PROBLEM: 12.1 version of Word 2008 will not open WinWord .doc files?

[Daiya Mitchell]

Another thing - apparently, some files emailed get a ".dot" extension added
after the .doc - which might explain why it opens the app, but not the file.

Uh, that's actually a different bug, I think limited to some conflict
with Safari, which adds that on downloading. I thought I've seen
conflicting reports on whether 12.0.1 fixed that or not. Deleting the
..dot is the workaround.

 

[Steve Maser]

Uh, that's actually a different bug, I think limited to some conflict
with Safari, which adds that on downloading. I thought I've seen
conflicting reports on whether 12.0.1 fixed that or not. Deleting the
.dot is the workaround.

"different"? Or "related"?

Might be worth asking if people seeing the double-click problem are
having the .dot problem.

I'm having both...

- Steve

 

[CyberTaz]

Different - and there's no rule that states that you can't in deed have
*both*

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

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

"different"? Or "related"?

Might be worth asking if people seeing the double-click problem are
having the .dot problem.

I haven't yet seen anyone using Safari and having the double-click
problem.

Can I ask you what browser and e-mail client you are using Steve??

Corentin

 

[Steve Maser]

I haven't yet seen anyone using Safari and having the double-click
problem.

Can I ask you what browser and e-mail client you are using Steve??

Corentin

Web browser -- Safari 3.1.1

E-mail program -- Eudora 6.2.4. I'm not seeing this in Eudora 8
(based on Thunderbird 3.0), but that seems to use a different method of
decoding attachments.

And if I .zip the attachments to myself and send them along that way,
when they are unzipped they open.


I'm certainly willing to point the finger at Eudora 6.2.4, based on
it's age. However an office update shouldn't render thousands of
documents (basically) unopenable. (And other posters have listed
other e-mail applications so I don't think it's limited to Eudora --
but the MacBU can certainly test that...)

And there is the odd twist to this that Safari 3.1.1/Office 2008 12.1
isn't having either problem under 10.4.11 (at least here.)


But -- let's be real -- using "File --> Open" to manage documents is
unreasonable these days... Microsoft changed something unexpectedly
and it broke everything for many people. They need to fix this.

- Steve

 

[Richard_Starling]

I haven't yet seen anyone using Safari and having the double-click
problem.

Can I ask you what browser and e-mail client you are using Steve??

Corentin

Web browser -- Safari 3.1.1

E-mail program -- Eudora 6.2.4. I'm not seeing this in Eudora 8
(based on Thunderbird 3.0), but that seems to use a different method of
decoding attachments.

And if I .zip the attachments to myself and send them along that way,
when they are unzipped they open.


I'm certainly willing to point the finger at Eudora 6.2.4, based on
it's age. However an office update shouldn't render thousands of
documents (basically) unopenable. (And other posters have listed
other e-mail applications so I don't think it's limited to Eudora --
but the MacBU can certainly test that...)

And there is the odd twist to this that Safari 3.1.1/Office 2008 12.1
isn't having either problem under 10.4.11 (at least here.)


But -- let's be real -- using "File --> Open" to manage documents is
unreasonable these days... Microsoft changed something unexpectedly
and it broke everything for many people. They need to fix this.

- Steve
Steve, 100% agree. Dalya says this thread has outlived its usefulness, completely disagree with that. The thread pointed at for 'useful information' has a worse than useless workaround and then blames other email clients for 'corrupting' Office documents. Why then if I restore to 12.0.1 does everything start to work again?[/QUOTE]

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Uh, I just meant that posting new information in this thread is unlikely
to help find a solution, because MS has identified the cause of the
problem. According to them, the specific browser/client you use to
download the document doesn't matter, because the change could have
happened anywhere along the doc's lifecycle.

So a whole bunch of people posting about which browser they use, or
where these files come from, or what makes the problem files different
from other files, isn't going to get us anywhere useful. MS is already
past that point.

You are right that rolling back to 12.0.1 ought to be mentioned as a
workaround for this. It would be better, I think, to post other
workarounds in clearly marked new threads, rather than burying them in a
complex and confusing list of attempts to identify the cause of the problem.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Web browser -- Safari 3.1.1

E-mail program -- Eudora 6.2.4.

Thanks Steve,


[...]

But -- let's be real -- using "File --> Open" to manage documents is
unreasonable these days...

Can you drag the files to the icon of the application to get them to
open??

Corentin

 

[Charles]

This thread has outlived its usefulness--please see the announcement here:
http://www.officeformac.com/ProductForums/Office/1973

Huh? (I was answering your question.)

Charles

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Huh? (I was answering your question.)

