Strange .doc icons and context menu issue. Please help!

[Roland]

I've just installed Windows 7, and right afterwards Office 2003. I've
noticed, that while .rtf documents had the normal Word icons, the .doc
documents were still associated with Wordpad. Manually, using the "Open with"
menu I've re-associated .doc files by default with Word. When I double click
on them Word opens them, however the icons of the .doc files are different
from those of the .rtf files. (Now their appearance refer to Word, but they
are not the "original" Word icons. It looks like as if I associated an alien
extension with Word, for example .jpg or .pdf. It seems as if Word wouldn't
really like to recognize .doc files as its own.)
Moreover, when on the desktop I do a right-click and select "New" I can
create every file types of the installed Office applications (.xml, .ppt,
..mdb) except a .doc file, there is no possibility to create any Word
documents that way at all.

So according to the mentioned problems I think Word has some problems with
managing its own file extension. I repaired and also re-installed Office, but
that didn't help.
Until now I used the RC version of Windows 7 but I didn't have this problem.

If you could help me solving this issue I'd be very grateful!

 

[Graham Mayor]

I suspect Windows 7 will handle files in much the same way as earlier
versions with respect to registry associations. In which case you should be
able to select the appropriate icon from those available in the file
wordicon.exe which is saved with the installer files for Office. There are
about 17 icons in that file that you can pick from.

The process will no doubt be similar to that shown at the end of
http://www.gmayor.com/Document_Not_Found.htm

As Word 2003 predates Windows 7, it is not surprising if its installer
cannot handle changes to the folder structure in the later operating system
and may require some help.

Word does not rely on the filename extension to determine its own file
types, however Windows uses the extension to determine which application to
use to open a file that is selected externally - particularly as more than
one application may be able to open a particular file type.
Your problem has nothing to do with Word 2003 per se, but with Windows 7 and
the intricacies of associating files with applications in that operating
system would be better address to a forum associated with Windows 7 matters.
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Lance Truthhammer]

I don't think that this can be merely brushed aside as a problem with older
folder structures. Under Windows 7 Beta I don't recall having this problem,
but under RC and RTM I have had this exact thing happen to me. It's not just
the file that is changed, but the way that the OS handles DOC files in
general.

Generally I don't mind that the icons looked different, for me that is only
the tip of the iceberg. The problem is with how the context menu works and
how other programs recognize doc files. Oddly, this only applies to DOC
files, other older word formats are fine. I have a program to handle large
printing requests, PrintConductor, it recognizes that every other office
suite program is installed other than Word. You cannot do a right-click ->
new -> doc. You cannot open multiple word files at once if you select them.
Moreover, you cannot print multiple word DOCs from the context menu, the same
way that you would virtually any other file you just wanted to print but not
open.

Uninstalling/reinstalling, editing the registry to get rid of the Wordpad
and notepad associations (not possible - at least for me), and installing
Office 2007 all have had no effect. The problems is consistent over two
installs of Win7 on two different machines; however, I loaded the programs
similarly, so if there is a conflict I am creating, I suppose it is possible
that this is unrelated to Windows 7 per se.

Any ideas on how to address this short of wiping clean and starting over
(not really worth it) would be great.

Thanks.

 

[Graham Mayor]

This is not a Word issue, but an operating system issue. This would be
better addressed in a forum for Windows 7.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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