useful to be able to get OpenOffice to reclaim the associations without having to deal with installers at all. The following suggestion may sound weird and not feasible since I'm not versed in how OpenOffice or MS installers work, but perhaps it might useful as a starting point. I suggest moving the actual code for claiming file associations into the application itself. From there, users can manually control the associations at any time. This would seem to violate the requirement for silent installs, but is it somehow possible to activate the program's code from inside the installer once installation is otherwise complete? If so, dialogs could be placed in the installer, and this could be saved as a setting and the associations could be made by the actual application code. In regards to how the dialog should work, I suggest a tree structure. A full blown list of file extensions would be too confusing for many users, but if the list were divided into a tree, then a user could select the top nodes (which would be things like "Microsoft Office Files", "Microsoft Works Files", and "Open Office Files") to select all the file types under that heading. The tree could also be expanded so advanced users could control the file types individually. Select All/Select None buttons would also be useful. The dialog could be implemented this way in both the installer and the application. Additionally, within the application itself, OpenOffice should have some kind of button that makes it reclaim all its prompted file associations. It might be useful to do something like Mozilla products do: when they open, they notify you that the file associations its supposed to maintain have changed and prompts the user whether or not to restore the associations. If that kind of behavior were to be implemented, it should be possible to make it stop asking you (probably where you control the file associations themselves). Of course, when you make it stop asking, it does NOT restore those associations automatically; it does nothing about them. Even if that kind of behavior is not implemented, though, I would greatly appreciate some kind of mechanism to easily make OpenOffice restore the file associations I told it to have since other programs (such as MS Office) can steal them. A tree-like structure also opens up some possibilities for silent installs. There could be parameters for the tree headings (MS Office files, etc.), a parameter for all file types, and a parameter for no file types; the installer should also still be able to handle a list of individual file types somehow. What the default behavior should be in this sort of design, I don't know. I'm not directly exposed to that type of situation. Thanks to all of you who spend your time making OpenOffice better. Hopefully, you will find this helpful.
Why would you ever take this OPTION out?
@coila: The old behaviour also created a lot of problems for people who do not understand what file associations mean, so there definitely was a motivation. Therefore just reinstating the old behaviour might not be the right solution either. For further information, the following user discussion might be helpful: http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11386
The choice of completly eliminate the possibility to change MSO file association, to me has more downside that benefit. I cannot understand what's wrong in setting the installer default behaviour as is now but let the user the option to modify the associations to his needs. At least in the "Repair option". The user that don't know what is doing will not modify the default settings, while the others can tweak them without going mad. Disappointed. Cesare.
@bernicl: I agree with you. I am quite confident that there will be a good solution for this - so please keep up hope! :-) I am just saying that it wouldn't be a solution to simply go back to the old state.
It appears it is possible to assign all Microsoft Office file types with OOo by setting the REGISTER_ALL_MSO_TYPES property to 1 for the installer. Apparently, it is also possible to select the file types you want to register with OOo by setting the REGISTER_NO_MSO_TYPES property to 1 and then set individual properties REGISTER_EXT (where EXT is an extension, e.g., DOC, DOCX, etc.) to 1. The only reference to this appears to be in the German OOo wiki here: http://www.ooowiki.de/InstallationUnterWindows?#WindowsInstaller I have tested REGISTER_ALL_MSO_TYPES=1 with Office 2003 and it appears to work properly. I have not yet tested REGISTER_NO_MSO_TYPES=1 and individual types. This information needs be published in the official documentation. Even though it is possible to configure via properties, I wonder if the dialog should still be restored to the installer?
