Word X won't open Word 98/2001 files

[Grant Higgins]

Hi,

Using Mac OS 10.2.7 on a G5 with Word X, and it won't recognise
earlier forms of Word. I've even translated the old files using
MaclinkPlus v.14, but to no avail. Won't open them.
Nothing on the MS website about this prob, and I've heard of others
having the same experience.
It seems crazy that there's no backwards compatibility. Any
suggestions?
Any solutions greatly appreciated in advance,

GH

 

[J.E. McGimpsey]

Hi,

Using Mac OS 10.2.7 on a G5 with Word X, and it won't recognise
earlier forms of Word. I've even translated the old files using
MaclinkPlus v.14, but to no avail. Won't open them.
Nothing on the MS website about this prob, and I've heard of others
having the same experience.
It seems crazy that there's no backwards compatibility. Any
suggestions?
Any solutions greatly appreciated in advance,

Word 98/2001 files are identical to Word v.X files - they all share
exactly the same format with WinWord 97/00/02, too. So there should
be no translation needed.

I've never seen a Word file newer than version 2.0 fail to open in
Word v.X. If you have Word v.X open, does dragging the file to the
Word icon on the dock work?

Have you tried selecting a file, choosing File/Get Info and setting
Word v.X as the default application for Word files?

 

[Grant Higgins]

Word 98/2001 files are identical to Word v.X files - they all share
exactly the same format with WinWord 97/00/02, too. So there should
be no translation needed.

I've never seen a Word file newer than version 2.0 fail to open in
Word v.X. If you have Word v.X open, does dragging the file to the
Word icon on the dock work?

Have you tried selecting a file, choosing File/Get Info and setting
Word v.X as the default application for Word files?

Thanks for your suggestion. The drag and drop method does work - but
only when direct to the Word application icon. What a clunky solution
from Microsoft!
Word v.X is the only Word I have on this computer.
The silly thing is that previous Word versions were backwards
compatible, but not this one.
As you'd expect, I'm really looking forward to drag-and-dropping about
10,000 Word files.....
Surely there's a patch to fix this appalling flaw? Maybe it's called
"Nisus".

GH

 

[J.E. McGimpsey]

Thanks for your suggestion. The drag and drop method does work - but
only when direct to the Word application icon. What a clunky solution
from Microsoft!
Word v.X is the only Word I have on this computer.
The silly thing is that previous Word versions were backwards
compatible, but not this one.
As you'd expect, I'm really looking forward to drag-and-dropping about
10,000 Word files.....
Surely there's a patch to fix this appalling flaw? Maybe it's called
"Nisus".

If the files open on drag and drop, then your problem is almost
certainly with the OS, not Word - did you try changing the file
association like I suggested?

 

[Grant Higgins]

If the files open on drag and drop, then your problem is almost
certainly with the OS, not Word - did you try changing the file
association like I suggested?

Yes I did. It accepted the 'order', however, the original file still
won't open in Word X by double clicking. I always get the same error
message "error -10814". I don't have the faintest idea what that
means. (I didn't even know Mac errors had gone into 5 figures)

Thanks again - but this one's still a mystery.

 

[John McGhie [MVP]]

Hi Grant:

That error means (literally) "Mac OS is complaining, but we have no idea
what it is complaining about" Macs have quite a few errors that neither
we nor Microsoft know about. There is some suggestion that these errors are
"computed" by various bits of Mac OS and Apple doesn't know either

Basically what has happened is that that document's Type or Creator code in
the file header has become corrupted. When you try to double-click, Mac OS
can't figure out what it is, and doesn't know what to do with it.

By dragging to the application icon, you are "telling" Mac OS to hand it to
Word. Word then ignores the type and creator codes and attempts to open the
file. If it succeeds, you get it: if it doesn't succeed, it crashes

If you were a wizz with BBEdit, you would:

A) Create a new blank document and save it.

B) Open the blank document in BBEdit and copy the first 500 bytes

C) Open the bad document in BBEdit and precisely replace the first 500
bytes of the file with what you copied.

If you get lucky, it will work.

Since you *can* get the file open, I think I would copy the text into a new
blank document and save while you still can. The core structure of that
document is damaged -- trust me it won't last long before you can't open it
at all!

Hope this helps

This responds to article <[email protected]>,

Yes I did. It accepted the 'order', however, the original file still
won't open in Word X by double clicking. I always get the same error
message "error -10814". I don't have the faintest idea what that
means. (I didn't even know Mac errors had gone into 5 figures)

Thanks again - but this one's still a mystery.

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John McGhie, Microsoft MVP: Word for Macintosh and Word for Windows
Consultant Technical Writer <[email protected]>
+61 4 1209 1410; Sydney, Australia: GMT + 10 hrs