Opening up a Word Dicument from 1992?

[BigDaddyCool]

I was looking through my old floppy disks on my old PC and I found a couple
Word Documents that were last modified in June of 1992. I tried opening them
up in Word 2003, but there was a lot of gobbledygook (although the main text
was there!). How would I go about successfully opening it up and making it
look exactly as it did in 1992?

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

There would generally be two potential issues with opening old files using
Word 2003:

1. Are the correct filters installed? Check Office installation and add the
filters if necessary.

2. In some cases, files before version x are blocked from being opened by a
default security policy. See:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922849

for more information if, instead of seeing gibberish, you get a message that
says:

You are attempting to open a file that was created in an earlier version of
Microsoft Office. This file type is blocked from opening in this version by
your registry policy setting.

 

[BigDaddyCool]

I'm not getting any kind of message, so the problem is probably #1. What are
filters? Where can I find more information about them?

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Assuming you're using Windows XP, open the Control Panel and look for Add or
Remove Programs. Click on Microsoft Office 2003 (name varies), and then
click on Change. Select Add or Remove Features, then click Next. Click to
select Choose Advanced Customization of Applications, then click Next.
Expand Office Share Features, then set Converters and Filters to Run All
from My Computer. Click Update.

If that doesn't do it for you (and it might not), then you probably need to
install the Office File Converter Pack. Take a look here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/212265


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

 

[Graham Mayor]

Or you can download the of Word DOS filter from my web site.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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