[Issue] File association dialog removed at install

[psychoatberea]

Hey, I'm using Oo3, with Windows Vista Home Premium. I've installed Oo3, and the problem is it never shows an associate screen during the installation. I've run the installer and tried modifying the installation, repairing the installation, and un-installing, and re-installing. I've also right clicked on the file and selected open with, and tried to select Swriter for the document. After I select the Swriter.exe file, it doesn't show up in the list of available programs.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

The option to associate MS Office documents has gone in 3.0 but you can still do it from the Open With menu. Perhaps you need to reboot to see that option. Swriter is available for selection on my system.

[thomasjk]

Open My Computer. Tools--->Folder Options----->File Types Tab. Find the file types you want to associate .xls, .doc etc in the list. Click on the File Type and click change. Select swriter or scalc etc. Repeat as necessary for each file type.

[Phil]

The option to associate MS Office documents has gone in 3.0

I didn't notice it so far, but it's true. Does anybody know why? I quite liked this option for people who would use OOo as a replacement for MS Office.

Regards, phil

[Hagar Delest]

See the comments in the report: [Issue] Removing MS Office and setting file association.
The devs missed the whole point I think.

[thomasjk]

Here is the issue which has been reopened http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=89097. Vote for it.

Edit: Hagar (moderator): better vote for that one I think: Issue 96594 - MSOffice file association, see end of this thread.

[Phil]

The devs missed the whole point I think.

Yes, that seems to be the case.
Let's hope they'll set this to a sooner target than OOo Later!

Regards, phil

[thomasjk]

The devs missed the whole point I think.

That's being kind. They totally blew it. Someone wasn't thinking at all.

[psychoatberea]

Open My Computer. Tools--->Folder Options----->File Types Tab. Find the file types you want to associate .xls, .doc etc in the list. Click on the File Type and click change. Select swriter or scalc etc. Repeat as necessary for each file type.

Thanks for the offer, but that only works for MS Windows XP and earlier OSs. I tried with the new process and it doesn't work . Unfortunately, this distro still has flaws... the MS Word associations being the KEY example (at least for me on a college campus. Soon as I'm gone? .ODT ALL THE WAY BABY!! ).

[thomasjk]

Try this for Vista http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/51 ... 72036.html. It is different.

[psychoatberea]

Try this for Vista http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/51 ... 72036.html. It is different.

Ok, I'd been doing that every time, unfortunately it didn't work. I then tried to manually associate the files to Oo3 using cmd, and that sorta worked. AFTER I uninstalled Oo3, deleted all traces from my system, and got the installer that did NOT have JRE (I've been using the one WITH up until this point), somehow it did pop up in the associate program with extension window... but only for .doc files. Still will not let me associate .odt files (or any others for that matter) with swriter.exe, or even sofice.exe. this is getting annoying.

[psychoatberea]

Ok, more data. This could just be my machine, but I can associate Impress with .ODP and .PPT; I can associate Calc with .XLS, .ODS, .CSV, and .OTS; I can associate Base with .ODB; and I can associate Draw with .ODG. HOWEVER, I can use CMD to associate Writer with .ODT, .OTT, OR .DOC files, but when I click on the file, all it does is open a blank document. I have used Swriter.exe, Soffice.exe, AND EVEN Soffice.bin. NONE of them are oppening, and I've installed the entire program 3x, and repaired it more times than I can COUNT. When I use the normal means to associate a file, here are the steps I take, and what happens:

• I click Start
• I click Default Programs
• I click Associate a file type or protocol with a program
• I click .DOC (or .ODT, or .OTT)
• I click Change Program
• I look for Swriter, it is not listed, so I click Browse...
• I open the OpenOffice.org 3 folder
• I open the program folder
• I click Swriter.exe, and click Open
• Swriter is nowhere to be found.

In CMD:

• I create the "textfile" ftype
• ftype textfile=.doc
• assoc .doc=C:\program files\openoffice.org\program\swriter.exe

Viola! it's associated, but it just opens a new document.

[Hagar Delest]

Have you tried to associate text files to simpress.exe?

[TheGurkha]

Would using something like this help?

