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Question

open office 3.3 won't open 2.2 text files

Jun 21, 2011 6:48AM PDT

(I am using XP) I upgraded open office from 2.2 to 3.3 including the defaut to remove all older versions of open office.

now I have no way to open oo 2.2 files as they will not open with 3.3.? I did not have this problem with any of the previous updates


anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks J

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
Any error messages?
Jun 22, 2011 7:28AM PDT

Are there any error messages when you try?

What method are you using? EG if you are double clicking the older files, try opening OO first then using it's File > Open dialog to navigate to the files and try to open them from there.

Also, for clarity, define text files. Normally text files have the file extension .txt , as in filename.txt and Notepad is the default application for text files. What file extensions do your OO 2.2 files use?

Mark

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Thanks Mark I can open them now
Jun 23, 2011 7:03AM PDT

Thanks Mark

It seems a little obvious, but I had not seen it before like this.

to open oo files now you have to open OO3.3 first, (not click on the letter you want to finish, like you do in all the previous versions)

this brings up a menu screen and you click on the open folder at bottom left.

In the open screen you enter the file name, without any extension. 2.2 odf files are saved without extensions. the first version of OO used .odt and saved the files with that extension.

Then click where the file is located descktop etc. and then it will open.

Thank you for telling me about file . I will use a view/change program to change some files to the first version .odt which opens immediately when you click the file
have a great day
thanks again Mark you made my day!

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That's great and thanks for reporting back
Jun 23, 2011 9:18PM PDT

I have a suggestion. I haven't used OO for years now so I am out of practice with it, but what happens if you do this;

1] Make a copy of one of your OO 2.2 files to work on as a test. If the test fails and corrupts the file you have lost nothing.

2] Open the new OO and navigate to open this document as you described above.

3] Re-Save the document using OO 3.3's native, (default), "Save as" file type.

4] Close down OO then find your newly saved document and double click to open the same way you used to open the older version files.

Does the document now open correctly in OO 3.3?

If so, that's the clue. At some stage work through all your older version documents and allow the new version of OO to re-save them in it's own default format.

Mark