When you open a file from Firefox instead of saving it, the file is downloaded to the /tmp file and opened read-only. This is a problem when opening spreadsheets from web pages, as OpenOffice.org doesn’t allow manipulation of files opened as read-only. In this article, I show you how to strip read-only privileges from spreadsheets opened from Firefox so that you can manipulate these files without having to manually save them elsewhere.

First, open a spreadsheet from Firefox. The file will be downloaded, and opened as read-only in OpenOffice.org. Next, select Tools -> Macros -> Record Macro. This will create a shortcut that you can use on later spreadsheets.

Then do File -> Save As, and save the file as /tmp/temp.xls (Excel file format saves faster than ODF).

Hit “stop recording” once the file save operation is complete.

Save the macro under whatever name makes sense to you. I chose Save_as_temp. Note: your macro name cannot contain spaces.

Then click the down arrow on your toolbar and select “customize toolbar”.

Click add, and then find the macro you just recorded. I then clicked Modify -> Change icon and gave the button a new icon.

Now, whenever you need to manipulate a spreadsheet you downloaded in Firefox, you can click this button and strip the read-only privileges.

Mark Cahill is a web developer and Ubuntu user, and writes on how the open source movement is shaping the future of the web and how we do business. For more articles written by Mark Cahill, visit tiemonster.info.