[ANN] "Dbl-Click Won't Open..." Issues

[CyberTaz]

This message has been cross-posted to the Macintosh Word, PowerPoint, Excel
& Office groups.

The problem some of you have been experiencing whereby a file received via
email refuses to open when double-clicked has been traced to email and/or
web browser software mishandling the file sometime during its life cycle.
Apparently certain programs of those types modify a key identifier in MS
Office files which the 2008 apps require in order to be activated & open a
file when it's double-clicked .

Although identity of the software hasn't been identified, MacBU is working
with the developers to resolve the situation. In the meanwhile there is no
"fix". However, there are 2 *simple* workarounds which I have tested on
problem files forwarded to me by participants in the Word group. (I've not
tried any Excel or PPt files but would expect the same results.) Most
importantly, I have found them to be 100% effective here on both a PPC
running Tiger 10.4.11 with Office 12.1 as well as an Intel MacBook Pro
running Leopard 10.5.0 with the same Office 12.1 update.

The steps are as follows:

Method A:
Use file> Open to open the file, then Save As to create a new copy. This, of
course leaves you with the bad copy which still has to be disposed of, so
you may prefer to use...

Method B:
1. Use the app's File> Open command to open the file,

2. Make a minor change in the file [such as typing a <space>] then edit the
change back to what it was if you wish. NOTE: Do Not UNDO to remove the
change that was made - it's important that the document be "dirtied".

3. Save the file (Save As is not necessary in this case).

Using either method the resulting file should be "double-clickable" from
that point on.

I certainly can't guarantee that it will be 100% effective for everyone, but
based on my experience it should suffice until the cause of the problem is
resolved. If it doesn't work for you there may be other factors involved.

Should that be the case please submit a NEW message in the appropriate
group(s) & give all particulars... The existing threads on this subject have
been abused to the point that they can't be navigated with any degree of
accuracy. If you stick further replies within them they may never be found.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Note: Office 2008 12.1 (SP1) introduced this issue. Rolling back to
Office 12.0.1 may also be an option for people who want to do that,
albeit not a recommended one. If you did not backup in some way that
enables this, it would require running Remove Office and reinstalling,
then reapplying the 12.0.1 update.

You may want to look at the extensive description of 12.1 before
deciding on that option.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952331/en-us

The 12.0.1 update is linked from the Description KB
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948057

This message has been cross-posted to the Macintosh Word, PowerPoint, Excel
& Office groups.

The problem some of you have been experiencing whereby a file received via
email refuses to open when double-clicked has been traced to email and/or
web browser software mishandling the file sometime during its life cycle.
Apparently certain programs of those types modify a key identifier in MS
Office files which the 2008 apps require in order to be activated & open a
file when it's double-clicked .

<snip>

 

[Daiya]

Note: Office 2008 12.1 (SP1) introduced this issue. Rolling back to Office 12.0.1 may also be an option for people who want to do that, albeit not a recommended one. If you did not backup in some way that enables this, it would require running Remove Office and reinstalling, then reapplying the 12.0.1 update.

You may want to look at the extensive description of 12.1 before deciding on that option.
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952331/en-us>

The 12.0.1 update is linked from the Description KB
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948057>

 

[Daiya]

Another workaround would be to use a utility to batch-change the affected files. That possibility is discussed here:
<http://tinyurl.com/3ztju5>

<http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.mac.office/browse_thread/thread/d8ecb019bc422b4e#>

 

[Daiya]

More information:

It's been shown that Firefox/Thunderbird (2.x versions) and Eudora, at least, change the document file types such that Office 2008 SP1 refuses to open them with a double-click. Avoiding these programs might reduce the frequency with which you run into this problem with *new* documents. Opera, for instance, sets the file types to blank when downloading Word documents.

If you are feeling brave enough to edit the guts of Eudora, a newsgroup poster has offered instructions for preventing Eudora from assigning the problematic file type here:
<http://www.officeformac.com/ProductForums/Word/2984>

 

[Daiya]

In addition, another newsgroup poster has developed a script to reset the File Types so that double-click will work. See here for that approach:
<http://www.cortig.net/wordpress/?p=175>

 

[Andrei Chilie]

I'm afraid that it's not a problem of the mail client because I have 2 PC's running Office 2004 and 2007 respectively and I can't open any file created on them by double click excepting *.docx.

 

[CyberTaz]

Yes, Andrei, it is a problem of the mail client & has been confirmed - as
has the solution. Apparently, however, you have a *different* issue than the
one discussed in this thread. To determine what the problem might be &
hopefully get it resolved it would be to your advantage to post a NEW
message giving all particulars including the OS version(s), exact Office
version(s) & thorough description of your specific circumstances.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Nik]

I also have this problem but it happens on any document I download from our schools server, not just emailed documents.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

I also have this problem but it happens on any document I download from
our schools server, not just emailed documents.

Are you downloading through FireFox?? It's the same issue anyway.

