Microsoft Word 6.0/95 Documents Not Opening in

[josephmcross]

Version: 2004 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel Two recent strange occurrences:

1)Older documents originally created with Microsoft Word 6.0/95 are not opening in Microsoft Word 2004 for Mac (ver. 11.5.6) even though within their preview (next column over from actual file/document) it says that the document was modified and last opened when the document attempted to open, but actually never appeared.

2)Some kind of font formatting within even newer, recently created Microsoft Word 2004 documents has changed. Most documents were created with a Hoefler font. Bold words are completely gone or don't appear.

a) If the entire document's font is changed to Palantino for example, all bold-formatted words return and document appears normal. I would hate to do this with every document.

b) Also when document is opened with older Microsoft 10.1.6, document appears normal.

What has happenend? How do I fix these two problems?

 

[Andrea Reece]

Others will probably chime in. I¹ll just point you to
http://www.jklstudios.com/misc/osxfonts.html. Look at section 2 (or search
on Hoefler). Evidently this has happened to others.

 

[John McGhie]

I think you have two problems here:

1) Missing updates, and
2) An outdated font.

First, check that you have the latest updates from both Apple and Microsoft
applied.

There was a security fix applied that prevents those very old file formats
from opening directly on a double-click from the Finder, because the bad
guys can hide malware in the document code that cannot be easily found. If
this is the problem, use File>Open from within Word, and the document will
open straight up.

If you apply the latest updates, the issue should go away: instead you will
see a warning dialog alerting you that the file is an old version that may
not be safe. When you get it open, re-save it in the current version file
format (.doc) so you don't get the problem next time.

The second issue is likely to be because you have not Resolved Duplicates in
FontBook since you installed OS 10.6. If you migrated or upgraded to 10.6,
chances are you have multiple versions of some fonts on the system.

Open FontBook, select All Fonts, then Resolve Duplicates, otherwise Word
will play up quite frequently.

Hoeffler Text should be version 6.1d7e1 created 16 October 2009. If you
have a very old non-Unicode version, it won't work properly in later
versions of Word. But chances are, you just have two different copies: get
rid of all but the latest one.

Hope this helps

Version: 2004 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel
Two recent strange occurrences:

1)Older documents originally created with Microsoft Word 6.0/95 are not
opening in Microsoft Word 2004 for Mac (ver. 11.5.6) even though within their
preview (next column over from actual file/document) it says that the document
was modified and last opened when the document attempted to open, but actually
never appeared.

2)Some kind of font formatting within even newer, recently created Microsoft
Word 2004 documents has changed. Most documents were created with a Hoefler
font. Bold words are completely gone or don't appear.

a) If the entire document's font is changed to Palantino for example, all
bold-formatted words return and document appears normal. I would hate to do
this with every document.

b) Also when document is opened with older Microsoft 10.1.6, document appears
normal.

What has happenend? How do I fix these two problems?

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[josephmcross]

1) The font resolution fix worked. Thanks.

2) But my old Word 6.0/95 files are still not opening even when I use the open command in the finder of Word 2004 11.5.6.

2a) Also an older version of Word 10.1.6 also does not open the older files either.

3) I have the latest updates...both for Mac OS 10.6.2 and Word 2004 11.5.6.

 

[josephmcross]

Okay, allow me to make a correction...Some older Word 6.0/95 files are opening fine, and some files that I can't imagine I have resaved in newer Word versions.

I think I have reduced the problem to two sets of files, one with about a hundred documents and another with about twenty documents, both important...so far.

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Joseph:

It may be that those files are simply "too old".

There are five Microsoft Word document formats:

* Word 1 and 2

* Word 4, 5, 6 for DOS

* Word 4, 5, 6 and Word 95 for Windows/Mac

* Word 97, 98, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 for Windows/Mac

* Word 2007/2008 for Windows/Mac.

The first two are simply "too old", Microsoft Word on the Mac can no longer
read them. Use File>Open and set "Enable" top "Recover text from any file".
That will get the text out, with no formatting: that's the bets you can do.

The third one is the "dangerous" format. Word can still read it, but it
will either refuse to open it, or warn you about it, depending on whether
you have the latest service pack or not.

The fourth one is the "Word .doc Binary" format. That's Word 2004's native
format.

The last one is the "Word .docx XML" format. That's the native format for
Word 2008. Word 2004 can read and write to it, but you must download the
converter from Microsoft's Mactopia website.

Hope this helps

Okay, allow me to make a correction...Some older Word 6.0/95 files are opening
fine, and some files that I can't imagine I have resaved in newer Word
versions.

I think I have reduced the problem to two sets of files, one with about a
hundred documents and another with about twenty documents, both important...so
far.

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]