Open Office – Problem With Opening Files

Open Office – Problem with Opening Files

(This blog was written for versions of OpenOffice up to Version 3.4.0)

At times, when double clicking on the desktop shortcut, or even directly on the application in the program files Open Office fails to open. There is no message given. When the computer restarts, it will usually open them but may fail to open later on in the same session.  This could be one possible solution to try.

If you are using a windows machine then probably the soffice.bin has not closed properly from the last session. Open the Windows Task Manager with > Ctrl + Alt + Del > Processes Tab - to see if the process 'soffice.bin' is still active. If it is then highlight it and click on End Process.  This will bring up a Task Manager Warning window which requires a click for Yes or No.   Click the Yes to terminate the process.  OpenOffice.org should open normally the next time you try to launch it.

In the Processes tab there may be a number of soffice.bin entries.  To find and end any 'soffice.bin'  is easiest to do from a list sorted in alphabetical order. Do this by clicking the 'Image Name' heading at the top of the list. There may be 'soffice.exe' and other Open Office processes, but they should all close when the 'soffice.bin' is gone.