bb31nj :
None of this worked guys...what else can i do? ill have to reinstall open office i guess
As per my above reply, open Wordpad, type something then "save as" an RTF file. After that, open the file with Wordpad (file->open). If that works then Wordpad can read RTF files just fine.
Now try to open the "RTF" file you need to open the same way. If it won't open then it's either really corrupted or it's not even an RTF file.
Reinstalling Openoffice is pointless. If it can't open the file, it's a problem with the file not OpenOffice.
Do you mind explaining WHY you're trying to open this file? If it's just some random file you never created then I feel like this is wasting people's time.