Word 2000 Crashing on start

[Static_Nexus]

Hi Guys,

When i try to open certain word documents in word 2000 it crashes with the
error "Winword.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows."

This doesnt occur when the file is opened in word 2003 and it only happens
with certain word documents, it seems they were saved in word 2004 for Macs.

I've tried starting word with the /a switch and it made no difference. the
crashes also do not create a log like it says it will. this happens across
several word 2000 pcs all using the latest service pack and updates.

 

[Terry Farrell]

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm

 

[Static_Nexus]

Hi Terry,

Thanks for your reply, unfortunatly none of those resolutions fixed my
problem

 

[Terry Farrell]

If the documents were created in a later version than Word 2000, do you have
the compatibility upgrade pack installed in Word 2000 that allows you to
open later versions of Word Docs? If not, what format are the documents
being save under?

Terry

 

[Static_Nexus]

Could you point me to this compatibility pack?

The documents are being saved as .doc from Word 11.3.5

 

[Terry Farrell]

They are available as downloads from the Microsoft Office support site.

Terry

 

[Static_Nexus]

are you referring to the "Office File Converter Pack"?

 

[Terry Farrell]

That would be it. It should be available to several generations of Word.

Terry

 

[Static_Nexus]

Installed the converter pack but I am still unable to open the files

 

[Terry Farrell]

In that case, you will have to handle the problem documents as corrupt. Did
they all come from the same source?

Terry

 

[Static_Nexus]

they all came from the same source and they open fine in word 2003.

 

[Terry Farrell]

Open one of the documents in W2003 and use SaveAs and chose RTF format to
save the document. Close Word.

Transfer it to Word 2000 and test to see if it opens?

Then go back to W2003, open the RTF version and use SaveAs and choose .doc
format again.

Transfer the .doc to Word 2000 and see if it opens as a doc.

Terry

 

[Static_Nexus]

Ok, saved it to RTF from W2003 and it opened ok in W2000, saved the RTF
version back to DOC in W2003 and then tried opening that in W2000 and got the
same error?

 

[Terry Farrell]

In Word 2003, under Tools, Options, Save tab, is the option checked to
ignore post-2000 enhancements?

Terry

 

[Static_Nexus]

There is an option for "disable features introduced after: word 97" in W2003.

it is not enabled, tried enabling it, saving a copy of the document in W2003
and then trying to open that copy in W2000, it appeared to be completely
blank.

 

[Terry Farrell]

Blank. Wow! Ok, try opening the 'blank' document (on the Word 2000 PC) using
Wordpad. What displays in Wordpad?

Terry

 

[Static_Nexus]

seems the whole document was completely empty, 0kb. something seems to have
gone wrong in the file transfer so i tried it again, time there was no
change, the file still produced the error. they open fine in wordpad but they
lose some formatting and the text boxes.

 

[Terry Farrell]

I beginning to run out of ideas!

Would you start Word 2000 in Safe mode and see if you can open the document.
From Start, Run, type in

winword /a

and press enter. Use File, Open to select and open the document. Does this
work now?

Terry

 

[Static_Nexus]

already tried that - no joy, do you now if theres a way to save the files in
a W2000 compatability mode in W2004?

 

[Terry Farrell]

You'll have to ask on the MACWord newsgroup as I am unfamiliar with MACs.
I'd be very surprised if you can't though.

Terry