Word 2003 hangs when trying to open some Word 2000 files

[jlm05]

In mid-April 2008, we upgraded from Office 2000 to Office 2003. I'm running
on Windows XP.

A couple of days ago, I discovered that I could not open several Word files
that were created from late 2006 to the time of the upgrade. Older and newer
files work fine. It's not every single file, but it is a good percentage. The
files used different templates. Most of the files are not that large.

Word just hangs when I try to open these files. This applies to files on my
computer, on the file server, and in our document control system. A coworker
reported having trouble opening a file I had placed in the document control
system.

I can open the files in WordPad, and it looks like none of the content is
lost.

Does anyone know of anything that might help? Any Word 2003 settings I might
adjust to resolve this?

 

[Terry Farrell]

Have you tried the Open and Repair option as it sounds like they must all be
partially corrupt.

 

[jlm05]

Thanks for the suggestion

I just tried that, and unfortunately it doesn't seem to work. Word still
hangs.

 

[Terry Farrell]

There's not too many options open to you as they must be partially corrupt.
You can try the Recover Text from Any File option in Word or you can open
the documents in WordPad: see which gives you the better result.

Terry

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi JLM,

Corruption, as Terry mentioned, seems to be a likely result, but there are a couple of others that you may want to look at.

What was the result of using Open and Repair on a file?

You mentioned that these files used a 'different' template. Different in what way (no longer available, was on a different server
location, etc)?

In some cases Word may be waiting for a particular template or feature that the template told Word would be available to become
available. Do you get the same result if you wait around 5-7 minutes to see if the hang clears? Do you get the same result if you
open Word in safe mode (hold ctrl key when starting Word) then open the document?

==============
Thanks for the suggestion

I just tried that, and unfortunately it doesn't seem to work. Word still
hangs. >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[jlm05]

By "different" templates, I meant that the files did not all use the same
template, although all of the templates are stored in the same location.
Newer files using the same templates do not have the problem.

Opening the files in WordPad preserves all of the formatting and images, but
I have to reapply the styles after re-saving it as a Word document.

I tried the suggestion of opening Word in Safe Mode. Word was able to open
the file after several minutes and make repairs (seemed to be an issue with
lists).

As part of the repairs, it removed the bulleted lists, so I updated the List
Bullet style to restore the bullets and then saved the file, which supposedly
would keep the repairs.

I then tried to open the saved file directly, without the Safe Mode. Word
hung again, but did open the file after several minutes.

I then removed the connection to the template, and removed some SnagIt
template that was added somehow, and the file opened quickly. My next test
will be to just remove the SnagIt template and see if that does the trick.

Arrgh!

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi JLM,

If the template location has moved (i.e. sometimes mapped folders are the same but Word 'sees' the underlying connection) that can
slow things down. You may want to see if a newer version of http://snagit.com has a different result, or if there are other
add-ins.

============
By "different" templates, I meant that the files did not all use the same
template, although all of the templates are stored in the same location.
Newer files using the same templates do not have the problem.

Opening the files in WordPad preserves all of the formatting and images, but
I have to reapply the styles after re-saving it as a Word document.

I tried the suggestion of opening Word in Safe Mode. Word was able to open
the file after several minutes and make repairs (seemed to be an issue with
lists).

As part of the repairs, it removed the bulleted lists, so I updated the List
Bullet style to restore the bullets and then saved the file, which supposedly
would keep the repairs.

I then tried to open the saved file directly, without the Safe Mode. Word
hung again, but did open the file after several minutes.

I then removed the connection to the template, and removed some SnagIt
template that was added somehow, and the file opened quickly. My next test
will be to just remove the SnagIt template and see if that does the trick.

Arrgh! >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[jlm05]

Removing the SnagIt template did not make a difference. Only removing the
original template fixed the problem.

There may be something in what you said about the location. The folder
structure is the same, but we did move to a different server, although that
occurred before we upgraded to Word 2003, and I'm sure I edited some of those
files between the time the server changed and the Word 2003 upgrade.

 

[jlm05]

Thanks to everyone who responded. I think I've finally nailed down the problem.

I used your input to talk to our IT guy, and it turns out that although we
changed to the new server quite a while ago, the old server only actually
went offline very recently.

He updated the IP address of the old server to match the new one. After
flushing the DNS on my machine, the files now open promptly.

Thanks again!

 

[Alan]

In mid-April 2008, we upgraded from Office 2000 to Office 2003. I'm running
on Windows XP.

A couple of days ago, I discovered that I could not open severalWordfiles
that were created from late 2006 to the time of the upgrade. Older and newer
files work fine. It's not every single file, but it is a good percentage.The
files used different templates. Most of the files are not that large.

Wordjust hangs when I try to open these files. This applies to files on my
computer, on the file server, and in our document control system. A coworker
reported having trouble opening a file I had placed in the document control
system.

I can open the files in WordPad, and it looks like none of the content is
lost.

Does anyone know of anything that might help? AnyWord2003 settings I might
adjust to resolve this?

Hi,

If the files are really corrupt, you may try Advanced Word Repair at
http://www.datanumen.com/awr/ This tool is rather useful in salvaging
damaged Word documents.