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04 Nov 13 - 03:00 PM (#3572813) Subject: BS: Help on opening old Word files please From: Jim Carroll Help please. I have a coule of large song files compiled some time ago in a earlier edition of word They won't open in the present edition - I get this message - "This error occurs if you try to open a Microsoft Office document and the file type for that document has been blocked by a registry policy setting. To help secure your computer, Microsoft or the administrator of this computer implemented a registry policy setting that prevents opening this type of file." Is there a quick and easy way to open them - can't make head not tail of Microsoft's message - they seem only interested in selling me something anyway Thanks in advance im Carroll |
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04 Nov 13 - 04:58 PM (#3572837) Subject: RE: BS: Help on opening old Word file please From: Stilly River Sage How old is the file? What OS and Microsoft Word version was in use at the time? I have an old WinXP computer with an ancient version of Word on it (it was the kids' computer and hasn't been updated since about 2005). I could see if that would open it. But first, I think you'll find that the "compatibility mode" will open it. Use Word 2013 to open documents created in earlier versions of Word. I've used OpenOffice when I didn't have access to Word and it can open various Word and Microsoft files (and save documents to .doc and .docx). Maybe it can open an old version. Just a couple of guesses. SRS |
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04 Nov 13 - 05:23 PM (#3572847) Subject: RE: Tech: Help on opening old Word file please From: Greg F. All part of Bill Gates' plan to make big bucks by making things that needn't be obsolete obsolete. Be sure to write and thank him. Works the other way too - ya can't open more recent .docx files in earlier versions of Word that used the .doc extension. Its all bullshit. Ditch Word & Go with Open Ofice - its a better deal all around, its useable by humans, and its free. |
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04 Nov 13 - 06:34 PM (#3572865) Subject: RE: Tech: Help on opening old Word file please From: GUEST,Grishka If you, or an acquaintance of yours, still have that old version, you can open the file there and copy-and-paste its content into the new one, or save ("export", "save as") the file in a compatible format type. |
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04 Nov 13 - 06:34 PM (#3572866) Subject: RE: Tech: Help on opening old Word file please From: Jack Campin I haven't yet found a Word file I can't open with Apple's Pages. I've tried a few versions of OpenOffice and hated all of them. Dog-slow and crash-prone. |
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04 Nov 13 - 08:05 PM (#3572884) Subject: RE: Tech: Help on opening old Word file please From: JohnInKansas My looks at OpenOffice found it lacking several capabilities that were rather important for me, that were contained in Microsoft Word. While those things wouldn't be of much interest to many casual users, my WP work then would have been severely crippled by attempting to use OO. Unfortunately for me, Microsoft Word 2007 and later have either removed most of those same features, or has so completely hidden them among the 700+ little toy icons on the menu bars that I can't find them in the new versions, or in a few cases where I have found some of them I have to go through 15 steps to get to what used to be 2 clicks. Fortunately for me, I seem to have reached "an age" where it's less imperative that I do much of anything particularly useful, so maybe it doesn't matter all that much either way. The most common reason why progressively newer Word versions might block older document versions is that many people used "Macros" frequently in older versions, and lots of criminals also used "Macros" to infect computers with malware. The Microsoft answer has been to make it progressively more difficult to open documents containing a Macro, and progressively more difficult to override the restriction. In my Win7, running Office 2007, if I go through Start|All Programs|Microsoft Office and right click on Microsoft Word 2007, there is an option to "troubleshoot compatibility problems" but it appears that you have to have a file with a compatibility problem to do much with the option so I can't say how helpful it might be. (If you have a desktop icon for Word 2007, right clicking the icon gets the same option.) When versions first began blocking files containing Macros, Microsoft's Knowledge Base had instructions for how to override the default settings and open the files. When the Vista self-destruct hit, Microsoft deleted virtually all useful parts of their "knowledge base" in an apparent admission that they no longer had any knowledge. I can't say whether help might be found if you can get into the current Microsoft Tech Net, but that would be a place to look. John |
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04 Nov 13 - 08:41 PM (#3572896) Subject: RE: Tech: Help on opening old Word file please From: McGrath of Harlow 2005 counts as ancient? I find Word from the last century still works fine. |
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04 Nov 13 - 08:46 PM (#3572899) Subject: RE: Tech: Help on opening old Word file please From: Amos OPen a new document in the modern Word format and then "import" or "insertt" the old file into it. A |
