Open Old Word Docs

[Randy B. Singer]

Ralph sent me one of his problematic files. Opening it in Word went way easier than I expected it to.

I opened the document in a text editor, and as i expected it was an old Word document saved with Fast Save enabled. The fast saves are all the stuff you see appended to the end of the document when you open the document in TextEdit.

Next I double clicked on the document, and that automatically launched Word (despite the fact that the file name had no extension). Word put up an error message that the document couldn't be opened because of the format that it was saved in, for security reasons, and that I should open it from within Word, using the File menu --> Open command.

And that's what I did. When I gave the Open command I got the Open dialog box, and I chose Open: All Files at the bottom of the dialog box, and navigated to where your file was, chose Open, and the document opened up instantly and apparently perfectly.

I then did a: File menu --> Save As, and saved the file in .docx format. The resulting .docx file can be double-clicked on and it opens perfectly in Word.

 

[RalphClats]

Ralph sent me one of his problematic files. Opening it in Word went way easier than I expected it to.

I opened the document in a text editor, and as i expected it was an old Word document saved with Fast Save enabled. The fast saves are all the stuff you see appended to the end of the document when you open the document in TextEdit.

Next I double clicked on the document, and that automatically launched Word (despite the fact that the file name had no extension). Word put up an error message that the document couldn't be opened because of the format that it was saved in, for security reasons, and that I should open it from within Word, using the File menu --> Open command.

And that's what I did. When I gave the Open command I got the Open dialog box, and I chose Open: All Files at the bottom of the dialog box, and navigated to where your file was, chose Open, and the document opened up instantly and apparently perfectly.

I then did a: File menu --> Save As, and saved the file in .docx format. The resulting .docx file can be double-clicked on and it opens perfectly in Word.

That method was suggested in the string above. When I follow it, all the files I can't open are grayed out, so I can't click on them to open them or highlight them and go to Open on the File pull-down menu.

If I pull up the same list outside of Word none of those I can't open are grayed out. When I click on any one or go to Open in the File pull-down menu, I get the error message I quoted in the string above.

Gmail won't let me open my address on my desktop Mac, saying too many failed tries have locked me out. Somebody else must have tried but failed to open my Gmail address multiple times. To go to it, I have to fire up my laptop, which I haven't done yet today. Maybe I'll find the same solution there that you posted here.

 

[RalphClats]

Here's suggestion from one of our members that you can try:

Open Finder in List view, and right click on column headers and add the column for "Kind" to see what the system thinks those mysterious files are. That may give a clue where they were created. If they are Word files, the "kind" would show that.

Let us know.

List in the View pull-down menu in Finder is grayed out. Is there a way I can undo the gray so I can follow the next steps?

 

[chscag]

I believe Randy has come up with a solution after testing one of the files you sent to him. Have you been in contact with him?

 

[Randy B. Singer]

...That method was suggested in the string above. When I follow it, all the files I can't open are grayed out, so I can't click on them to open them or highlight them and go to Open on the File pull-down menu.

Clearly you are skipping a critical step. When I choose File --> Open in Word, I first choose "Open: All Files" from the drop down menu in the Open dialog box before selecting a file to open in that dialog. That causes any and all files that were previously greyed out to now be openable.

Until I did the above, the file that you sent me was greyed out. After I chose Open: All Files, it was select-able and it opened perfectly.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

A further note. The reason that Ralph's files don't have a file name extension is because when they were originally created, the Macintosh didn't use file name extensions. At that time the Mac still used invisible (metadata) Creator and Type info. Actually, the Macintosh can still recognize that metadata, and it did when I double-clicked on the file that Ralph sent me.

 

[Slydude]

Thanks for tha trip down memory lane, Randy. When we were discussing file extensions earlier in the thread those codes never occurred to me as the reason there were no file extensions.

 

[chscag]

A further note. The reason that Ralph's files don't have a file name extension is because when they were originally created, the Macintosh didn't use file name extensions.

Thanks. That was a bit of information that I was not aware of. I began using macOS back in 2008 after I purchased my first Mac. File extensions were a every day thing in Windows although they could be kept hidden by choice.

It's good we have someone that goes way back with Macs to fill in the things that no longer exist with modern day macOS.

 

[RalphClats]

Clearly you are skipping a critical step. When I choose File --> Open in Word, I first choose "Open: All Files" from the drop down menu in the Open dialog box before selecting a file to open in that dialog. That causes any and all files that were previously greyed out to now be openable.

Until I did the above, the file that you sent me was greyed out. After I chose Open: All Files, it was select-able and it opened perfectly.

OK, where do I find "Open: All Files"? I find only Open and Open Recent in the File drop-down menu. Am I looking in the right place?