There is a fix you can consider using:
<http://www.cortig.net/wordpress/?p=175>

Corentin

 

[OG]

So it's been "proven" that Office2008 can't play with Eudora, Firefox/Thunderbird. Please add Notes to the list.
What does it work with then? Outlook and IE?

Talk about scapegoating!

 

[JE McGimpsey]

So it's been "proven" that Office2008 can't play with Eudora,
Firefox/Thunderbird. Please add Notes to the list.
What does it work with then? Outlook and IE?

No, it's been "proven" that Eudora and Firefox/Thunderbird apply an
long-since deprecated file type.

What does work with Office2008 is any application that applies file
types that have been in use since 1998 (or none at all).

Talk about scapegoating!

Hmmm... 'scapegoating' would seem to apply more to blaming a company
that has nothing to do with how those file types are applied...

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

So it's been "proven" that Office2008 can't play with Eudora,
Firefox/Thunderbird. Please add Notes to the list.
What does it work with then? Outlook and IE?

What about Mail and Safari ??
I also use OmniWeb and Entourage and I don't see this issue.

It is a real and serious issue, but it does not affect all applications.

(And IE being based on older code from the MacOS 9 era, I suspect it
would also add the file type incriminated here as well - and Outlook for
Mac is not even a MacOS X application... It got stuck in MacOS 9)

Corentin

 

[Jeremy Davis]

For what it's worth, I just downloaded the Firefox 3 (still in Beta). It allows me to double-click Office files and they open in Office 2008. This tells me that it is indeed a Firefox issue and not MS.

Interestingly, with Firefox 2.x Powerpoint files would work. Just not .xls and .doc.

 

[Office 2008 Usability]

So it's been "proven" that Office2008 can't play with Eudora,
Firefox/Thunderbird. Please add Notes to the list.
What does it work with then? Outlook and IE?

No, it's been "proven" that Eudora and Firefox/Thunderbird apply an
long-since deprecated file type.

What does work with Office2008 is any application that applies file
types that have been in use since 1998 (or none at all).

Talk about scapegoating!

Hmmm... 'scapegoating' would seem to apply more to blaming a company
that has nothing to do with how those file types are applied...
[/QUOTE]

Face it, Office 2008 sucks - in terms of both robustness and usability.

 

[Daiya]

There is also a workaround for Lotus Notes discussed here:
<http://www.officeformac.com/ProductForums/Word/3144>

You can use a utility to change the file type that Lotus Notes assigns.

 

[Michael_Halliday]

I actually have to agree with Andrei on this one. We have a case where files stored on a network server used to open before SP1 and now they don't. You have to do the "File-->Open" thing. Once they have been changed and re-saved they will open again. This is a major problem for the users in our office. I'll post a new message as well, to hopefully get an answer.

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Michael -

Hopefully I can save you the trouble of posting yet another message on a
subject that has been repeatedly addressed here & elsewhere The answer to
yet another message will not be any different.

Nobody questions the inconvenience caused.

Nobody denies that the issue surfaced as a result of the SP1 update
*finally* deprecating the archaic Type Codes.

What some refuse to understand or accept, however, is that the *cause* of
the problem is that certain browsers & email clients are assigning to Word &
Excel files Type Codes that should never have been used by anyone in the
last 10 years - that's when they were abandoned by MS. If the developers of
those programs had been writing/updating their software accordingly the
issue would have been miniscule at worst & totally unnoticed by the
overwhelming majority of users. [Note that some of the apps involved weren't
even written until long after the Type Code had been abandoned.]

There are any number of references to the fix you've already discovered as
well as batch approaches which have been posted here. The unfortunate fact,
however, is that once "fixed" the file will be "unfixed" if it's once again
handled by the same guilty programs - They're the ones that need to be
updated so the problem will not be perpetuated.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[William Smith]

I actually have to agree with Andrei on this one. We have a case
where files stored on a network server used to open before SP1 and
now they don't. You have to do the "File-->Open" thing. Once they
have been changed and re-saved they will open again. This is a major
problem for the users in our office. I'll post a new message as well,
to hopefully get an answer.

Hi Michael!

What server are you using? If you're possibly running Group Logic's
ExtremeZ-IP on Windows Server then you will need to apply an update. See
this KB article on their website:

"WORD 2008 - Can't double click to open file"
<http://www.grouplogic.com/knowledge/index.cfm/fuseaction/view/docID/317>

I wouldn't expect any patches to be released for File Services for
Macintosh in Windows 2003 and earlier.

Hope this helps!

--

bill

William M. Smith, Microsoft Interop MVP - Mac/Windows
Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>

 

[Tom Hoffman]

The whole discussion around old file types is interesting, but this is a bug, plain and simple. Double-click and File->Open should do the same thing and if they don't it is a bug.

If File->Open wants to get fancy and announce something like, "I don't quite recognize this file, but here's what I think", that's fine and that would be a legitimate reason for this not to be a bug, but that's not how it works.

MS needs to fix. This is a real PITA.