Word 2003 hangs when opening some documents

[Celia]

I have a new computer and when I try and open some documents created in Word
2003 on another computer, I get a message that Word encountered a serious
error and then Word hangs. If I try again, I may get the option to recover
data without formatting or pictures.
I seem to be able to open documents created on this computer. I can open
certain documents created on the other computer. I can launch Word with no
problems.
I have tried using the Disabled Documents under Help/About MS Word and
reloading the document from the CD with no luck.
I downloaded Service Pack 2 - made no difference.
Any ideas?

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

Don't open files directly from a CD or other removable media.
Instead, copy the files to your hard drive, and open the copy on
the hard drive.

 

[Celia]

I had already put them on my hard drive. Any other ideas? (Thanks for your
quick response)

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

Have you tried using the Open and Repair option? In Word, click
on File | Open, browse to your file, click on the little black
downward-pointing triangle at the right end of the Open button,
and choose Open and Repair.

 

[Celia]

Open and Repair opened the document with the correct formatting but the
document still caused Word to hang. I tried Save As with a new name - same
thing. I then repaired again and copied the text to a new file and that
seems OK.
While not ideal, it's a workaround that I can live with for the time being.
Many thanks for your help.