Word cannot open this document. The documentmight be in use or might not be a vaid Worddocument."

[CraigRanch]

Version: 2004 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) Processor: Intel There appears to NOT be a fix for this error: Word cannot open this document. The document might be in use or might not be a vaid Word document. I'm on a MacBookPro 10.5.8. The only thing I have loaded lately was some conversion software that converts a .docx to something I can read. HELP....I tried emailing it to myself and I cannot even see the QUICK LOOK.

 

[John McGhie]

Hmmm...

Microsoft distributes a free converter for Word 2004 that enables it to read
and write .docx format.

If you have not installed that application, Word will indeed be unable to
read a .docx file. I don't think QuickLook will work either until you
install the converter: it depends on the same software module.

Version: 2004 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) Processor: Intel There
appears to NOT be a fix for this error: Word cannot open this document. The
document might be in use or might not be a vaid Word document. I'm on a
MacBookPro 10.5.8. The only thing I have loaded lately was some conversion
software that converts a .docx to something I can read. HELP....I tried
emailing it to myself and I cannot even see the QUICK LOOK.

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[CraigRanch]

Oddly, all .docs that I am getting this error on have converted to the same date and time (1.5.10 at 6:35AM). I tried adding an X to the .doc, making it a a .docx and tried opening with the converter. That silly idea did not work either. Luckily I have them on another Mac, so hopefullly those files are NOT corupt.

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Craig:

No, changing the file extension will always make this problem worse

The file extension is a label. If it is .doc, it says "This file contains
binary information, use the binary module to read it in." If the extension
is ".docx" it says "This file contains ANSI information encoded in
eXtensible Markup Language, use the XML module to read it in."

If the content of the file does not match the label on the tin, neither
module can read the file.

However, the fact that the only faulty files were converted at the same time
when it is unlikely that you were working means there is some other part to
this puzzle. What was happening at that time?

Hope this helps

Oddly, all .docs that I am getting this error on have converted to the same
date and time (1.5.10 at 6:35AM). I tried adding an X to the .doc, making it
a a .docx and tried opening with the converter. That silly idea did not work
either. Luckily I have them on another Mac, so hopefullly those files are NOT
corupt.

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Paul Zelinsky]

Similar problem here. I have Word 2011 and 2004 both installed. It seems that I get this error message if I use 2011 to try to open any .doc file created by 2004. The files open fine in 2004. The three possible reasons given by the error message (in use, not a valid Word doc, name contains illegal characters) are all not true. I'm perplexed. If I use 2004 to save the .doc files as .rtf, 2011 opens those. Any idea of a fix for this?
(there also seem to be some weird things going on when I try to repair permissions in Disk Utility. A bunch of Java things keep showing as needing repair &getting repaired, but the same things show up each time I repair permissions).