Tim Coulter
23 Sept. 2004

By creating a new template, setting that new template as default, and then 
finally deleting that template, I was able to prevent OpenOffice.org Calc, 
Draw, Impress and Writer from running on a Linux machine. I tested this error 
on two separate configurations. Here are my steps:

1)Run OpenOffice.org Calc. A new spreadsheet labeled “Untitled1” should be 
opened by default.

2)From the menu bar, select File > Templates > Save...  A “Templates” dialog 
box should pop up.

3)In the “New Template” edit box, type “New Template” (without the double 
quotes). Make sure the “Default” category is highlighted under the “Categories” 
list box. 

4)Select the “OK” button, and the “Templates” dialog box should disappear. 

5)From the menu bar, select File > Templates > Organize...  The “Template 
Management” dialog box should pop up.

6)Expand the template folder named “Default” by double-clicking on the that 
folder. Once expanded, the template entry “New Template” should show up as a 
child under the “Default” folder.

7)Right click on the “New Template” entry and select “Set As Default Template” 
from the pop-up menu.

8)Right click on “New Template” again, this time selecting “Delete” from the 
menu. A confirmation dialog should pop up asking “Are you sure you want to 
delete the entry 'New Template'?”

9)Click “Yes” in the confirmation dialog. The entry “New Template” should have 
disappeared as a child under “Default.”

10)Click the “Close” button in the “Template Management” dialog. The “Template 
Management” dialog should disappear.

11)Close OpenOffice.org Calc by selecting File > Exit from the menu bar.

12)Run OpenOffice.org Calc again. After the OpenOffice.org loading screen 
disappears, an error message pops up with the following output: 

Error loading document. 
file:///users/student/tcoulter/.openoffice/user/template/New%20Template.stc
/users/student/tcoulter/.openoffice/template/New Template.stc does not exist.

13)Press the “OK” button. The error message disappears, and OpenOffice.org Calc 
fails to start.


Performing the steps above with OpenOffice.org Writer, Impress and Draw will 
yield the same results.

I was able to get Calc, Writer, Impress and Draw running again by deleting 
my “~/.openoffice” directory. After re-running either of the OpenOffice 
programs, my user directory was re-created and the default settings were 
restored. The command used to delete my “~/.openoffice” directory was "rm -rfv 
~/.openoffice".

The configurations used to test this error are:

Machine 1:
	Gentoo Linux Kernel 2.6.8-gentoo-r3
	Running OpenOffice.org 1.1.2
	AMD Athlon XP Mobile processor 2600 (2.0 Ghz)
	ATI Radeon Mobility IGP 320M (U1)
	768 MB RAM total
	64 MB RAM shared with video card

Machine 2:
	Fedora Core Linux Kernel 2.6.7
	Running OpenOffice.org 1.1.0
	Intel Pentium 4, 2.8 Ghz
	1 GB RAM