# MS WORD 2007 not opening old documents



## slayer_crawl (Apr 16, 2007)

hello
i recently installed the new MS 2007 and its not letting me open my old word documents straight away from the desktop...however if i open the file through MS Word manually it works...this may seem easy but i got lotsa word files to open so help on this is much appreciated...im also using windows vista...maybe thats something got to do with it..im not sure...thanks in advance...


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## carfin (Apr 24, 2007)

slayer_crawl said:


> hello
> i recently installed the new MS 2007 and its not letting me open my old word documents straight away from the desktop...however if i open the file through MS Word manually it works...this may seem easy but i got lotsa word files to open so help on this is much appreciated...im also using windows vista...maybe thats something got to do with it..im not sure...thanks in advance...


Hi,

I have the same problem. MS WORD 2007 and VISTA. Did you ever get the answer? it is so frustrating!

Thanks,

Gavin


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## ceri sheeran (Aug 15, 2003)

Hi,

Have you changed printers recently.

MS Word may not like opening a document which was created with a different default printer than that which you now have.

Try the "generic" fix for all MS Word bugs.

Search for and then delete all copies of the MS Word template file named 

normal.dot.

This is the name of the "document 1" blank page that appears when you start MS Word. It can become corrupted and cause this type of problem.

hth

Ceri


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## carfin (Apr 24, 2007)

Hi,

I have installed Microsoft Office 2007 on my Laptop running Vista Home Premium. When I double click a Word document with the extension .doc it opens with Wordpad and is not readable.

I have tried right clicking the .doc file and choosing open with. The problem is that Word 2007 does not appear in the open with dialogue box.

I then try open with and select browse. I find winword.exe and select it but it doesn't 'stick'.

I can open a .doc file by opening Word 2007 first then selecting open and browsing for the .doc file. That to me is a long winded way to open the file. I just want to double click as I've always done in older versions of Word. Can you help?

Thanks Gavin


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## slurpee55 (Oct 20, 2004)

just replied in this thread - see if it helps: http://forums.techguy.org/business-applications/566147-cant-open-doc-file-word.html


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## mikevc (Aug 14, 2008)

I have similar problems. 
Word 2007 would not open any document, including .docx files, when I double click on them. This used to work just fine. The system is a clean install of Vista Ultimate with Office Ultimate. Word just opens without any document, not even a blank one.
If I open Word 2007 first and then browse to the file location from File --> Open it will work just fine.
If I close Word I am getting errors saying that Word has encountered problems and is searching for a solution.

The event logs show the following sequence for each incident:

under Office diagnostics I have the following events. 
Event ID Description 
202 Office diagnostics started by user
213 The default thresholds are used
205 Office diagnostics determined that there is no evidence of repeated problems
503 Office diagnostics will offer Online Help
999 Office diagnostics is closing

The Microsoft Office Session logs show the following events:
Event ID: 7001 
Description: ID: 0, Application: Microsoft Office Word, Application Version: 12.0.6308, Microsoft Office Version: 12.0.6215.1000. This session lasted 13 seconds with 0 seconds of active time. This session ended with a crash.

Any suggestions are much appreciated


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## slurpee55 (Oct 20, 2004)

mikevc, here are a few things to read
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/278658
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms681389(VS.85).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc756332.aspx


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## mikevc (Aug 14, 2008)

Hi Slurpee55,

I appreciate your response. Unfortunately your response refers to system event logs, which really doesn't apply to my issue. The event log entries I have listed are actually Application events. I also have an open support case with Microsoft and am awaiting a response from that end as well. I will certainly add my experience and hopefully a solution to this thread.


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## slurpee55 (Oct 20, 2004)

All the notices featuring Event ID: 7001 tie into, in one way or another, problems with servers, such as this one
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/838857


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## Plantsman (Jan 20, 2008)

It seems you haven't linked your doc files to Word 2007 in Folder Options. Open My Computer or Computer in Vista, go to menu and click Tools > Folder Options. Click on the File Types tab, scroll down the list till you see the DOC extension, click on it then click on the Change button. You will be given a list of programs to choose from, if you can't find Word click on Browse to find it. After this click on OK then on Close. You should then be able to load any DOC file into Word 2007 by double clicking on it.


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## travis_a_cevado (Aug 14, 2008)

One of my co-workers is experiencing the same issue. I've already tried replacing and deleting the normal.dotm, but no change. My issue is the same as mikevc's in post #6, but I've noticed that it is profile/user specific. If I log into the same computer and open the same documents under my user profile, everything works great. However, my coworker cannot open documents directly and must first open word. Word always reports an error on closing, even if no documents were opened.
Hoping for some resolution. Will check back tomorrow and post any more findings.

