Microsoft Word 2007

If all your old Office docs have a same extension and you are sure you always want to open these files with Word, this should work. If you have several different file extensions, it would be better to change them so these 300 files use only one file extension.

This video shows how to assign a new filetype with Word.



Here's how to check / change file extension. Please be careful with extensions, you can seriously harm your system if you change extension of known system and application files!

- Go to Control Panel > Folder Options > View
- Uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types"
- Apply

After changing extensions you need to change, please remember to check the above mentioned checkbox. It is not recommended to have this option unchecked except when needed.

One thing to check when browsing for an application to open a file with is there should be an option to "always use this program to open files of this type" or similar.

Ensure that this is selected, and the application should then appear on subsequent open with ....

If a file doesn't have an extension, Windows 7 can not open it because it don't know which application should be used to open file. Windows also doesn't show "open with" option in context (right click) menu.

You have to rename these files so that the name of each file includes an extension. If your files were created with an earlier version of Office, I recommend you use an extension automatically associated with Word. I would simply use extension .doc

Kari

If the "open with ..." is not appearing you could try a Shift - Right Click and then follow the normal procedure for changing an association

Update - Does not seem to work any more for blank file-types

I believe the term you are looking for is "Associations". so try this to set the association:

link your doc files to Word 2007 in Folder Options. Open Control Panel, go to > Default Programs >Set Associations. scroll down the list till you see the DOC extension, click on it then click on the Change button. You will be given a list of programs to choose from, if you can't find Word click on Browse to find it. After this click on OK then on Close. You should then be able to load any DOC file into Word 2007 by double clicking on it.

If this doesn't work you can try deleting your "normal.dotm" or "normal.dot", as this template can get corrupted, but this is always worth trying as a last resort.

I really don't know how to explain this to you! If a file has an extension .doc or any other extension assigned to Word, Word can open it. If it has some other extension, you choose Open With, then Word from the list presented.

If Word is not shown, you click Browse and find yourself to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OfficeXX (XX = 12, 13 or 14 depending of your Office version), there you find and click winword and Open. After that you just click OK, and Word opens your file.

I really can not understand what is so difficult here? In this thread you find everything you need to know to open documents from earlier version of Office with a new Office.

Kari