It turns out, in fact, that I cannot save any file.

I cannot include a file since they cannot be saved
in the OpenOffice format.

The following represent the only 3 columns and
4 lines of a spreadsheet which crashed OpenOffice 
when I tried to save:

2002-09-30	200,000	150,000
2002-10-31	184,000	138,000
2002-11-30	169,280	126,960 
2002-12-31	155,738	116,803

I will include a file save in StarOffice format.

(or it could be any other entries)

It generated a dialog box with

Error saving document Untitled1:
Wrong parameter
The operation was started under an invalid parameter

(I had given the file a name which was ignored).
When clicking 'ok'. OpenOffice crashes.
(I first had to change the directory since the
default one under /usr/local had no write permission.)

Even before I click 'ok' the following files
were created in my home directory (to which I had
switched):

  -rw-r--r--    1 hpk      users           0 Oct  1 21:50 exc0.sav
  -rw-r--r--    1 hpk      users           0 Oct  1 21:50 svag0.tmp
  -rw-r--r--    1 hpk      users           0 Oct  1 21:50 svag1.tmp
  -rw-r--r--    1 hpk      users           0 Oct  1 21:50 svag2.tmp

These directory entries survive the crash.

There must be something wrong with my installation!

But how to find out what it is?