I can open an odt file, but I can’t figure out how to edit or change the text, L/O in edit mode only wants to “Insert Shape”, and there doesn’t seem to be any choice to “edit text”.
Previously I’ve used “Open Office” which is much easier to use, especially with editing simple text files.
Try:
Click the ESC key.
Do you have AVG or Avast antivirus? Try adding soffice.bin to the Allowed list of programs in settings
Hrbrgr, that works, but now I can’t save the edited result. The file is now locked because of “insufficient user rights”, whatever that means! I’m the only user or this file/PC, so I’m not sure whose rights are being trod upon. This is an incredibly difficult program to use!
Al, are you serious? I’m just editing simple text files.
Please complete your question.
The help on this page is mainly provided by users like you.
Your question and the corresponding description should be as detailed as possible.
Please remember that no one can look over your shoulder when you ask your question and describe it.
In order to be able to help you, we need to know your operating system and the LibreOffice version (four-digit, e.g. 7.4.5.1).
Please also state the file type in which you have saved your file.
All important information about your initial question should be present in the initial question box, otherwise edit and complete it., to do it.
Please do not use answers (solutions) or comments for this.
If you have already fulfilled some of these requirements, so much the better. Thanks.
Here you can find the further References for this page.
Thank you very much for your assistance.
If you have Windows as your operating system, please read on here:
General Installation Issues (Windows)
Or take the advice of @EarnestAl
Are you editing .txt or really sophisticated .odt. For simple text file, a text editor is enough.
Yes. It sounds exactly how AVG/Avast operate, changing permissions to read only on an individual file basis. It is not the content but the act of writing to existing files.
See How to use the Blocked & Allowed apps settings | AVG
This used to be how to add LibreOffice to the Allowed List for AVG or Avast, the process might have been improved by AVG since then.
Open AVG. Click Menu > Settings > Blocked and Allowed Apps then click on the button +Allow App, a new dialog will appear
Click the button Select app path. A dialog box to navigate to the app you want to add will appear. We need to add soffice.bin which won’t appear as an app, so assuming you have a standard 64 bit install the path is "C:\Program Files\LibreOffice\program\soffice.bin", otherwise navigate to the folder and start writing in soffice.bin and the file should appear as a choice. Click Open
Cheers, Al
Thanks, but I’m NOT “providing help” as you’re suggesting, I’m asking for help. I’m just trying to figure out how to edit simple files. Let’s be serious! The help tidbit you suggested includes the suggestion to “Quote hole post”. Seriously!! Explain to me what exactly is a “hole post”??! All I’m trying to do now is save a simple one-page text document. Logically I should be able to turn off all L/O user-locking since I’m not on a network and simply editing a one-page file.
It can be, but on your level it is more likely your OS or AntiVirus/Security-system interferes. My change from Aoo to LO was years ago, but I barely noticed then (except for the ability to have more than 3 criteria for sorting in Calc).
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Can you edit the same files with OpenOffice on your computer?
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If you create a new file with LibreOffice, can you save it? Open and change this files afterwards? Some security systems allow only the program wich created the file to access/change it (often also found on cloud-drives like One-Drive).
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I can only guess, as you didn’t give a precise reference: Try to read “whole post”
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And one last piece makes me wonder: If all you need is so simple, why did you try to change to LibreOffice? Especially, if you seem to believe the program is complicated to use…
Where did you get the file from? Where on your computer is it saved?
If you downloaded it, it may be located in the “Downloads” folder. If you opened it straight from a link, it may be in a (hidden?) browser cache folder. Both types of locations may be deemed “unsafe” by security settings on your system, and access to/from the locations restricted.
If this in any way matches your situation, revisit the comment from @EarnestAl concerning your antivirus/firewall/user security settings.
Moving the file to the “Documents” or “Dekstop” folder may also help. This move works as a message from you, to the effect that “I trust this file”. In my opinion, this is wiser than marking “Downloads” as a trusted folder.
When you go to the doctor because of some medical problem, and you tell that you are in pain, the doctor will ask questions to narrow down your question - to find where you have pain. If you tell him that it’s really his problem to discover what’s wrong with you, he will probably just tell you to go away. Same here.
When you have a problem with “insufficient user rights”, you are probably on Windows, and you may be working on a document that you got as an attachment in an e-mail. If you are on a Linux pc, the cause will be something else. We want to help you, but we don’t want to be sent on a wild goose chase. That’s why you need to tell us what operating system you are on, what antivirus software you have, and how you got that document, and how you are accessing it. Then we will not waste time over offering solutions that don’t work for you. If you consider this as an infringement on your privacy, so be it. In that case, we will probably not be able to help you.
I’m using Windows 7, with no antivirus. The document is a one-page odt file. I had copied a piece of text from a pdf file (hi-lite text and copy), and pasted it into my one-pager. Now I can’t save the file because of permissions. To move forward, I copied the entire assemblage into a Notepad file and saved it to a different name, then reformatted all the text again in OpenOffice. I’ve thus discovered I can do this in OpenOffice which prompts the question:“Why is LibreOffice so difficult to use?”
Where was your one-pager?
Or maybe there is something wrong with the installation of LibreOffice on your computer.
Why didn’t you say that in your reply to my first comment?
You really should stay with OpenOffice, really.
Please upload one of the problematic files here.
You only mentioned that in OpenOffice, you was able to do something different, than the operation that failed in LibreOffice. Namely: in LibreOffice, you had some document, with unknown internal structure (formatting, embeddings, …), and copy-pasted something from a PDF into it, adding something unknown (we don’t know what PDF viewer or editor you used to copy, or what data was that, so we have no idea what and with what formatting was pasted). Trying to save this failed, which indeed could indicate a bug in LibreOffice, caused by some unknown constellation of data (but we never know, unless we have something to try and reproduce).
In OpenOffice, you operated on some plain text, after everything was passed through Notepad. So this doesn’t tell anything about “OpenOffice can do something easily that is difficult in LibreOffice” - unless you omitted more bits of your story, like trying exactly same steps in OpenOffice… but even that still would keep the question about reproducible scenario open.
So you switched off Microsoft Defender ?
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And also Win7 has known App-protection and checked if you have a new app from the “internet”.
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But as said before: For your simple One-pager stay with Openoffice. (Did you install OpenOffice, or was it pre-installed?)