While looking for "Open: All Files" I found I could list the docs by application. When I did that, all the docs I can't open were identified as Word docs. That makes sense because I've never owned any computer but a Mac, and I've never used any word processor other than Word. I created all the docs I can't open. There are more than 200 of them.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

OK, where do I find "Open: All Files"?

 

[RalphClats]

The choices that show on your screen don't show on mine. I'm in Word 16.54 and OS 11.6

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Try the Open dropdown that appears in the lower right of your Open dialog box. Beyond that, someone with the same version of Word that you have will have to help you.

 

[RalphClats]

The choices next to Open there are Original, Repair and Recover text.

When I choose any one of the three and click Open, nothing happens.

When I click on Options, the Open and drop-down menu on the right side disappear.

If I click on Online Locations, I get a Microsoft page that shows an icon of my Mac. When I click on it, I get the same page as the screenshot I posted above.

What version of Word are you using?

 

[IWT]

The choices next to Open there are Original, Repair and Recover text.

When I choose any one of the three and click Open, nothing happens.

When I click on Options, the Open and drop-down menu on the right side disappear.

If I click on Online Locations, I get a Microsoft page that shows an icon of my Mac. When I click on it, I get the same page as the screenshot I posted above.

What version of Word are you using?

Not that it helps you, but that is exactly what I get when using Word. I am presuming that Randy is using an older version perhaps. Mine is 16.54, same as you.

Ian

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Not that it helps you, but that is exactly what I get when using Word. I am presuming that Randy is using an older version perhaps. Mine is 16.54, same as you.

Same here. There doesn't appear to be a way to load an unsupported file type from the Open menu, nor one without an extension. I tried to experiment a bit with a file that I forced to have no extension by dragging it onto the Word app icon in the Dock, but Word refused to load it, saying it was an unidentified developer. The only thing to try at the moment is dragging an old Word file onto Word's Dock icon and see if it will recognize it. If not, make a copy of one; add .doc as an extension, then see if Word will open that.

EDIT: one other thought... has there been an attempt to use Pages to see if it will read those files? Being much older Word files, I think Pages may be well primed to handle them. I would hope Apple's own app would still read the metadata in place of an extension.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I believe that the instructions from the link that I posted from Microsoft, all the way back in post #24, are for the latest version of Word:

1. In Word, on the File menu, click Open.
2. Click the document once to select it.
3. In the Open dropdown menu, select Recover Text, and then click Open.
   If you get a warning, click OK.
4. On the File menu, click Save As.
5. In the File Format dropdown, select Word Document (.docx), then click Save.

If this doesn't work, I think that your only option is to get the attention of a Microsoft helper in the Microsoft support forum.

 

[RalphClats]

I already tried that and posted the result above. Nothing happens when I click Open after choosing Recover Text.

The docs don't open in Pages.

Anything that requires selecting a doc when in Word doesn't work because all the docs are grayed out, so I can't select them.

And, yes, they're all Word docs.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

I already tried that and posted the result above. Nothing happens when I click Open after choosing Recover Text.

The docs don't open in Pages.

Anything that requires selecting a doc when in Word doesn't work because all the docs are grayed out, so I can't select them.

And, yes, they're all Word docs.

Ok. So. You need to get ahold of an older version of Word. I'm not sure what version you need to roll back to, but MS has a support page with links to download Word 2016.

EDIT: forget that... 2016 has a similar UI to the current version. Randy, what version are you running?

 

[ferrarr]

Isn't there an option in Preferences to allow all documents to be seen/opened?

 

[solowyer]

Thank you for the offer. I have scores of old Word docs that won't open and hundreds of newer ones that do open. Just now when I went to my hard drive to send you a sample, the docs that won't open are listed, but they won't let me highlight them so I can attach and send.

Several people have suggested my software is corrupted or the docs are locked. If corrupted, why does the error message say ". . . uses a file type that is blocked from opening this version."? and "If you can’t open a Word document that was created in an earlier version, first make sure the latest Office updates have been installed. Then, use the File menu to open the document. If that doesn’t work, use Apple TextEdit or an earlier version of Word to open it."?

My Office is up to date. I tried the workaround and got the same error message.

TextEdit opens them imperfectly. It scatters the text and adds irrelevant characters and lines of characters.

Other(s) have suggested the docs are locked. I wrote them all in earlier versions of Word. I didn't lock them. They're not locked.

If my Word was corrupt or the docs were locked, wouldn't the error message say that?

Ralph
would you be able to send me one of the files that you are trying to open. for example the file you are trying to open with text edit.
Can you get another copy from the original source, or from a backup disk.