Solved Word 2010 - issues opening older version documents

[agunslinger]

Just installed Office 2010 and trying to stick with it, but Word keeps freezing after opening documents from Word 2003. Yet to be able to get a Word 2003 document to open without hanging / not responding. Any knows tweaks to fix this yet? Is it just me?

 

[Adrian]

Just installed Office 2010 and trying to stick with it, but Word keeps freezing after opening documents from Word 2003. Yet to be able to get a Word 2003 document to open without hanging / not responding. Any knows tweaks to fix this yet? Is it just me?

Welcome to Windows 7 Support forums,
How are you opening your word docs?
Are you running Microsoft Word first, then opening your docs from within the program?

 

[agunslinger]

Just double clicking them to open...

 

[Adrian]

Just double clicking them to open...

Your latest version of Word may have compatability issues with older versions of your documents, check for compatability modes and open winword.exe first then open your selected docs from within winword.

Adrian

 

[ReneGnam]

I have the same problem. Word 2010 crashes when trying to open older files from within Word. Open Office opens them with no problems. Word doesn't.

I go through the entire recovery process and then am told the doc has been recovered...only it still won't open. I get this gibberish:

This error may appear if you attempt to open a file marked as damaged or disabled by a Microsoft Office program. Each time the file is opened, even if the file was recovered or repaired, this error appears and other open files or programs will be suspended.
The file is in the Disabled Items list because, in previous attempts to open the file, it has caused a program error or shut down more than once.
If the file was properly recovered, replaced, or deleted, you can remove the file from the list of disabled files (re-enable the file) by clicking the File tab, clicking Options, and then clicking Add-Ins. In the Manage list, click the arrow and select Disabled Items, click Go, and then select the disabled item that you want to re-enable.

Clicking "Yes" after that message re-starts the recovery process, which again goes into a loop to nowhere.

But OpenOffice still can open the docs. So, there's nothing wrong with the docs. Word 2010 apparently has issues that need repair.

Or, I got a defective pre-installation on my Win7-64 machine. BTW, Excel 2010 works fine.

 

[PeterBaars]

Solution?

Hey there,

we had the exact same problem. I also tried all the solutions that are mentioned everywhere. But I really have a solution now. The docs that crashed word 2010 were made using a template (? .dot) from word 2003. We think that that .dot file was based on for example word97. What we did now was open the .dot in Word 2003 and copied everything with ctrl+a and ctrl+c. Then we closed word2003. We opened it, pasted the just copied contents and saved the file under the old name, in the same location it was in. Now everything that gave us the crash, is opening just fine!

regards,

Peter Baars

 

[ReneGnam]

Hey there,

we had the exact same problem. I also tried all the solutions that are mentioned everywhere. But I really have a solution now. The docs that crashed word 2010 were made using a template (? .dot) from word 2003. We think that that .dot file was based on for example word97. What we did now was open the .dot in Word 2003 and copied everything with ctrl+a and ctrl+c. Then we closed word2003. We opened it, pasted the just copied contents and saved the file under the old name, in the same location it was in. Now everything that gave us the crash, is opening just fine!

regards,

Peter Baars

Thank you, Peter. You may have hit the nail on the head. Here's why...

During the weeks following my post about Word 2010 above, I installed Word 2003. All docs created before my Word 2010 installation now continue to open just fine in Word 2003. So my workaround is to use 2003 for all docs and only use 2010 when someone sends me an Xdoc file.

I did have one doc that wouldn't display properly in both 2003 and 2010, so I opened it in OO-3, saved it as a Word 97 doc, then reopened it in 2003 and it was suddenly okay.

Geez...I never had these problems before the "new improved" stuff came along.

 

[Imperfect1]

Perhaps one or both of these tutorials will give you some help and insight:
Overview - Batch DOC and DOCX Converter - Doc to Docx and Docx to Doc Batch Converter. - Batchwork™ Software
Convert Older Office Documents to Office 2007 or 2010 Format

 

[ReneGnam]

Perhaps one or both of these tutorials will give you some help and insight:
Overview - Batch DOC and DOCX Converter - Doc to Docx and Docx to Doc Batch Converter. - Batchwork™ Software
Convert Older Office Documents to Office 2007 or 2010 Format

Thank you...interesting.

But. another point not mentioned, Word 2010 doesn't do well on older converted docs that have several fonts and font attributes.

So, for now at least, since Word 2010 and Word 2003 both work on my Win7-64 machine, I'll just continue using Word 2003 for everything except docX.

But I'll keep in mind the conversion you suggest to make docX become doc when necessary.

Thanks again.

 

[mrmann]

Ms office 2007 wont open old ms office 2003 documents

i have read all postings in this forum and else where on the internet but i cant find solutions. this is a snaphot of my desktop when i open my old word document.
any help will be hugely appreciated.thanks

 

[swEngg]

I am having the same problem - even after I changed the configurations! I hate this software!!!!!! any help would be really appreciated

 

[Golden]

I am having the same problem - even after I changed the configurations! I hate this software!!!!!! any help would be really appreciated

Hi,

I suggest you make a new thread describing your problem in detail, instead of tacking onto the back of this thread, which is marked as solved. That way you will get more people actually looking at it and posting back with suggestions.

Regards,
Golden

 

[lris]

Imperfect solution

I've been having the same problem as everyone else. One thing I noticed is that I can open older Word documents using the starter version, which I luckily did not remove from my computer when I installed the full version of Office.

ReneGnam's post mentioning "Word 2010 doesn't do well on older converted docs that have several fonts and font attributes" gave me an idea. I opened the older document in starter version of Word and did a select all. Even though I used one font style (Times New Roman) it was not selected in the menu bar. I selected Times New Roman and saved the document. It now opens fine in Word 2010.

Not a perfect solution. It is a pain to do this for every older document and it does require the starter version of Word (although Open Office might work too).