File Conversion Encoding Prompt Error

[Marc]

I have a very weird situation here. An individual at the company I work for
gets documents from this one vendor that he is all of a sudden no longer able
to open succesfully. Every time he tries to open them (whether it be
directly from within Outlook, or by first saving them to his computer), he
gets the "File Conversion - select the encoding that makes your document
readable" dialog box. No matter what he chooses, the document does not open
with all the formatting intact, etc. I am not sure which version of Office
the vendor is using, but I believe it is either 2003 or 2007. He's tried
installing the 2007 compatability pack, as well as updating his office
installation using office update and even installing the entire office suite
(as opposed to just portions of it) and nothing seems to work.

Now...here's the kicker. If he forwards me the email containg the word
document, I can open it on my computer at the office with no problem. If I
then save it and send it back to him, he's able to open it. This would seem
to preclude the idea that the word document is damaged, since otherwise I'd
have the same difficulty. Obviously something is different between my
computer and his (some type of software installed, some update, etc.) that is
allowing me to open these documents where he can't, but I can't figure out
what the difference is, and its driving us all crazy! Anyone have any ideas
or possible solutions? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

- Marc

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

The first place to start would be to see if Files of Type: is stuck on
"Recover text..." in Word's Open dialog.

The next thing I would try is to see if Word works okay when started in Safe
Mode. (Press Ctrl when you start Word, then click Yes when prompted about
starting in Safe Mode.) If his version of Word pre-dates the existence of
Safe Mode, then try starting Word with the /a switch (Start - Run -
winword.exe /a)

What version of Word is he running, by the way?

 

[Marc]

Herb,

I'm not sure what you mean regarding "The first place to start would be to
see if Files of Type: is stuck on > "Recover text..." in Word's Open dialog."

With respect to Word, on this colleague's computer Word normally works fine.
He can create documents and open documents sent to him via email from other
people both in the office and outside of the office. It just seems that he
can't open documents sent by this one vendor.

My colleague (and I) are both running Office 2003 SP3.

I have also found out that the vendor that is sending us word documents
causing the problem is most likely running Office 10.0 (Office X) on Mac.

Any help is, as always, greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

I don't have any experience with Mac versions of Word. But, what you're
experiencing suggests to me that you have a converter installed that is
allowing you to read Mac Word X files, but your colleague does not. (I don't
know for certain that the Mac version uses a different format... I'm just
basing this on what you are reporting.)

Based on that--and the fact that your colleague is not experiencing problems
with documents from non-Mac users--I would suggest that you compare your
installation with his. In particular, in Add or Remove Programs, in Control
Panel, drill into Office 2003 as if you are going to change the installation
and add or remove features, then choose Advanced Customization, and compare
the Converters and Filters (in Shared Features) that you and he have
installed.

If they're the same, then see if you have the Office Converter Pack
installed, and perhaps he doesn't.

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

 

[mxk]

I have a very weird situation here. An individual at the company I work for
gets documents from this one vendor that he is all of a sudden no longer able
to open succesfully. Every time he tries to open them (whether it be
directly from within Outlook, or by first saving them to his computer), he
gets the "File Conversion - select the encoding that makes your document
readable" dialog box. No matter what he chooses, the document does not open
with all the formatting intact, etc. I am not sure which version of Office
the vendor is using, but I believe it is either 2003 or 2007. He's tried
installing the 2007 compatability pack, as well as updating his office
installation using office update and even installing the entire office suite
(as opposed to just portions of it) and nothing seems to work.

Now...here's the kicker. If he forwards me the email containg theword
document, I can open it on my computer at the office with no problem. If I
then save it and send it back to him, he's able to open it. This would seem
to preclude the idea that theworddocument isdamaged, since otherwise I'd
have the same difficulty. Obviously something is different between my
computer and his (some type of software installed, some update, etc.) thatis
allowing me to open these documents where he can't, but I can't figure out
what the difference is, and its driving us all crazy! Anyone have any ideas
or possible solutions? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

- Marc

Hi,

I think you can try a utility called Advanced Word Repair to repair
your Word document. It works rather well for my corrupt Word
documents. Its web address is http://www.datanumen.com/awr/

Alan

 

[niall55]

I have a very weird situation here.  An individual at the company I workfor
gets documents from this one vendor that he is all of a sudden no longer able
to open succesfully.  Every time he tries to open them (whether it be
directly from within Outlook, or by first saving them to his computer), he
gets the "File Conversion - select the encoding that makes your document
readable" dialog box.  No matter what he chooses, the document does not open
with all the formatting intact, etc.  I am not sure which version of Office
the vendor is using, but I believe it is either 2003 or 2007.  He's tried
installing the 2007 compatability pack, as well as updating his office
installation using office update and even installing the entire office suite
(as opposed to just portions of it) and nothing seems to work.  

Now...here's the kicker.  If he forwards me the email containg the word
document, I can open it on my computer at the office with no problem.  If I
then save it and send it back to him, he's able to open it.  This would seem
to preclude the idea that the word document is damaged, since otherwise I'd
have the same difficulty.  Obviously something is different between my
computer and his (some type of software installed, some update, etc.) thatis
allowing me to open these documents where he can't, but I can't figure out
what the difference is, and its driving us all crazy!  Anyone have any ideas
or possible solutions?  Any help is greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

- Marc

I think I have found the fix to this problem. It is only an issue with
PC's receiving Word docs from Mac users. The issue occurs after the
Outlook update KB945432. Hopefully MS is address it soon.


Here's are the steps if anyone should need them
1. Go into add/remove program in the control panel.
2. Make sure the 'show updates' is selected on the top of the window.
3. Scroll down to the Microsoft office installation area.
4. Remove the entry listed as 'Outlook 2003 Security update KB945432'

That should do the trick.

 

[The Wolf]

I'm having the same problem. My co-worker is working on a Mac in Maryland;
I'm in the PC world in Houston. (The first couple of times we exchanged
files, it went smoothly.) I tried removing Outlook 2003 Security update
KB945432, but the system won't let me. Any other suggestions?