Oh, sorry, I wasn't especially replying to you, just to the most recent
post on the thread. But my questions, attempting to find the cause of
the problem, had become outdated, superseded by the announcement that MS
has tracked down most of the cause.

Which browser/email client you use might make a difference for new
files, but files that have been shared and exchanged around could still
trigger the problem even if the brower/email client you use isn't
implicated.

 

[CyberTaz]

<snip>

But -- let's be real -- using "File --> Open" to manage documents is
unreasonable these days...

You're absolutely right - Command +O is much more efficient... Unless it
facilitates your workflow to bring up a Finder window then navigate from
there in order to locate a file so you can dbl-click it to get a file open.

Microsoft changed something unexpectedly
and it broke everything for many people. They need to fix this.

<snip>

Right again - it's all a part of their master plan to get people to stop
using Mac Office with the expectation that the demise of MacBU will put the
corporation in a position to declare bankruptcy resulting in the undermining
of the U.S. economy & paralysis of the nation in order to facilitate their
global takeover... The end is near;-)

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

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

So a whole bunch of people posting about which browser they use, or
where these files come from, or what makes the problem files different
from other files, isn't going to get us anywhere useful. MS is
already past that point.

Actually, I'm a little wrong there. It is connected to the browser or
email client in use, but the files might have been tweaked at any point
in their lifetime. So if you use Safari or Entourage to get a document
that has been shared around a whole bunch of people and gone through a
bunch of browsers, you might run into the problem even if
Safari/Entourage isn't causing it.

But, if you know that most of the files you receive are were probably
created new by the person sending them, then you might experiment with
getting your email in different programs or browsers. For instance, if
the same document breaks via webmail access in Firefox but not Safari,
then we know it's a conflict between Office and Firefox. Or vice versa.

I don't know how useful knowing the exact conflict would be, though.
It's be easy enough to switch browsers for webmail access in the future,
but using File | Open a lot sounds less inconvenient to me than
switching email clients. And it won't help with documents that already
exist on your harddrive.

(I have no clue whether the software the sender uses to send/upload the
document would make a difference.)

 

[Charles]

Oh, sorry, I wasn't especially replying to you, just to the most recent
post on the thread.

I see--I couldn't tell you weren't replying to me because you were
replying to my message in which I was answering your question.

Charles

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

My solution was to use Time Machine to restore my Office 2008 folder
from the day before I applied the update.

Wellll, you shoudl be careful with that. If I quite remember, the update
also updates various elements in /Library (though it might not bee too
bad, snice they are limited. I believe the fonts get updated for
instance). You also end up with a receipt for the package corresponding
to 12.1.0 even though you effectively have 12.0.1 installed.

Corentin

 

[Charles]

It's *possible* these documents that aren't opening were created on
some version of WinWord

With my setup at least, it is happening with documents created on a Mac
also, included ones that were e-mailed to me years ago. (I didn't check
ones that were downloaded years ago since I am not sure how to tell
which ones those are.)

The only common denominator seems to be that they were received by
e-mail or downloaded with a browser.

Charles

 

[JE McGimpsey]

With my setup at least, it is happening with documents created on a Mac
also, included ones that were e-mailed to me years ago. (I didn't check
ones that were downloaded years ago since I am not sure how to tell
which ones those are.)

The only common denominator seems to be that they were received by
e-mail or downloaded with a browser.

Yup, MS has already identified this, though with more specificity. See

http://www.officeformac.com/ProductForums/Office/1973

 

[Miles Austin]

PROBLEM: 12.1 version of Word 2008 will not open on my desktop.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

PROBLEM: 12.1 version of Word 2008 will not open on my desktop.

You've moved Word to the desktop?

What happens if you move it back to the

HD:Applications:Microsoft Office 2008

folder?

 

[Miles Austin]

PROBLEM: 12.1 version of Word 2008 will not open on my desktop.

You've moved Word to the desktop?

What happens if you move it back to the

HD:Applications:Microsoft Office 2008

folder?
[/QUOTE]

 

[Scott Boettcher]

Like I said, I was able to fix on my Macs doing:

Rebuild the launchservices database - a number of free utilities do this, I
use "OnyX"

Now after doing that and logging out/in (or reboot, but not needed) you need
to find a doc of each Office type (.doc, .xls, .ppt) that won't open.
It appears as though the ones causing troubles are generated (or
changed/saved) by Office on the PC (don't know if it's a certain version or
not)

Get Info on the file that won't open and associate it to Excel 2008 on your
Mac. I noticed the icon was off on the ones not working.
Before closing, select "Change all"

Now, all of the Office docs open on my Mac(s) but this is not something I
plan on doing on the machines I support so I will not roll out this version
until MS fixes this.

Scott