I just want to say to you OO guys: "you made a classy piece of shit" yeah right, if you want to make administrators life any harder, go on, kill OO completely. What you forcme to install OO in C:\Program Files\Openoshit.org 3 do you realiaze, that there are at least 4 places where file association can be set, and do you realize that if any of theese points to a different location all is wrong? HAVE YOU GUYS EVER WORKED IN A MIXED DOMAIN? try a domain with few instalaltions of OO2 and OO3 I assure you that the problems i have to solve every day with OO file associations cost the company 2 times more than buying MS office ML (which btw is the next thing which will happen as soon as we get beter hw). Please notice that there are such people who need to take care of hundreds of DIFFERENT computers. I do not expect you to help such people but at least, don't cripple theirs job. BTW, Do you realize that there are thousands of people which have NO IDEA what a file association is? Yeah guys, if you want to kill OO, go on, you're on right track: a) keep the dictionaries separate b) keep the OO fucked up c) annoy sysdamins to hell d) give sysadmins at least twice as much of work e) make it a little bit slower f) make your own menus and file dialogs different from anything seen in the OS g) ignore this bug for another year Yes i know that this post does not follow any rules and i do not bother. I took quite a lot of time to register and write this post in (probably false) hope that there might be someone who'll notice that OO is slowly being killed - don't blame MS for that, it is solely your fault - i don't care which of these is better but OO is not easy to handle, i'm not going to lose my time with it any more. Feel free to delete this post, feel free to ban me, i don't care a bit, i just looked at my reports and discovered that i already spent 65.4 hours solving various problems with OO 3 (99% - file associations and dictionaries) this year only. I was waiting for a solution since march 2008. Regards, Jana
Well Jana, hold your breath a little bit longer. Maybe things will change under Oracle - maybe not. We'll see in the next few months. I'm still holding my breath for a file associations dialog. At least the 3.0.1 installer has REGISTER_ALL_MSO_TYPES :/
Dear Jana, I can fully understand your frustration, I have also lost much time due to OOo. However, I believe that an unobjective rant about the problems will not help much. Also, keep in mind that this software is free. Nobody has forced you to use it. If you do not like it, just use a different product. Kind regards, phil
OOo just wants to be a good citizen on Windows by not hijacking already registered foreign file format extensions. XP/Vista allows to change the file type file type association. Vista even offers a dedicated application for this. FL->OF: Please verify that the current behavior (OOo 3.0/3.0.1/3.1) regarding MSO file type association really works as defined in [1]. It seems to me that OOo does not register to MSO file types even if no MS Office is installed on the system. Also all MSO file type associations made by a prior version of OOo/SO should have been registered to the newly installed OOo 3.x according to [1]. [1] http://specs.openoffice.org/installation/filetyperegistration/foreign_file_type_registration.odt
Hi fl. Many of us has understood the rationale behind the spec, but what consider frustrating is that an useful interface was removed leaving the users on your own. If the choises done by setup are not what the user wants, then he is leaved alone. The spec cite an msi option but: - it is a all or nothing option (i cannot associate, for example, only the PowerPoint extensions); - it is a hidden option (i have to know about that); - it gives no feedback (will i have written it correctly?); - it is frustrating because i have to understand where and how to put that option. If you are worried about the user who associate the MSO options without knowing what they are doing, why not to put out that choice from the default setup path (for example under a "Change file association..." button) or, at least, render the previous useful and already working interface, visible when i do a repair or modify setup? Kind regards. Cesare.
Hi, fl! I'd say that current OOo 3 setup really works as defined in [1]. I had problems with MSO file type associations when MSO viewers had been installed in Windows. In that case OOo 3 setup doesn't associate the MSO file types with OOo applications, which doesn't make sense because the viewers should always be regarded as inferior to the editing applications of OOo. (The viewers may be useful if you have a MSO document that is broken when opened in OOo and you just want to view/print the document.) -- rpr.
Hi Cesare, if the German documentation in http://www.ooowiki.de/InstallationUnterWindows?#WindowsInstaller is correct, then you can set the REGISTER_NO_MSO_TYPES property to 1 and then set individual properties REGISTER_EXT (where EXT is an extension, e.g., DOC, DOCX, etc.) to 1 to configure individual individual MS Office associations. Regards, Bill
I've installed OOo 3.1 RC2 on a XP with MSO 2007 and on a system without MSO. On a the system without MSO all MS file types have been assigned to OOo. On the system with MSO all file types have been assigned to MSO stayed assigned to MSO. OOo isn't hijacking and file types. Even after updating OOo 3.0.1 to OOo 3.1 all mime types are kept as before. I don't know if we can tell wether MSO file types are assigned to an office or a viewer. I think that a simple solution can be a 'assign them all' switch at installation time. Offering checkboxes for all Office applications and all MS file types (doc, dot, docx, dotx a.s.o.) would be just confusing.
