Excel and word files opens locked or as read-only
We just changes our systems from MS Office(2000,6.0) to Libreoffice.
When our users try to open an xls file they encounter 2 problems.
How can we solve these 2 problems?
Hi @Anonymous2,
There could be a couple of problems plaguing you and preventing you from editing your xls documents. The two problems you’re mentioning – locked files and files opening up as read-only sound like they could be related. It’s possible that you’re just seeing two symptoms pointing to a single problem.
First, it would be helpful to know more about the system setup that you’re using. You mention problems about files being locked by one user – are you storing files on a networked or shared file system and having multiple users access (and edit?) those files?
After one user accesses/edits a file, do they close the file and exit out of LibreOffice before another user attempts to access the same file?
In addition to qubits post:
You can look for a lock-file in the same directory as the xls-files. Lock-files are created by LO upon opening a document. When the user gets disconnected from the network or his LO isn’t closed properly, these lock-files persist and give a false error message when trying to open the file.
The lock-files are hidden so, you may need to enable the view of hidden files in your file-explorer. The naming of the lock files is as follows:
.~lock."Name-of-XLS".xls#whereby “Name-of-XLS” is the actual name of XLS-file (w/o the quotation marks). - When you find such files, just delete them and try opening the files again.
Another solution would be:
Open the files in LO (read-only), choose File - Save as … and save them in the OpenDocumentFormat (ODF), which would be here: ODS for spreadsheets, ODT for textdocuments. When working with LO this is the recommended file-format (anyways).
HTH
@ famo
You wrote: “Open the files in LO (read-only), choose File - Save as … and save them in the OpenDocumentFormat (ODF), which would be here: ODS for spreadsheets, ODT for textdocuments. When working with LO this is the recommended file-format (anyways).”
Is there a way to make a mass conversion from MSO formats to LibO formats? Such a SW/macro could run during nighttime.
Menu/File/Wizard/Document Converter
@ mariosv Thanks for this hint. This is a great feature!
The files are on a network location, and I’m sure that the files are closed.
@wouterhaegeman – Is the network location mounted as a read-only filesystem? To test that: Can you create/edit files on that filesystem using a different program? If XLS files aren’t working for you, can you edit text files (.txt) living on that filesystem using LO Writer?
it’s not a read-only folder, just a former ms-excell file
It’s not a read-only folder
Can you read/write any documents to this network location using LO? i.e. is it only “former ms-excel” files that are causing trouble?
2nd question: What version of LO are you using? If it’s not the latest (3.6.4), could you try downloading and installing the latest version?
Hi @wouterhaegeman,
Just checking-in regarding your issue. LO 4.0 has been released, and it would be great if you could test with that build and see if your problem remains.
If installing the latest release doesn’t seem to fix this problem, please file a bug and provide a list of steps that can reproduce your problem. The QA team will be happy to help you track down this issue!
Please post a link to any bugs you file in a comment below using the format “fdo#123456”.
Thanks!