# Microsoft Word 2003: "The file ____ is not available"



## Lily0603 (Apr 6, 2007)

Would someone PLEASE help me figure my issue out. I am at a loss as to what I did on my laptop for Microsoft Word to just stop working. This is what's going on:
1. I open up Word; 2. I go to my documents & click on the doc I want to open; 3. I get the pop-up that states, for example, "The file Amer Hist Doc 3 is not available". 

If I send the doc as an attachment in my email & then open it on another computer, it comes up fine. It just won't work on my laptop. 

Did I accidently hit someone to make Word do this all of the sudden?? Do I just need to un-install Microsoft Office & then reinstall??

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks, Lily


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## gurutech (Apr 23, 2004)

Try going to your Docs folder and double-clicking on the Word doc itself, without opening up Word. If MS Word opens up, with your document, then you should be OK. If another application opens up (such as Wordpad or Notepad), then you will need to re-associate *.DOC with MS Word.

If nothing opens up, then you may need to run a "Detect and Repair" from within Word, off the Help Menu.


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## Lily0603 (Apr 6, 2007)

Thank you for your quick response. I really appreciate it.

Ok, so first I went in to My Documents & double clicked on a file. Unfortunately I got the same error (file not available). 

Then I ran detect and repair. It successfully reinstalled. I even restarted my computer when it was done, but I still am receiving the same error. 

I forgot to include another error I get. Maybe this will help explain what's going on: When I go to exit out of Word another box pops up that says "the file Normal already exists. Do you want to replace the existing file?". What the heck is the "Normal" file?? 

It's just weird that one second Word was working fine & then all of the sudden it's not. I really do appreciate all your help. Thanks again!

Lily


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## sIRCuit (May 15, 2007)

Lily....
did you ever find a solution to your Word problem....I have the very same one (won't open docs and gave that "normal" message)


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## Augie65 (Mar 24, 2005)

If you are using Norton Anti-Virus, check these two articles.
You receive an error message when you try to open an Office document
How to use Office programs with the Norton AntiVirus Office plug-in


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## sIRCuit (May 15, 2007)

Actually, I don't use Norton. I already read the other article but nothing of any value there.


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## sIRCuit (May 15, 2007)

Actually, I don't use Norton. I already read the other article but nothing of any value there.


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## JustJudy (Apr 4, 2006)

I just had this problem, but it was with Excel. My solution was to uninstall McAfee Virus Scan version 8.0 and install the older 7.1 version. That solved it. Any setting changes I made in the 8.0 version didn't solve it, nor did updating. So had to go back a step. I guess sometimes new isn't always better.
Good luck!


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## chaosz (Sep 10, 2008)

Hi,

this seems to be a problem with AV software and Vista.

i had the same issue and uninstalling AVG AV solved the issue.

you may reinstall it (though i didn't) - without the office plug-in
i just stuck with avast! AV

R


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## gurutech (Apr 23, 2004)

Normal.Dot is the default template for MS Word. If it's asking you to save it, then you might have a virus.

Do a search for "normal.dot" (make sure you search hidden and system folders!) and DELETE any copy of this file you find. MS Word will recreate this file the next time you open it.


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## dreb (Sep 28, 2008)

Chaosz's fix worked for me.

I uninstalled my Antivirus software (AVG) and was immediately able to open up my word files. I was previously receiving the same errors as the OP. 
Namely, "the [file name] is not available" error, and the also the prompt to save global template normal.dot.

uninstalling AVG solved both these problems.


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## gurutech (Apr 23, 2004)

Have you tried reinstalling AVG (or another AV program?) It may have just been a corrupted AV installation.


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## dreb (Sep 28, 2008)

I haven't tried reinstalling AVG (or any other AV software). 

The problem suddenly cropped up though, after months of working fine with AVG installed, so i'm not sure if it was a faulty installation. Perhaps a corrupted update or something. I'll reinstall, re-patch, and let you know.


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## Lucysmith (Oct 3, 2008)

if it is not working then try this either open it from the exact location where you saved it or you can do one more and easy thing, make a search on search bar in windows, type your filename if youwill find it then try to open it, if both these options will not work then reinstall word


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