Help please with an Excel program.

Heedtheadvice

It has become clearer now as from the last post or two.

I agree entirely with Neil. The normal way to open a file is from within a program (open office in your case).

The alternative that you have been doing via file explorers relies upon a file extension -(the bit after the dot in the file identifier such as .txt, .xls, .doc, .jpeg etcetera) that identifies the type of file and thus the programs that handles the file - being associated by Windows with a particular program by default. Microsoft often make their own programs the default but you can change that association to work with the program of your choice. Sometimes that is done for you when you install a program or it can be done from within a program.

Your spreadsheet files have been associated with Apache OpenOffice so they opened in that program when you use that process via explorer, pc, folder etc.

Unfortunately either because of a corruption, some unintended change but more likely a Windows update that association appears to have been reset .i.e. the association with your Apache program lost.

As Neil posts it can be re-associated.

As far as Excel is concerned; it is the leading spreadsheet program but over the last few years it has a lot of competition. Microsoft Office has not been free but much of the competition is free. They all do very similar jobs with much compatibility between them except for the more advanced stuff, own written code within them (if used), add on features and new features for updates. Often that compatibility and the way the program is presented to us users and how we interact, is less important than cost.

Possibly owing to the competition such as from Google Sheets (another free spreadsheet prog.) there is now a free online version of Excel.

I am not suggesting you switch to it -you may well be happy and familiar with what you have, not do complex/advanced work, use any of the miriad of add-ins and not wish to learn another program- but you can have a look at a guide to it if you wish at https://zapier.com/apps/excel/tutorials/excel-online-guide.

One thing I would suggest however is making sure you save your workbook(spreadsheet) files in a compatible format (current default is not one of the earlier Excel versions but the .xlsx file type) to ensure continued compatibility should there be an Apache problem. That would probably give you the best chance of continued use and of exchange of files with others or use another of the spreadsheet programs in the future.

TUVOK

Many thanks to all who replied, and especially to Neil_Jones and heedtheadvice.
I have plenty to ponder about as to what to do, but at least I have the information kindly supplied by them to do this.