Word files showing "Convert File" window and opening with gibberish.

[Susan B. D.]

G4 Cube running OS Panther 10.3.3 and MS Office X for Mac with
Word 10.1.4.

Have been exchanging problem-free MS word files with a colleague on the
same Mac network for years, most recently Word X (10.1.4) for Mac files.

Out of nowhere, opening files received from this colleague now prompts the
"Convert File" dialogue window. When I select a file format, e.g. "Text Only"
and click ok, the files open as gobbledygook code. I checked for the
"Confirm conversions at open" option in Preferences; it is off. I tried opening
the files in Text Edit, which produced an "Open failed" message. Also tried
opening with MacLink, which immediately freezes with the endlessly
spinning beach ball.

My colleague is on a G3 PowerBook also running OS Panther 10.3.3 and MS
Office X for Mac with Word 10.1.4. (He recently had his internal hard drive
replaced with a new one).

My own Word files are fine. And the same Word files are not a problem on
my colleague's source computer. Something seems to happen to them in
transit.

Any clues out there as to why this is happening?

Susan B. D.

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Susan,

Any chance the sender changed the way s/he is encoding attachments?

Do the files come in with the .doc extension? If not, add it on and see if
it makes a difference. Use File>Open from within Word to open the document.

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Susan,

Note: I am posting this reply to the newsgroup (as well as to you directly)
so that others can respond and I'm sorry for the delay. Your post came in
to my junk mail folder , which I don't check very often.

In order to avoid having problems replying to my posts in the future (it's a
bug), use the following web portal instead of the one you were using:
<http://communities2.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx
?guid=366BA05D-4181-BB41-B201-4C83D5F6024C>

As for your problem, frankly I'm puzzled.

Do you have trouble opening documents sent to you by other Word X users?
Are there others you can ask to send you test documents?

Is your colleague protecting his documents somehow?

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word]]

Susan:

A bit puzzled here: how are these files travelling to you? Are you opening
them directly from the file server, or emailing them?

Allow one to open as "Text Only" and have a look down the bottom of the
file. There should be a line that reads Word.Document.8 or Word.Document.9
in there: if not, the file you are looking at is "not" a Word document.

Cheers

G4 Cube running OS Panther 10.3.3 and MS Office X for Mac with
Word 10.1.4.

Have been exchanging problem-free MS word files with a colleague on the
same Mac network for years, most recently Word X (10.1.4) for Mac files.

Out of nowhere, opening files received from this colleague now prompts the
"Convert File" dialogue window. When I select a file format, e.g. "Text Only"
and click ok, the files open as gobbledygook code. I checked for the
"Confirm conversions at open" option in Preferences; it is off. I tried
opening
the files in Text Edit, which produced an "Open failed" message. Also tried
opening with MacLink, which immediately freezes with the endlessly
spinning beach ball.

My colleague is on a G3 PowerBook also running OS Panther 10.3.3 and MS
Office X for Mac with Word 10.1.4. (He recently had his internal hard drive
replaced with a new one).

My own Word files are fine. And the same Word files are not a problem on
my colleague's source computer. Something seems to happen to them in
transit.

Any clues out there as to why this is happening?

Susan B. D.

--

Please respond only to the newsgroup to preserve the thread.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. GMT + 10 Hrs
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Susan

You say you recently reinstalled Entourage. Only Entourage? So you didn't
do a complete removal and reinstallation of Office. That could very well be
your problem. You've got a "dirty" install. I highly recommend that you
follow this procedure:

The Remove Office tool is located in the Value Pack folder on the Office X
CD. Install it and run it. Now reinstall Office X using the installer on
the CD or do a Drag & Drop to the Applications folder. Also don't forget to
install any Value Pack items you need. When you've finished, you'll need to
download (<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/download/>) and install the Office X
10.1.2, 10.1.4 (includes 10.1.3) and 10.1.5 updaters.

For the most trouble-free installation, run Disk Utility First Aid to repair
permissions after you remove Office, after you reinstall it and after you
install all the updates. To repair permissions go to Macintosh
HD/Applications/Utilities; open up Disk Utility; select your hard disk and
click the First Aid tab and then the button to "Repair Disk Permissions".

Before doing the removal, consider backing up important files for later
reinstallation:

Normal Template
My Templates (your custom templates)
Custom Dictionary
AutoCorrect List ("Office ACL English" or whatever your language is)
Settings files for any or all Office applications (though in this case, I
would *not* advise reinstalling any Entourage files).

Hope this helps.

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>

 

[Susan B. D.]

Hi Beth and Joh

Further to my previous post.

The problem is not with MS Word afterall. I tried downloading the relevant attachments directly from the server through webmail on Safari. I dragged the Word, jpg and bmp files off the server in Safari to my desk top and they opened just fine. Sorry to have taken up your time.

Now I have an email problem instead, so I guess it's onto the Entourage discussion group

Thank you so much for your help
Susan

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word]]

Hi Susan:

I'll take a wild stab in the dark here: When you re-installed Entourage, it
lost its connection with Stuffit. Consequently, it now can't decode any
compressed attachments you are being sent.

If you re-install Stuffit I think you will fix your problem.

Cheers


This responds to article

Hi Beth and John

Further to my previous post.

The problem is not with MS Word afterall. I tried downloading the relevant
attachments directly from the server through webmail on Safari. I dragged the
Word, jpg and bmp files off the server in Safari to my desk top and they
opened just fine. Sorry to have taken up your time.

Now I have an email problem instead, so I guess it's onto the Entourage
discussion group.

Thank you so much for your help.
Susan

--

Please respond only to the newsgroup to preserve the thread.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. GMT + 10 Hrs
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Susan B. D.]

Hi Bet

Yeah, I think that's what I'm going to have to do.
Un-install and then re-install the whole gol darned thing.
Ouch! Sigh! Fuddle duddle @#?&!
Thank you for the tip and the procedure to follow.
I will have to do it on the weekend.
Will let you know if it does the trick.

Cheer
Susan