Ms Word2003 Documents (.doc) Will Not Open

1. When I do a normal click on a Word document (.doc), MS Word 2003 will open but the document will not. However while Word is open I can click on file / open on the toolbar and navigate to my Word documents and open them that way.

2.Two observations, 1st, I have a program called "open with" which installs as a part of the right click menu. I can click that and my Word docs will open that way. I have used it for years and I don’t think that has anything to do with this problem. 2nd, I recently installed a small program called "info tipâ€, when I hover my cursor over a file or folder this info tip program gives me info in a balloon about the file or folder the cursor is hovering over. In the balloon for my Word documents it says "cannot load original shell extensionâ€.

3. My other word processing programs (i.e. Ms Works) open their file types just fine.

4. I am not sure if this is related but, I have a program called "WordWeb ". I have used it for years. It is a small dictionary program. When clicked it opens an icon to the taskbar notification area. I click that to use it. Now when I click it to open it no icon appears in the notification area, however in taskmanager the program (WordWeb.exe) shows as running, however I can't use it because no icon is there to click.

3. What I have tried so far to solve this problem 1- Did a repair on Ms Word (2003). 2 - Installed Office SP2. 3 "“ Ran sfc /scannow. 4 "“ Went to Control Panel / Folder Options / File Types tab (highlighted .doc) \ Advanced (and under actions I reset each of them to default). 5 "“ Repaired the Ms Word icon. 6 - Ran my antivirus and spyware programs (with current definitions), with the result being my computer is clean. 7 - I don't have system restore, it has never worked on this computer, so that is not an option for me. I am running Windows XP sp1 (all windows updates are current).

4. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

Hi tarheelfan001
Check through these... Are they old doc. files?
There are a few fixes that might help.

See these search fixes
Geri

 

Not really sure what is causing this.

Open a cmd prompt and key in
assoc .doc
and make sure the system still has Word as the app associated with that extension.

 

Hi Newt and Geri

Newt, the response to the "assoc .doc" command entry is "Word.Document.8" , the quotation marks are not a part of the response. I don't know what to do with that info thought. Any more suggestions?

Thanks

 

Unless someone else can come up with a bright idea that escapes me, I can only suggest two possible cures for the problem.

1. Change your preference from UNC to Duke.
2. Uninstall MS Office completely, reboot, reinstall Office the run the updates again.

I'd also STRONGLY recommend that you load SP2 and the post-SP2 updates before you do much of anything else.

 

Newt You resemble Dean Smith With a Beard lol j/k - But I Found the Solution

Hey Newt and Gerri,

I found the solution to my problem. The problem was with DDE. I had to go to the DDE settings - control panel / folder options / file types/ hilite .doc / advanced / hilite open / edit , then I cleared the use DDE option for the .doc file type, then I typed the following in the application path field "C:\Program Files\Mocrosoft Office\OFFICE11\WINWORD.EXE" /N "%1" , now all seems to be opening as it should.

Thanks for your help. Hey Newt go Heels!!!! lol.

 

Glad you located the problem. I'm a little surprised that Word is messing with DDE by default these days. OLE is newer, has more features, and less likely to cause problems.

I'll have to keep that particular issue in mind. Hmmmm.

Let me repeat the suggestion to load SP2 on the box. No good reason not to and lots of good reasons to.

UNC is my 2nd pick and if they aren't playing Duke, I root for them. Guess that makes me a little strange but it keeps me happy.

 

Newt I Did Load It Last Night

Hey Newt,

I loaded XP sp2 last night per your suggestion, took me hours in prepping and doing it, but it went off with out a hitch, I did post it under XP for you.

Thanks