Types

[psychoatberea]

Ok, more data. This could just be my machine, but I can associate Impress with .ODP and .PPT; I can associate Calc with .XLS, .ODS, .CSV, and .OTS; I can associate Base with .ODB; and I can associate Draw with .ODG. HOWEVER, I can use CMD to associate Writer with .ODT, .OTT, OR .DOC files, but when I click on the file, all it does is open a blank document. I have used Swriter.exe, Soffice.exe, AND EVEN Soffice.bin. NONE of them are oppening, and I've installed the entire program 3x, and repaired it more times than I can COUNT. When I use the normal means to associate a file, here are the steps I take, and what happens:

• I click Start
• I click Default Programs
• I click Associate a file type or protocol with a program
• I click .DOC (or .ODT, or .OTT)
• I click Change Program
• I look for Swriter, it is not listed, so I click Browse...
• I open the OpenOffice.org 3 folder
• I open the program folder
• I click Swriter.exe, and click Open
• Swriter is nowhere to be found.

In CMD:

• I create the "textfile" ftype
• ftype textfile=.doc
• assoc .doc=C:\program files\openoffice.org\program\swriter.exe

Viola! it's associated, but it just opens a new document.

Yep
Still trying to get types to work on Vista.

[psychoatberea]

Have you tried to associate text files to simpress.exe?

scratch that last post, it works, but it almost crashes the system. Guess it's a good fix for now, though I hope they fix it in the future.

[AbqBill]

Hi all,

This thread seems to have a similar topic to this one:

http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?p=308282

Because the developers inexplicably removed this dialog from the installer, I wrote a tool that gives you the capability after-the-fact:

http://www.westmesatech.com/files/OOoAssoc.msi

This tool lets you associate Microsoft Office file types with OpenOffice.org 3.0 on multiple computers and should work remotely provided you have permissions.

HTH,

Bill

[bobban]

OOov3.0 forces the association on the user afaik.

Is the goal of this for restoring that when it is lost due to MS Office installation etc?

Can it work in the other direction, by allowing MS Office to regain the association?

[Hagar Delest]

OOov3.0 forces the association on the user afaik.

No, OOo does not impact the file association and doesn't propose it as it used to in former versions.

[bramsey]

I recently upgraded to from 2.4 ot 3.0. I know that the file associations were working, but now they are not. I have tried to go in to file options manually to reasign them but It dosn't work.

[bobban]

No, OOo does not impact the file association and doesn't propose it as it used to in former versions.

Oh wow, I was under the false impression that the only thing that had changed was that it didn't offer the dialog during install and instead just changed this. Better tidy up the tutorial on this point.

Am I right in thinking it will re-associate to ooov3.0.0 from v2.4.2 for MS file types if you don't have MS Office installed? For some reason mine are all that way, but I may done them manually not realising..

I recently upgraded to from 2.4 ot 3.0. I know that the file associations were working, but now they are not. I have tried to go in to file options manually to reasign them but It doesn't work.

Try the file associations tutorial.

[MEM-TEK]

Just quickly looked at this thread and some of the links. I don't have MS Office on my computer (and don't plan to!). What I liked about OOo2.x is that it did give you the option to associate MS Office documents with OOo, and (more importantly) it restored my original file associations when I uninstalled OOo2.x before I upgraded to OOo3. I fail to understand why this basic feature was removed from OOo3.

[thomasjk]

Register and vote for this issue http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=89097.

[klopus]

Register and vote for this issue http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=89097.

So instead of rushing to fix this disaster they wait for vote? It's still not clear that this idiotic omission makes OOo 3.0 basically unusable on Vista for anyone who needs to work with native MS Office formats (which I suspect is majority of users)? Do they really think that a lot of people or enterprises give a damn about OOo native formats? Most people care about not paying money but keeping it nice with others. I bring home files from work, I edit them and send them back in the same format. People on the net exchange .pps and .doc files. I want to double-click on file and have it opened on correct app. Nobody will put up with the hassle of starting the OOo app, firing File/Open and then trying to locate the damn file.

Do devs understand how much they damaged the reputation of OOo, especially in the eyes of naive users probing waters to get rid of MS Office? "I clicked on my PPS file and it didn't open in this damn OOo! Guess people are right - you get what you pay for".