Also, in response to plantsman above, the issue I'm experiencing (and I imagine mikevc is too) is not that Word 2007 doesn't open when a doc or docx is clicked, but that Word 2007 _opens_ with _no_ document in it. You can then open it manually from the Open... dialog, but Word always throws the error at closing.

Travis


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## Rich-M (May 3, 2006)

Plantsman said:


> It seems you haven't linked your doc files to Word 2007 in Folder Options. Open My Computer or Computer in Vista, go to menu and click Tools > Folder Options. Click on the File Types tab, scroll down the list till you see the DOC extension, click on it then click on the Change button. You will be given a list of programs to choose from, if you can't find Word click on Browse to find it. After this click on OK then on Close. You should then be able to load any DOC file into Word 2007 by double clicking on it.


Sorry no such thing I can see in Vista.


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## Plantsman (Jan 20, 2008)

Sorry, this is another feature that's been dropped in Vista. You have to right click on a DOC file and choose 'Open with' from the list. choose or browse for Word and make sure the 'Always use the selected program to open this kind of file' button is ticked. Strange though that Word opens already but with a blank page. I don't have Word 2007 but previous versions had a 'Detect and Repair' option in the Help menu, maybe it's still there and if so would be worth trying.


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## jimr381 (Jul 20, 2007)

Do any of you that are having issues have both versions of MS Word installed? IE 2003 and 2007? If so when it pops up with a blank window, then minimize and the file should pop up for you. It is an "Undocumented Feature" when you have both versions installed.


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## travis_a_cevado (Aug 14, 2008)

Plantsman,
I've tried the "Open With..." method. No go. As I said above, Word 2007 _is opening_ when I click on a docx document, but there is no document in Word. As mikevc says, you can then click File, Open and open the document that way. Oh, and every time you close Word 2007, whether you openend a document or not, it reports an error. It claims the error is known and can be resolved by downloading an update, but there are *no* updates available (for Office or Vista). And I've already made sure I'm not "hiding" any updates.

Jimr381,
Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately it is a no go, also. I did have Office 2003 installed, but when I installed Office 2007 I ran it as an upgrade, so Word and Excel 2003 should have been uninstalled to be replaced by their 2007 counterparts.

mikevc,
Have you tried this in another profile (under another user account) on the same computer? Does it work that way?

Any other ideas, anyone?


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## travis_a_cevado (Aug 14, 2008)

Ok, another update:
I tried running Office Repair (Start, Control Panel, Uninstall Programs, Microsoft Office 2007, Change, Repair...), but no change.

Then I stumbled upon the Add-Ins tab in Word. Noticed there were a few things in there, specifically a program called SnagIt. I uninstalled SnagIt and suddenly I can double-click a document and it _will_ open in Word 2007!

mikevc,
Do you have Camtasia Studio or SnagIt installed on that computer? Any other Word 2007 Add-Ins?

Oh yeah, Word still errors out on closing. So, the battle rages on...

Travis


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## jimr381 (Jul 20, 2007)

travis_a_cevado said:


> Ok, another update:
> I tried running Office Repair (Start, Control Panel, Uninstall Programs, Microsoft Office 2007, Change, Repair...), but no change.
> 
> Then I stumbled upon the Add-Ins tab in Word. Noticed there were a few things in there, specifically a program called SnagIt. I uninstalled SnagIt and suddenly I can double-click a document and it _will_ open in Word 2007!
> ...


Did you check if the snag-it document template is corrupted and check their tech support site to see if they have a place for you to download a new one? You could probably reinstall the app and it will rebuild the document template as well.


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## travis_a_cevado (Aug 14, 2008)

Alright, I may have spoken too soon (but in a good way). After a couple minutes, Word 2007 will now open both doc and docx files _AND CLOSE!_ No errors! It's working just like its Momma intended. That's a good Word, now sit. Roll over. Good Word, here's a cookie!


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## travis_a_cevado (Aug 14, 2008)

Haven't tried reinstalling SnagIt, but this user won't be using that program, so no loss for me. My work here is done. Hope it can help someone else out.
With Much Love and Persperation,
T


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## jimr381 (Jul 20, 2007)

Por favor ciera el billete. To mark the post as solved please click on the "Mark Solved" button at the top of the post.


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