Documents in one folder won't open

H

Hazel Greenberg

I have one folder full of Word documents that will not open. There is one
pdf in it that will open. What could be wrong with all these documents? And
is there anything to be done?
 
C

CyberTaz

My first guess is that it is a permissions issue. Run Apple's Disk Utility -
Repair Disk Permissions on your HD.

If that doesn't correct the problem confirm that Office 2004 is fully
updated (11.5.6 is the current level). Repair permissions again after
applying any updates.

Should the problem persist: is that folder on your primary HD or some other
volume? Is a network involved? What file format are the files (.doc,
..docx???) & exactly what happens when you attempt to open one of them? Are
there any error messages? If so what is the specific message?

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac
 
H

Hazel Greenberg

My first guess is that it is a permissions issue. Run Apple's Disk Utility -
Repair Disk Permissions on your HD.
To answer your questions, yes I have do have Word 11.5.6. SuperDuper repairs
permissions along with the backup everyday. I ran it again just in case, but
it did not make a difference. I did see this message though in Disk Utility,
in case it is revealing in any way: Warning: SUID file
"System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDA
gent" has been modified and will not be repaired.

The folder is on my primary hard drive, not an external volume. A network is
not involved (I do have my two Macs connected via ethernet, but it has nothing
to do with this folder on my main computer. The file format is .doc. What
happens when I try to open a document is nothing! No message of any kind. I
double click the documents in there, and it¹s like they are empty. Nothing
opens or even tries to open. I did find one .doc document that would open‹I
have no idea why that one is different.

Thanks.

If that doesn't correct the problem confirm that Office 2004 is fully
updated (11.5.6 is the current level). Repair permissions again after
applying any updates.

Should the problem persist: is that folder on your primary HD or some other
volume? Is a network involved? What file format are the files (.doc,
.docx???) & exactly what happens when you attempt to open one of them? Are

there any error messages? If so what is the specific message?

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac
 
C

CyberTaz

OK, the "warning" is typical. If no other errors you're in good shape :)

In Finder, Control/Right-Click one of the 'problem' document files & select
Word from the Open With list in the contextual menu. If that succeeds in
opening the file select one of them in Finder, use Command+I for the Get
Info dialog. Change the Open With to Word, then click the Change All button.

If the attempt didn't succeed Word should produce an error message or a
prompt... Reply with the exact content of the message. Also, do you have any
other problems with Word opening or creating files?

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

Hazel Greenberg

I had already tried the Open With procedure with the same result. And no
error message. But here is something very interesting that just happened and
that may be of diagnostic help, I don¹t know for sure. I typed up a document
in Word, printed and saved it. I then needed to reopen it, but it would not
open even though the one right below it in the folder would open. I then
went to the File menu to try to grab it from the recent documents list. And
lo and behold it would open from there! Does that mean anything?
 
H

Hazel Greenberg

I¹d like to re-post this in case it was overlooked. If there is another
source of help I need to check out, please let me know.
 
C

CyberTaz

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, but I've been a bit busy &
wanted to check a couple of things. The latest point about being able to
open the same file from MRU that won't open otherwise further points to my
suspicion that the fault may lie with the OS... Or more specifically with
Finder/Disk Management. It's rare that dbl-clicking a file in a Finder
window produces no result whatsoever.

Before pursuing that, though, try logging in while holding the Shift key to
see if that produces a different result. Also, create a new User Account &
see if you have the same problem there. Reply with full detail of each test.

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

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