suddenly unable to open files with office xp

[dan d]

I've been running office xp for months, but now I cannot
open any of my office xp files (word, excel, ppt). Even
newly created and stored files will not open. The excel
error message is "unable to read file". The word message
is "the file ... is not available." The programs then
attempt to make changes to the global template, Normal.
I can open all files with my old 97 programs. Any ideas?

thanks

 

[Tom Ogilvy]

Are you opening them through file=>Open in Excel?

What has changed since they last worked?

 

[dan d]

I've tried file=>open from excel & word, as well as
double-click on a number of files (some I had open
yesterday, others I haven't had open for a year). Excel,
Word, & powerpoint all fail to open files. What has
changed recently is that I installed updated norton
antivirus & firewall on Friday, but then lost my home
network connection, including internet (think I lost
router connection). I uninstalled the norton
applications (which didn't solve problem), and then did a
system restore last night (to couple days ago), which
successfully recovered this function - but now have
office xp problem for first time. Any ideas??

Thanks,
Dan

 

[Tom Ogilvy]

I think I would try uninstalling Office XP, then installing Office XP to a
new directory.

Before you do that,
You might want to search the knowledge base for this symptom. It is
possible it somehow screwed up the office registration information and it
doesn't see office XP as legal.

http://support.microsoft.com goto Advanced Search.

 

[dan d]

Thanks for the suggestion. Turns out the problem was due
to a leftover norton antivirus plug-in for Office, which
was trying to scan files before opening them. I
reinstalled antivirus & problem disappeared. Also found
an option to turn off the plug-in.

Dan