[klopus]

Because the developers inexplicably removed this dialog from the installer, I wrote a tool that gives you the capability after-the-fact:
http://www.westmesatech.com/files/OOoAssoc.msi
This tool lets you associate Microsoft Office file types with OpenOffice.org 3.0 on multiple computers and should work remotely provided you have permissions.

Thanks Bill but unfortunately it didn't work for me. I mean it downloaded and ran fine but with no effect on file associations. reboot didn't help. I'm using Vista Home Premium, have Admin Privileges and Vista security prompts disabled.

[bobban]

Klopus, Sorry to hear you are having such trouble, but I am at a loss to understand why you can't change your file associations. In general it's a fairly common and simple task to change a file association in an operating system. I have done this many times in both win XP and Vista without issues.

Why Vista is not accepting your new preferences is a mystery. After you make the change, close the dialog and then reopen to see if it is actually storing your change. I have also seen programs which 'steal back' associations when they are changed away from them, but I would not think that is a possibility here (this kind of program behaviour is heavily frowned upon). Try change the file associations of a different type of file as a test to see if this functionality is working at all (try .txt and associate it with Wordpad, then change it back to Notepad).

Here is an official MS tutorial on this topic, in case it gives you a different angle..

If you are still stuck, I think you will get better support for this by visiting Vista user forums (or MS customer support) and asking there, because basically this is a Vista issue on your system.

[Hagar Delest]

Do they really think that a lot of people or enterprises give a damn about OOo native formats?

Once you'll lose some important document because your .doc crashed miserably, perhaps you'll consider switching to ODF. It's not crash-proof but at least you can recover the data. You can browse this forum for threads about lost data: no luck with proprietary .doc, .xls formats, better situation with ODF.

[thomasjk]

Try this link to change the file associations http://ask-leo.com/where_did_file_assoc ... vista.html. I agree that the bug process is somewhat arcane but that's what's there. You can ignore the process or try to work with it. Your choice.

[klopus]

Klopus, Sorry to hear you are having such trouble, but I am at a loss to understand why you can't change your file associations. In general it's a fairly common and simple task to change a file association in an operating system. I have done this many times in both win XP and Vista without issues.

I'm at loss myself. I'm a developer and actually worked at MS and successfully changed file associations many times on XP and Vista. Something is just not working right with ))o 3.0 executables.

Why Vista is not accepting your new preferences is a mystery. After you make the change, close the dialog and then reopen to see if it is actually storing your change.

Been there done that The change isn't registered, no trace that say simpress.exe was accepted. This applies to both Vista methods. Looking into Vista registry confirms that.

I have also seen programs which 'steal back' associations when they are changed away from them, but I would not think that is a possibility here (this kind of program behaviour is heavily frowned upon). Try change the file associations of a different type of file as a test to see if this functionality is working at all (try .txt and associate it with Wordpad, then change it back to Notepad).

I never had MS Office installed on this box. In fact .doc extension doesn't have any association no matter how I try to associate it with swriter.exe. But association it with WordPad and then Notepad works fine. Go figure. It's like Vista singles out OOo 3.0 (but it was cool with all 2.x versions) which may be not all that surprising

If you are still stuck, I think you will get better support for this by visiting Vista user forums (or MS customer support) and asking there, because basically this is a Vista issue on your system.

Thanks for advise. I''l try to change associations directly in registry. If this doesn't work I guess I'll have to dig up my old MS contacts

[klopus]

Do they really think that a lot of people or enterprises give a damn about OOo native formats?

Once you'll lose some important document because your .doc crashed miserably, perhaps you'll consider switching to ODF. It's not crash-proof but at least you can recover the data. You can browse this forum for threads about lost data: no luck with proprietary .doc, .xls formats, better situation with ODF.

I meant no disrespect and totally agree in principle about superiority and desirability of OOo native formats. Unfortunately reality is that MS native formats are much more in use as "de-facto" standards and will be for a long time. No office suite alternative can be successfull if it doesn't play nice with MS formats and common and basic user workflow (like opening .doc file when user double-clicks on it). I suspect many people looking to switch to OOo will simply dump it immediately after they double-click on their precious PPS file and it doesn't open or still opens in PowerPoint.