FL->OF: Thanks for testing! So we do not really know why this causes all the problems described above. I think we should go as proposed to add a simple option to the custom setup section only. So we would bring the command line switch to the interface, but no Word or Excel only switches anymore. If checked OOo forces registration if unchecked OOo registers only for currently unregistered MSO file types. I have updated the spec.: http://specs.openoffice.org/installation/filetyperegistration/foreign_file_type_registration.odt
Hi FL, the updated spec seems eminently reasonable. This will be entirely suitable for advanced users that want more control and also for system administrators that want to coerce the installer to register the MS office types.
Hi FL. The updated spec seems to address the most common cases and it's clearly better than now. But what i really cannot understand is why you are cutting out a working and a more precise functionality to a limited one. At work we have some Win2000 PCs that we are trying to switch to OpenOffice. Initially i've installed OOo side by side, leaving untouched the file associations to MSO97 and keeping free the user to test OOo. After some time i've switched the file associations to OOo to see how they feel. Some of them asked me to switch back to Excel because some feature they use works better. With the new spec i can only switch back *ALL* the file association to MSO (or change file associations manually), while now i can only proceed manually and before 3.x we can tweak every single association, restoring Excel association and leaving all the rest to OOo. To me the differences between 2.x and the updated spec are a reduction in flexibility with apparent no real advantage.
Hi bernicl, can't your scenario can be accomplished by manually setting the needed MSI properties (using either the command-line or a transform)? FL, can we get the correct properties documented in the Windows installation documentation?
The sad truth is that a command line option will be no use for most users. A lot of them won't discover it and others will be too confused to use it, or use it incorrectly. IMHO there should be an interface to set this like in any number of other programs. They present a list of common extensions and offer options to 'associate all', 'clear all associations' and checkbox to allow you to select the ones you wish to have associated. Simple, effective and well-established in the software world as a mechanism that 'works' for most users.
Accepted.
I'm finding my use case very difficult: I have both OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office (2003) installed on my PC (WindowsXP). I WANT to use OOo as my primary office suite, I want the double-click action to be to open with OOo whenever possible. I want to be able to install OOo and just have it work, and keep working. I used the REGISTER_ALL_MSO_TYPES command-line setup option (undocumented except in this bug and on the German Wiki, as far I can find) when I installed OOo and it was ok for a while, but MSO hijacked the file associations when downloading some update, and REGISTER_ALL_MSO_TYPES doesn't seem to be working for me now with either a Repair or Modify setup run. Some day I'll bite the bullet and uninstall OOo and then reinstall it again with REGISTER_ALL_MSO_TYPES, but that is NOT acceptable in the long term. It's pretty common for Windows apps to check whether their file associations are set and if not, ask if you want them to be. Couldn't we do that? Honestly, I get the impression that OOo doesn't want to be used as the default office suite. It's like it's saying "Oh, you've got Microsoft Office. Ok, I'll just go sit quietly in the corner here. You don't really want me." Come on, be more assertive! If someone installs OOo, they want to use it! In most cases, MSO is there by default and its presence can be ignored; installing OOo is a choice that should be respected.
I've added the register for Microsoft File Types setup page again, but it will only be visible while performing a custom setup. Btw. starting with Windows Vista you should change the default file associations via 'Start Menu / Default Programs / ...'
Changed target.
@dv: very very very appreciated. Thank you very much!
Please verify.
of: The current behavior on new XP VMWare image: Before installing the cws no MS file types are assigned (except .doc to wordpad). Starting the setup the MS file type dialog has no check marks for these file types. Expected: The file types should be checked. Installing the cws, the MS filetypes are assigned to OOo. Expected: No check marks for MS file types -> no assigning to OOo.
Forgot to build a module.
*** Issue 108803 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
*** Issue 108966 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
*** Issue 100729 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
sure would be great if this could make it into OOo 3.2 and not have to frustrate some new users.
The inability of OpenOffice to override Microsoft Office default associations makes it almost impossible to recommend to any user, personal or corporate. All computers my organisation has procured over the last 12 months have come with 'trial versions' of Microsoft Office, which - even once uninstalled - leave default associations to Microsoft Office. OpenOffice is effectively useless on these computers without much tiresome additional work. I was about to roll out Open Office to a corporate laptop fleet, but now I am going to explore options for getting cheap Microsoft Office licences instead: My staff's time compensating for the inadequacies of OpenOffice is more valuable than the cost of Microsoft Office licences. Sort this out or you will lose more potential users.
