Help! Can't double click and about to go insane!

[Eric Cohen]

Greetings,

I can double click on any document in Finder and have it open -- except for
a Word document. Rebooting will fix the problem. I hope to find a different
solution as rebooting is disruptive. The problem is intermittent. Double
clicking always works at boot up and sometimes stops working before I shut
down, and other times it does fine.

So for example, if I get an Excel attachment in Entourage I can open the
attachment from Entourage, or save it to the Finder and double click on it
there to open it. That does not work with a Word attachment. To open the
Word attachment, I have to save it to a directory and then go to Word, and
open the file using Word's 'file, open' command.

I am new to the Mac and am using a Powerbook with the latest version of
Panther. I am using Microsoft Office X.

Any suggestions? I know it sounds like a small thing but it is driving me
nuts!!

Thanks!


Eric

 

[Bill Weylock]

First thing to try... Launch Disk Utility (Applilcations/Utilities) select
your hard drive, and Repair Permissions.

 

[Eric Cohen]

Bill,

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply. I tried that and it fixed
a bunch of stuff, but did not unfortunately fix my problem with Word. I
still can¹t open a file by double clicking on it in Finder.

All suggestions are most welcome!

Thanks again.

Eric

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply. I tried that and it fixed
a bunch of stuff, but did not unfortunately fix my problem with Word. I
still can¹t open a file by double clicking on it in Finder.

Try this: Ctrl-click on the file's icon and choose Get Info. In the Open
With pane, choose Word. Click Change All.

 

[Bill Weylock]

Eric -

You¹re welcome. Hoping someone will reply to the ones I posted today.

If you have not already done so, try doing a ³Get Info² on one of the files
in the Finder. See whether Word is referenced in the ³Open With ....² area.
If it¹s not, use the dropdown menu to browse to Word and select it. I
recommend doing that even if Word is listed as one of the alternatives when
you mouse on the button.

After you select Word, be sure to click the button that says ³Use this
application to open all items like this.²

Worth a try anyway.


Best,


- Bill

 

[Eric Cohen]

Thanks for the response!

That does not work either. I changed the type to a different application,
double clicked and that did launch the application (text edit). Then I
changed it back -- double clicking would not open the file.

Any other thoughts? Suggestions on where I might go for an answer?

Thanks!

Eric

 

[Eric Cohen]

No luck with that. Thanks for the suggestion ­ hope your questions were
answered!

All suggestions are most welcome!

Eric

 

[Jeffrey Weston]

Hey Eric,

When you encounter this problem (if it¹s what I think it is), quitting Word
and then Launching it again should fix the problem.
It occurs when you try to Quit Word, but ³Cancel² the Quit action when
prompted ³Do you want to Save the Changes to...?²

This is a known issue for Word X, and has been fixed in Word 2004.

Jeffrey Weston
Mac Word Test
Macintosh Business Unit
Microsoft

 

[JE McGimpsey]

That does not work either. I changed the type to a different application,
double clicked and that did launch the application (text edit). Then I
changed it back -- double clicking would not open the file.

Does it try to start Word if Word is closed?

Does having Word already open make any difference?

 

[Eric Cohen]

Thanks for the info. I rebooted so I don¹t have the problem now so I can¹t
try this but I will when it happens next. I don¹t remember having tried to
quit Word, but it is certainly possible.

I am waiting on Word 2004. I have the Professional version on order. Wish
they would ship Office and follow-up with Virtual PC. Oh well!

Thanks to all for the responses!!

Eric