Cannot Open Word Attachments

I use Microsoft Outlook XP for my email. Lately, when I receive word documents as attachments, they will not open. The Word screen comes up , then freezes. I changed the .doc extention to open under wordpad and they open no problem, but then they won't print. Sometimes when I try to open with word, it will tell me that the document has errors and asks me if I want to open anyway. I click yes, then it freezes. If I save the document and try to open with word, it tells me there is a problem with the document and asks me if I want to recover the data and then it will open. I have uninstalled office XP and reinstalled, no difference. All my excel attachments open fine. If this an outlook problem or a word problem or a PC problem?????

 

Where are these files coming from? It sounds like the files are corrupt.
Do the documents have any kind of graphics or special formatting?
How are you trying to open the attachemtns? Are you clicking on the attachment in the email and opening it from there? If so try saving the file to your desktop and then opening it.
What is the exact error message?
Is the person on the other end that is sending the attachment using the same version of Word as you are?
Can you open all other Word files without a problem?

 

The emails are coming from someone that has the same version of word. They are also being sent to several other people, all can open them no problem. It also seems to be any word document sent by anybody.
I am opening the attachment from within the email. I tried saving it instead and when I opened it that way, I got a message saying the file was damaged and did I want to recover the data. I answered yes and the document opened without any graphics ( there is a logo at the top) but the data was there.
I also set email up under outlook express and had more messages sent, same thing. Word would open, then freeze. After it sits there for a while I finally click on the x to close. It will let me close it but gives me an "end task" box (windows 2000). The whole pc does not freeze up either, just the word. I am still able to open and close other applications. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

just finished going thru pages of posts on google and discovered someone with a similar problem. For future reference, I changed my default printer (seems even though I was not printing the attachment, the printer made a difference). I discovered this printer icon was acting weird and finally was able to delete it. Set another printer as my deafult and all my word attachments started opening, no problem.

 

Hmmm, Interesting. I would not have thought of that. Glad you solved the problem.