.doc is "file type that is blocked from opening in this version"?!

G

glasgowd

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I found older posts relating this problem, but the reply was that the bug had been fixed in 12.1.1. I'm using 12.1.2, and it's apparently back.

How can I open a .doc file that someone has e-mailed to me? Opening it directly from within Entourage produces "Filename.doc uses a file type that is blocked from opening in this version." Saving to Desktop and choosing File>Open in Word produces "Word cannot open this document. The document might be in use or might not be a valid Word document."

These are files that were created on Word 2004 on another Mac and e-mailed to me.....

Help?
 
G

glasgowd

Forgot to add that I tried dragging into a new blank document, and got the "cannot open" error there too....
 
J

John McGhie

OK, there's two things going on here:

One is that the file is marked with a deprecated file type, probably MSWD,
and the other is "something else".

Files marked with the old file type are prevented from opening directly
because there may be a security problem contained within them. You have to
do as you have done and save the file to the desktop first.

This prevents the bad guys from automatically opening their latest effort at
stealing your credit card numbers.

Having done that, we now find that the file is damaged and Word can't open
it, or it is one of the formats that is so old that Word no longer has the
import converter for it.

To find out: try opening it in Word 2004. If that won't open it either, the
file is probably damaged.

The first place to look is to see what format the other user sent it in: is
it BinHex, AppleDouble, MIME or UUENCODE? Entourage will correctly decode
all of those file types, so things are not looking good :)

The next thing is to ask the user what he actually sent. Sadly, that can be
a challenge: users often do not know. Ignore the extension: that may have
been added later by different software.

Ask the user which version of Word he used (ask him for the build number
that you can get from Word>About Word menu, and which format he saved it in.
If he doesn't know (and they often don't...) come back and we'll show you a
trick for looking inside the file to see if you can find out.

Cheers


Forgot to add that I tried dragging into a new blank document, and got the
"cannot open" error there too....

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]
 
G

glasgowd

John, thanks for your very thorough reply. I really do appreciate your thoughtfulness, and while I don't want to shoot the messenger, Microsoft has put you in the position of bearing what I can't help but hear as very bad news in terms of Microsoft's commitment to the end user.

I had a long rant here, but I deleted that since my gripes are not really your fault, and will simply say:

Since this is the second time in a week I've received this combination of errors (both Word 2004 files, send from two different colleagues), I'll do what worked last time: I'll walk up to the sender's office and get a copy of the document on my thumb drive. It opened fine that way.
 
J

John McGhie

OK, if you can open what you get on the thumb drive, then it is NOT an old
file format.

It's a problem with the email sender or your email client.

Either the email sender is coding the document wrongly (wouldn't be the
first time...) or your email client is putting the wrong file type and
creator code on the file when it saves it (if FireFox is involved, that is
likely...)

In future, ask the sender to Zip the file before attaching it. It should
come through perfectly.

I wouldn't waste a thoroughly good rant on this issue :) It really is not
such a bad thing. There are four Word file formats: I know them as 2, 6,
97 and 2007 (those are the PC versions of Word that introduced them).

Word 2008 will open 97, and 2007 is its native .docx format. Word 2004 has
97 .doc as its native format, and will open and save .docx with the free
optional converter.

Version 6 has been "deprecated". Both Word 2004 and 2008 will still open
it. However, it is theoretically possible to hide bad stuff in it. So
Microsoft implemented a "safety check". If you use File>Open from within
Word, the file will open right up. But if any other application "sends" a
file of this type to Word, Word will silently refuse to open it. This makes
it much more difficult for the bad guys to sneak one past you without your
knowledge.

What Microsoft either forgot or never knew, was that several other software
vendors out there have not been updating the File Type and Creator Code that
they add to files of type "Microsoft Word". They are still marking *any* of
the Word file types as a "Word 6 File". Causing Word to suddenly refuse to
open them :) Most of the other vendors have now updated their file
stamping, so this problem should now be rare. And Microsoft made a change
in the latest update that makes the safety-check they put in more forgiving.

This leaves the "Word 2" file type. That's so old there probably isn't
ANYTHING still producing it. I believe the last application to produce it
for real was Microsoft Word 2 on Windows 3.1. For a while, Microsoft Write,
the freebie Word Processor included with Windows 3.11 and Windows 95-98 also
used the format, with a different extension.

The input converter for Word 2 has been dropped progressively from Windows
and Mac Word over the years because it's too expensive to maintain. The
Word 2 format is nothing like the "modern" Word formats. It's a "command
stream" format similar to WordPerfect. So it required a large lump of
software just to read it, and that software had to be converted to each new
platform. The Windows guys held onto theirs a bit longer than the Mac guys
did, because theirs was actually the engine inside Windows Write. When
Write was replaced with Word Pad, the Windows people lost their Word 2
converter. On the Mac, we lost the converter with the move to OS X. People
with a version of Word that was still running in OS 9 "Classic" could still
use the converter, but that died when Classic went away. And there's no
chance of making a business case to re-write the thing for Intel. I think I
have seen only "one" Word 2 file in the past five years...

The new .docx format has potentially a much longer life. The "text" part of
it is straightforward mark-up language. At a pinch, almost any web browser
will read it.

Now, if you need some fresh ideas for a good rant, give me a bell: I can
suggest a selection of deserving targets :)

Hope this helps


John, thanks for your very thorough reply. I really do appreciate your
thoughtfulness, and while I don't want to shoot the messenger, Microsoft has
put you in the position of bearing what I can't help but hear as very bad news
in terms of Microsoft's commitment to the end user.

I had a long rant here, but I deleted that since my gripes are not really your
fault, and will simply say:

Since this is the second time in a week I've received this combination of
errors (both Word 2004 files, send from two different colleagues), I'll do
what worked last time: I'll walk up to the sender's office and get a copy of
the document on my thumb drive. It opened fine that way.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]
 
G

glasgowd

John, thanks millions. This is SO much more information than I've been able to find anywhere--and it clarifies the challenges the software is facing.

As for the rant, well... you know us end users; we can always find SOMETHING to gripe about. ;-)
 
J

John McGhie

Well, you see, *I* am an end-user too.

I have a selection of lovely succulent rants just ready to go. Next time
you need one, just holler -- I offer short, medium, or long, in
family-friendly, robust, or get-you-arrested language :)

Most of them about Vista ... :)

Cheers


John, thanks millions. This is SO much more information than I've been able to
find anywhere--and it clarifies the challenges the software is facing.

As for the rant, well... you know us end users; we can always find SOMETHING
to gripe about. ;-)

--

Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]
 

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