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04 Nov 13 - 10:11 PM (#3572911) Subject: RE: Tech: Help on opening old Word file please From: Greg F. Unfortunately for me, Microsoft Word 2007 and later have either removed most of those same features, or has so completely hidden them among the 700+ little toy icons on the menu bars that I can't find them in the new versions, or in a few cases where I have found some of them I have to go through 15 steps to get to what used to be 2 clicks. That's why I'm still running Word 2000, John. Works just fine & with a patch from MicroSpawnOfSatanSoft, it will open .docx files just fine. Sometimes old is better. |
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05 Nov 13 - 12:04 AM (#3572921) Subject: RE: Tech: Help on opening old Word file please From: Jim Dixon It sounds like it might be a quirk of your computer, or the way Word is installed on your computer, that makes it impossible to open. You might try emailing the list to a friend that has Word, to see if he can open it, and if he can, have him save it again in a different format that you can open. In other words, after he opens it, he should do a "save as" and select a different format. Here's another question for you: does your document contain any important formatting? Or is it the text only that you want, and you don't mind throwing away the formatting? I think there is an option, when you open a file with Word, that says "recover text from any file." IIRC, this appears on the list of file formats. You might try this and see what happens. (The laptop I'm using right now doesn't have Word, or I'd do a better job of checking this out for you.) |
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05 Nov 13 - 12:35 AM (#3572926) Subject: RE: Tech: Help on opening old Word file please From: GUEST Can you spell "hexadecimal?" Sincerely , Gargoyle It is a universal conversion to text.....after all the html and worse are stripped out. |
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05 Nov 13 - 03:11 AM (#3572940) Subject: RE: Tech: Help on opening old Word file please From: Jim Carroll Many thanks folks Will try out suggestions when I wake up. I can solve the problem by opening each document (around 100 songs) individually in word-pad, ten cutting and pasting them into a word document - I was hoping there was a method of converting the whole file folder in one go - I seem to think I did this once before, but too many brain cells have gone walkabout since ten Thanks again - this generosity of members of this forum never ceases to knock me out Jim Carroll |
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05 Nov 13 - 04:28 AM (#3572950) Subject: RE: Tech: Help on opening old Word file please From: GUEST,Geoff the Duck Jim - Some people have mentioned Open Office. A couple of years back, the company which sponsored Open Office was bought by others and the free development of the software was in doubt. Because of this, the software developers created Libre Office, which essentially took the standing free Open Office and then continued to update and improve it under a different name. Their aim is to keep it as up to date as possible and compatible with any new Word document format, but to also retain the ability to import and edit documents produced by older software. It is probably your best option for opening your old files. If you are using a Windows PC, I would refer you to http://portableapps.com/. This is a suite of applications which can be run from a USB stick, a plug in hard drive or simply a folder stored anywhere on your PC. All the settings are stored locally and don't "install" anything on your PC. I find that almost everything I need can be done using the portable apps. About the only thing I install and run on the computer is anti-virus software. Quack! GtD. |
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05 Nov 13 - 10:37 AM (#3573038) Subject: RE: Tech: Help on opening old Word file please From: Stilly River Sage Opening in Wordpad, which is essentially rtf - Rich Text Format - files, will also work. Should have suggested that before. What gargoyle said about stripping out the Microsoft formatting nonsense is true - Word doesn't play nicely in many non-MS places where it is dropped in. Wordpad is a clean place to convert it. SRS |
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05 Nov 13 - 11:10 AM (#3573048) Subject: RE: Tech: Help on opening old Word file please From: Mr Red I write macros in Word & Excel and I have found that they work pretty well in 2007 but did have an annoying failure that I gave up on, cut and paste the code and changed my attitude to buttons and used forms invoked by right clicks. In the process I think it boiled down to using Activex buttons rather than the others but who cares, I did some much needed streamlining in the process. I haven't had any problem reading Word 97-2003 files in 2007 but there is definitely a problem saving in Word 97-2003 format from 2007 - the files are noticeably larger when I use images. And the jury is out about just how backward compatible it all is. Excel seems to be happy in either direct now. Having said that I always install such bloatware as "custom" and try to understand what I am allowing or blocking. |
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05 Nov 13 - 12:10 PM (#3573061) Subject: RE: Tech: Help on opening old Word file please From: Bonnie Shaljean If you have, or will download, either Open Office or Libre Office: Right-click on your Word doc Tell it to "open with" one of the above Save this Open/Libre page as a .doc file rather than .odt or .rtf You should find you're able to access your files this way - it worked for me anyhow. Or else you can just save it as an .odt and start using that instead. BTW, I have an older copy of Word (2004) but the school I teach in has the new .docx one. I frequently have to open their emailed Word attachments on my computer at home, and my elderly programme converts it in a few extra seconds. This works fine and leaves me with something I can edit etc., so it's not just a read-only. How many files do you have to do? (Apologies if you've told us already - I'm in the preview box and can't check back.) |
