Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 104972
Calc hangs on link to other workbook in excel format spreadsheet
Last modified: 2013-01-29 21:40:36 UTC
My cashbook can run under OO2.4, but not under 3.1 or 3.1.1. The Cashbook package was initially developed in Excel and includes around 13 monthly workbooks, along with a budget workbook, etc. I have about 300 users on it. Most use it in Excel, but others are using it in OpenOffice Calc. Up until this year, the workbooks have worked under OpenOffice (although I had to remove my references to named ranges in other workbooks, in the OpenOffice package). So that's the rough background. Have just downloaded the latest OpenOffice 3.1 and when I move to a sheet that contains a link to another workbook, Calc just keeps running /not responding. Looking at the soffice.bin process thru Task Manager, it is gradually increasing memory use. I have to End the process to get out of OpenOffice. This happens on my Windows XP computer and my Windows Vista computer. It also happens in my version of the cashbook that I issued last year and that people have been using successfully. This seems to indicate to me that it's a problem with OpenOffice 3.1 Have just downloaded 3.1.1 and it hangs in that also. Left my computer running and went away. An empty pop up window entitled 'Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library' appeared. Downloaded 2.4 and the cashbook works aok in that. Playing around with it a bit, I gradually removed cells /formulas to identify what the problem was being caused by. When I cleared out the excel format link to another workbook, Calc could handle the sheet. If I sit in one of the worksheets within a multi-sheet workbook that doesn't have an external link, I can go to Edit Links and Calc shows me that it has interpreted my excel link code aok and is pointing to the desired workbook. Sample link is ='C:\Users\Rose\Documents\Cashbook2009oo\[Mth01_Sep.xls]Mthly Financial Statement'!$J$5. I can't tell you what OO has translated it to, as I can't move to that part of the sheet to see. But in the \Edit \Links window it looked aok (oo format) e.g. ='file:///C:/Users... etc My question is... does anyone know why Calc doesn't like my excel format links anymore? Is there some magic setting that I have overlooked? Or do I have to convert all my external links to OpenOffice format? I had been wanting to avoid that, as my users are treasurers for not-for-profit orgs and often transfer the workbooks to a new treasurer mid-year, and it's good if the workbooks can move between Excel and OpenOffice aok. It's good that the oo2.4 is still available, but what about my users that have already installed 3.1 or 3.1.1? Would love to get some ideas about what else to try /to do. Cheers Rose
do you have a sample set of workbooks that you can reproduce this one? Running 3.1.1 on win7 i was not able to reproduce when linking to ods or xls. What version of xls are you using?
I also could not reproduce this without a sample document => worksforme
worksforme -> closed
Created attachment 64908 [details] Zipped cashbook package with some workbooks linking to each other
The workbooks still hang in the latest version of OpenOffice for me. Not in OO2.4.3 tho'. I would like you to take another look at this. And I have provided a copy of my cashbook package. Cheers, Rose
reproducible with "Ooo 3.1.1 Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium Version 6.0.6001 Service Pack 1 Build 6001" As soon as I open a given sample file (I chose cashflow), I was asked if I would like to update the workbook links. After clicking yes I saw the same results as rosecamp. Additional Testing: If I select not to update the workbook links, calc continues running fine. If I choose to open the file within Microsoft Office 2007, update the workbook links in excel 2007, then open the file within calc, I am again asked if I would like to update the workbook links, however calc does not go unresponsive if I select yes.
Additional Note: Calc then froze after trying to access the links to the other workbooks, interesting that after going through excel 2007 it doesn't lock immediately.
Reproduced with AOO 3.4.1 on Windows 7. 1) Unzip test files to a dir 2) Open cashflow document 3) Prompted to refresh links. Say yes. 4) Machine is unresponsive as soffice process increases memory footprint. 5) No return to user control within 5 minutes at which time I killed the process.