Word Documents will not open

[cporro]

I am a fairly savvy Windows XP Home Edition user. I have tried the most
arcane solutions found here and most everywhere else to solve my problem. It
is the usual "Word docs will not open", all I get when I double click a word
icon is a gray screen in word. If I were to list all that I have tried, it
would go on forever, NOTHING works, deleting registry keys, reassigning file
names to the program, whatever...you name it. I am desperate for a solution.
Please help.

Thank you

 

[Tom Ferguson]

Try:
1. Select Run from the Windows Start menu

2. Type winword.exe /a
Don't forget the space before the /a

3. Click OK

If it starts, the problem is probably a corrupt normal.dot or a registryt
problem. Let us know.

Tom
MSMVP
Windows Shell/User


:I am a fairly savvy Windows XP Home Edition user. I have tried the most
: arcane solutions found here and most everywhere else to solve my
problem. It
: is the usual "Word docs will not open", all I get when I double click a
word
: icon is a gray screen in word. If I were to list all that I have tried,
it
: would go on forever, NOTHING works, deleting registry keys, reassigning
file
: names to the program, whatever...you name it. I am desperate for a
solution.
: Please help.
:
: Thank you

 

[cporro]

Hello Tom,

Thank you for your reply. When I open Word with the "a switch" the program
opens with normally, with a workspace ready to be used. But I always get this
result when I open Word by clicking on its icon. The problem that I have is
that when I click on any Word document icon, without first opening the
program, I get the gray screen and usually a message that "Windows cannot
find C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\My Documents"

By the way, when I followed your instructions, the program opened normally
with its workspace (blank document) ready to be used, but then I got the
message "Word experienced an error trying to open a file *Check the file
permissions for the document or drive,Make sure that there is sufficient free
memory and disk space, open the file the text recovery converter" All of
which are not solutions.

If I open Word first, and then double click on word document icon, the
document will open, but this is no good because I normally would navigate to
a document icon, double click on it, and of course expect Word to start and
open the document. Instead, I get the gray screen and I have to click on the
new document icon in Word to get a blank (white) screen, and then re-navigate
to the document. It simply drives me nuts.

Thanks,

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Have you tried everything at
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm?
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide


--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[Charles Kenyon]

How about winword.exe /r ?

--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide


--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[cporro]

Charles,

Thank you for your reply. I tried everything I saw on the websites you
indicated, including yours, which by the way is very comprehensive. Some of
the things I saw there I had already tried. Including winword.exe r, remaning
normal.dot, disabling Norton's office plug-in, reassociating my doc files to
word, deleting the registry keys for DATA both in Office 11 and Office 10 in
the registry...

I am certainly getting a crash course in Word's inner workings, but I am no
closer to a solution.

Could this be a Windows system problem? Should I do an, what is called..."in
place install of XP? When I had trouble with Interent explorer some months
ago, that solved the problem.

Thank you

 

[HELP required A.S.A.P PLEASE]

Hi, I cannot open any word documents! All my college work is saved as Word
Documents and i cannot access them...please advise me. I keep geting the
error message, "Word had decected a prblem with some of the current
preferences. Would you like to restore these preferences to their default
values?" i click YES then "Microsoft Office has encountered a problem and
needs to close" and there is a check box which has "Restart Microsoft Office
Word" next to it and it is written at the bottom "send error report" and
which i have done SO many times now. when i tick the check box it is
displayed the first message again and when i send an error report it gives me
a link to the Microsoft.com website who advise me to install the updates
avaiable to solve the problem. I have installed the updates but it is still
not allowing me to open documents! please help as soon as possible as ALL my
college work is saved under Word and i need them to work. Regards Sarah
Chaudhry

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Hi,

What happens if you open Word, by itself, from the Start menu? Can you, from
within Word, open your documents? (File > Open)

Take a look at http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm for
other ideas.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide


--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

"HELP required A.S.A.P PLEASE" <HELP required A.S.A.P
(e-mail address removed)> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

 

[HELP required A.S.A.P PLEASE]

Hi, I
t still doesn't open. when i try to open it from the start menu the same
message come up.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

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



"HELP required A.S.A.P PLEASE" <HELP required A.S.A.P
(e-mail address removed)> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

 

[HELP required A.S.A.P PLEASE]

Thanks for trying to help me but none of those links helped.... i don't know
what to do.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Word does not open correctly with the /a switch?



"HELP required A.S.A.P PLEASE"

 

[HELP required A.S.A.P PLEASE]

No Word is no opening at all, not matter what i do....do think i have a virus

 

[HELP required A.S.A.P PLEASE]

No...

Word does not open correctly with the /a switch?



"HELP required A.S.A.P PLEASE"