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05 Nov 13 - 12:42 PM (#3573072) Subject: RE: Tech: Help on opening old Word file please From: JohnInKansas A SPECIFIC ANSWER for what to do about a file that is blocked by a Registry setting is given Office 2003 through Office 2010 at: Opening a file is blocked by your registry policy setting or File Block settings in Word Article ID: 922849 Since the Office version in use wasn't indicated, I'll leave it to those interested to pick the instructions that apply. (Let us know if it works.) You can open newer Word document formats in many older Word versions if you download the free "Coversion Pack" from Microsoft. There will be some changes to the documents, mainly related to "effects" in the new formats that can't be represented in the older word versions, but the converted files should be usable. See Open a Word 2010 document in an earlier version of Word. The Word 2010 pack hndles Word, Excel, and Power Point files. Similar Coverters have been available as each new Office version has appeared, but usually the package for the most recent one you can install should work for any older Office versions where the conversion can be made. Most older Word documents should open automatically in Word 2007 and later. The Converter to permit opening such older formats is installed in Office 2007 in the default setup. Word will automatically switch to "Compatability Mode." There will be some loss of "features." See Use Word 2007 to open documents created in previous versions of Word John |
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07 Nov 13 - 09:14 PM (#3573763) Subject: RE: Tech: Help on opening old Word file please From: GUEST,Tony Atlantis will open MS Word docs going back to version 6 (before Windows 95). It's a great word processor. I tried out about a dozen of them, including Open Office, before picking Atlantis. There's a free version that probably does everything you need, and a full version for only $35, and you get a 30 day free trial before buying. And it has great tech support, even if you don't buy it. |
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08 Nov 13 - 06:22 AM (#3573846) Subject: RE: Tech: Help on opening old Word file please From: Bonnie Shaljean Wow Tony - thanks for that! Cheers - |
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08 Nov 13 - 10:52 AM (#3573918) Subject: RE: Tech: Help on opening old Word file please From: Tattie Bogle I still have a few friends who use MS Word 97-2003, so I always have to remember to send them stuff in that format. I've told them to download the free patch from MS to allow them to open Word 2007 but they still don't do it! As for Mac Versions,after installing Mountain Lion upgrade of my Mac, MS Office 2004 for Mac would no longer work, very annoyingly, so I had to get Office 2010. |
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08 Nov 13 - 12:52 PM (#3573945) Subject: RE: Tech: Help on opening old Word file please From: Bonnie Shaljean Thanks for that too, Tattie - I'm still using Snow Leopard and 2004 so I appreciate the warning. I also see that Micro$oft have disabled that freebie Word-Starter version they used to give you with W7, which was a bit blg and blodgy but worked, and is what I used to open all my old Word files with. Now the familiar blue & white icons have been replaced by even blodgier orange ones of surpassing horribility, and whereas I had some sort of Word capability in W7 before, so I could use my existing files, now there's nothing to read them with. (Wondering if that's what happened to Jim?) So, one of their Windows Updates actually took away a feature that we previously had. But that was all just mixed in with some big security download, which you need because they're such a Swiss cheese. Of course they didn't tell you what they were doing or give any pre-emptive options. Just diddit. Way to win hearts and minds, Dozers. Think I'm going to give you any more of my money, only to have to pay you all over again in a few years' time just to keep the same service? Oh, wait... subscriptions do that too... #colddayinhell |
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08 Nov 13 - 07:41 PM (#3574028) Subject: RE: Tech: Help on opening old Word file please From: Nick I have access to all versions from 2000 - 2013 and may have access as far back as 95 and 97. If you wanted to send a copy and say how you'd like it back I'm happy to give it a go. PM if of interest |
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09 Nov 13 - 04:00 AM (#3574092) Subject: RE: Tech: Help on opening old Word file please From: Bonnie Shaljean I'm pretty sure I have 97 on an old (but still functional... just...) PC. |
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09 Nov 13 - 10:01 AM (#3574152) Subject: RE: Tech: Help on opening old Word file please From: Mr Red I've told them to download the free patch from MS to allow them to open Word 2007 but they still don't do it! I did that for a friend and it ended up as a full 2007 app with all the useful bits removed. She didn't have Word so it was a full doovery not a patch. It took a long time and was pretty iffy on results. Given the senders were doctors and nurses you would think they could work out what they should be doing - but no! |
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09 Nov 13 - 12:07 PM (#3574192) Subject: RE: Tech: Help on opening old Word file please From: Jim Carroll Thanks again for all the help Finished the folders I was working on by hand but have discovered more on floppies that are going to need work to open them Will follow up your help when we get back from the ITMA concert next week Best Jim Carroll |