Document not opening though Word is

[gordonah]

I created a document yesterday and today I am unable to open it. Whatever
method I try to use to open the document (from explorer, via Word, via
command line), Word is opened, but no document (that is no document at all)
and no errors.

I went back to the template I was provided with for this doc, and found that
when you do "Save as", it defaults to "Save as type" "Word 97-2003 & 6.0/95
-RTF (*.doc)", which I accepted (didn't explicitly check to be honest) rather
than changing to plain old type "Word document (*.doc)" Upon investigation I
found that you get this problem if I use this template and don't change the
file type (is fine if file type is changed).

Is there a way to specify to word which file type to open for a .doc file?
I'm using Word 2003.

Note1: After I started typing the above, I thought about opening the doc in
Wordpad, and this worked (content all fine, but part of formatting lost), so
I'm ok to be getting on with (using properly saved template), but I'm still
curious to know the answer.
Note2: I found that my Office install had the default formatting for saving
files set incorrectly as above (started new job, with new PC on Monday.
Didn't think to check this). I've corrected this.

Thanks
Gordon

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

What happens if you open Word, then choose File - Open and try to open the
file?

 

[gordonah]

Herb

nothing different happens. File -> Open -> highlight doc -> click Open.
I am then returned to the screen as before I started this process (i.e. a
blank "Document 1", or a blank grey screen if default doc has been closed).

Another curiousity. I have started rework on the document and resaved from
template, and also set my default format to save word file as to "Word
document (*.doc)". If I use this setup and save the template by changing the
file type at save time, it works ok (can reopen saved doc). So to recreate
the error now, I have to change the defaul type back to "Word 97-2003 &
6.0/95 -RTF (*.doc)". I can only suppose there is some difference to saving
in this format when it's the default, and explicitly saving in this format
when something else is the default.

I think the list of how I tried opening the problematic doc was;
Double click doc in explorer
Right-click doc and select Open in explorer
Enter the document name at a command line
Start -> Run, Document name
Start Word, File -> Open
Start Word, close Document1, File -> Open
While in File -> Open, dialogue box, I couldn't see in preview either
(preview not available).

All produce the same result (Word opens, but presents no document).

Gordon

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Very odd. I'm guessing that the rtf file is corrupted somehow, and that the
corruption has managed to hide the content from you.

I'd be curious what you see if you try the following

Choose Tools - Options - General, and enable Confirm Conversion at Open.

Try to open the file. It should prompt you to indicate the file type. What
type does it suggest?

Regardless of what Word suggests, set Convert file from: to Plain Text, and
click OK.

What do you see? (Should see a bunch of rtf encoding.)

Try again, and if the suggested type isn't RTF, then choose RTF and see if
the file opens with any of the formatting intact.

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com

 

[gordonah]

Herb

if I do this, then it suggests "Rich Text Format (RTF)".

Opening in plain text does opened up a document of sorts, but largely just
the coding you expect (first few lines below).

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\uc1\deff0\stshfdbch0\stshfloch0\stshfhich0\stshfbi0\deflang2057\deflangfe2057{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fcharset0\fprq2{\*\panose
02020603050405020304}Times New Roman;}{}Courier
New;}{\f3\froman\fcharset2\fprq2

I searched on some key words from the template and the content is in there,
but I'm glad I don't have to get it out as this opened file is 1251 pages
long from a 10 page template.

If I open the document as RTF using the prompt conversion option, then it's
the same as before, with no additional document being opened.

Thanks for following up.

Gordon

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

So... apparently, the RTF is corrupted. WordPad can read RTF, but you said
that you lost some formatting that way.

I've tried what you indicated, but couldn't manage to corrupt the resulting
rtf file. I guess you got lucky, or perhaps there's some particular
formatting that Word isn't handling correctly -- when writing, reading, or
both.

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com