OF Verified in cws installer10. We have followup issue 110382. I don't see this issue as critical that we must have a fix in this cws.
of: TCS: "http://quaste.services.openoffice.org/index.php?option=com_tcs&task=tcs_show&tcsid=3112"
I didn't see a way to comment on the test case directly, but CSV should be added to the list of Excel file types.
CSV is not on the list documents that defaults to OOo. So it's not in the testcase. This will be a new wish for enhancement.
I've just installed "OOo-Dev_DEV300_m75_Win32Intel_install_en-US.exe", under Win2000Pro SP4, with MSO2000 and file extension assigned to MSO. I've run custom setup but i cannot see any dialog where i can set file association, as described in: http://quaste.services.openoffice.org/index.php?option=com_tcs&task=tcs_show&tcsid=3112 Nor i can see any file type dialog if i choose "modify" on the already installed OOo.
Read this issue carefully (ok, there's a lot to read :-)). This feature is not in the master yet but in a child work space and will be integrated soon. .
Ah sorry. Issue #110382 talk about DEV300m63, so i tought it was already available in dev. Thank you, i'll wait for intergration.
Please make file association configuration easily accessible to users. A pick list in Options | File Associations would be fine. We need to be able to select from each of the MSO filetypes; limiting this to an all or nothing choice would be frustrating - out here in working world we're still evaluating Oo against MSO. Crippling the ability to easily switch back and forth works against Oo. Thanks.
In dev300_m84 you can select the mime types at installation time.
So if Microsoft Office usurps its file associations (as it does when an update is applied) the answer for OpenOffice users is to reinstall? (This is an issue for people, like me, who have both installed.) As was said in comment #2: "If it could also have an option to repair those associations if they get poached by some other app, that would be even better."
JFY: i've just tried dev300_m84 under Win2000 and the MS Office file association are settable again. As per spec, they are changeable only in custom installation and under the "modify" installation. Thanks of! For the rest i can't see other differences with OOo-2.4.x. Thank you for reintroducing this functionality and let's wait for OOo 3.3!
Hi, using Windows Vista or Windows 7, you can use 'Windows Start Menu/Default Programs/Set your program defaults' to control the file associations, and you can change the default program in the property page of a document for all documents of this kind (this works with Windows XP, too). Do you really need another way in OpenOffice.org to change these settings. I don't think so. Dirk
I do. I don't use XP, Vista or 7 - I use 2000 instead. I don't think we should rely on OS to be able to change associations. Some OSs permit that, some don't, and some may not do it correctly. So, IMHO, having this option available in OOo is the safe choice. BTW, if OOo is in charge of associations, it can also be set (option) to check it at every start, as many other apps do. So, if another office suite (guess which) steals associations, OOo gets it back when used again, at user's will. In short: making associations settings available inside OOo is safe, comfortable and useful. Best regards.
What do I need to do to fix OpenOffice 3.2? I can not uninstall it from my computer because it has missing components.
Summing up ideas in order to suggest a target behaviour, replacing the proposed one (which seems to me hard for average users). Or we could use the old behaviour. IMHO, an user-friendly way to change associations inside the suite is critically needed for these reasons: 1.Associations may fail during installation for whatever reason (as happened to me) 2.Apps may hijack associations (as M$O does) 3.Users may change minds (as everyone do) So, regardless of having or not options during install (or first use, so installation can be silent), we must have them inside the program to correct as needed. Besides, I think the options should not be just "all" or "none", by the reasons already exposed enough. I see the best option as having one checkbox for each file format, then buttons for "None", "Only OD", "Only unregistered" and "All". So it'd be easy to achieve every situation mentioned here. Sure, with an user-friendly expanation for those options, what is not hard at all. Plus, an option to restore associations at startup. Just in case some other app hijack them. BTW: this is not limited to Windows. I have just moved to Linux (Mint Debian) and faced the same problem. Here in Brasil we use BrOffice instead, so I uninstalled OOo and installed BrOo. Open Document files are associated, but M$O files aren't.