Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

the downloaded spreadsheet file (in Calc) says it is read-only and will not allow me access.

  • 1 reply
  • 2 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by Charlie

more options

Before tonight I used to download fin'l account info from my bank to a spreadsheet. I would edit the download and then cut/paste to my main file. I was using XP, internet explorer (IE), and excel. I just bought a new laptop (W7, home edition, 64bit), have installed firefox and OOo. I went thru the same process and the downloaded spreadsheet file (in Calc) says it is read-only and will not allow me access. Somewhere else in this community I learned what button to hit to allow me to edit and proceed. But that extra step is a pain in the butt. I do not know if I will also have this problem with Writer. Mine is a home system and I am the administrator. I made sure that my user data (name) in OOo was exactly the same as the one I used as administrator.

Since I also have IE on this new laptop, I decided to try an experiment and see if I could narrow the cause of the problem. I went thru the same process except that this time I used IE to access my bank data on line, rather than using firefox (FF). When I got the transaction on a spreadsheet, it was NOT, I repeat, NOT read only. So the culprit here seems to be FF. I do not know what or how, but using FF to download a spreadsheet creates one that is read only. I used Calc (OOo spreadsheet) both times, but it did NOT work with FF and DID WORK with IE. Hope all that is helpful.

Before tonight I used to download fin'l account info from my bank to a spreadsheet. I would edit the download and then cut/paste to my main file. I was using XP, internet explorer (IE), and excel. I just bought a new laptop (W7, home edition, 64bit), have installed firefox and OOo. I went thru the same process and the downloaded spreadsheet file (in Calc) says it is read-only and will not allow me access. Somewhere else in this community I learned what button to hit to allow me to edit and proceed. But that extra step is a pain in the butt. I do not know if I will also have this problem with Writer. Mine is a home system and I am the administrator. I made sure that my user data (name) in OOo was exactly the same as the one I used as administrator. Since I also have IE on this new laptop, I decided to try an experiment and see if I could narrow the cause of the problem. I went thru the same process except that this time I used IE to access my bank data on line, rather than using firefox (FF). When I got the transaction on a spreadsheet, it was NOT, I repeat, NOT read only. So the culprit here seems to be FF. I do not know what or how, but using FF to download a spreadsheet creates one that is read only. I used Calc (OOo spreadsheet) both times, but it did NOT work with FF and DID WORK with IE. Hope all that is helpful.

All Replies (1)

more options

This has been posted for almost 2 weeks and not one reply. Thanks a bunch! As a newbie to OOo and Mozilla, I am not impressed with responsiveness to support needs with either. So, the future of my new experiment with going non-Microsoft remains an open question.

Oddly enough, the problem mysteriously went away. I have followed the same routine and changed no settings. Suddenly all of the downloaded spreadsheets were no longer read-only. So I consider the matter resolved.