Posted:
System: MacBook, running OS X Leopard (10.5.5)
Pop-up error upon attempting to open OpenOffice.org 3.0.0:
"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 'user' closes OpenOffice.org on host 'host'. Do you really want to continue? Yes. No."
Solution:
Click "No", then press command + 'q' to quit OpenOffice, unlock OpenOffice (per the instructions below), and then restart OpenOffice.
You can unlock your personal settings by entering the following command in Terminal:
rm ~/Library/Application Support/OpenOffice.org/3/.lock
rm stands for remove and virtually cannot be undone. That's why I use it carefully and constantly backup my files with Time Machine onto my external hard drive.
In case the .lock file is located somewhere else on your system, you can enter the following Terminal command to find it:
sudo find / -name=".lock"