Openoffice problem on Mac OSX (personal settings?)

[s037207]

Hello. I've been using openoffice for 1.5 years, and it's been quite a good experience. But this is quite a recent problem, and I'm quite frustrated about it. That's why I have to register a new account on this forum.

I use openoffice on Mac OSX 10.4. Activities on my Macbook are limited to dissertation writing, Internet surfing, movie and music appreciation etc. No BT, WinMX or FTP. However, a message window appeared all of a sudden when I wanted to open a word document:

"Either another instance of Openoffice.org is accessing your personal settings or your personal settings are locked.
Simultaneous access can lead to inconsistencies in your personal settings.
Before continuing, you should make sure user 'xxx' (my username) closes openoffice.org on host 'xxxx.xxxxx.com' (this is hidden, because my friend said it is normal, and may be a server address of my ISP).
Do you really want to continue?"

Actually I could still open the file by clicking "yes". Yet the file became read-only, and I could only open a copy of it. I don't think I have ever changed anything concerning personal settings, while I don't really know how to. I've also tried to reinstall the OS and Openoffice, but the problem still exists.

What do you guys think about this situation? Is there suspicion of being hacked or something?

Please help. Thank you very much!

[philentropist]

You have to delete the file "~/Library/Appliction Support/OpenOffice.org/3/.lock". It's a hidden file.