A client recently switched over to Office 2013 (we’re on Word 2007). Since then (or perhaps somewhat since then; this may be a correlation/observer bias problem on my end), we’ve had trouble opening some Word documents.
When I try to open a document, I get the generic "The file xxx cannot be opened because there are problems with the contents. There are no error details available.
Here’s where it gets a bit weird. I can change the extension from .docx to .zip and see the contents of the archive and open/view various xml files. Furthermore, I can paste it into a shared directory with a Linux VM and opening in LibreOffice without a problem (I have to work in Word though, so that’s not an easy way out).
I’m on a Win 7 machine running Office 2007. The files have come/created by different machines, without any discernable pattern—some files have opened fine. We asked on client to back-save and that seemed to work, but we can’t really keep asking them to do so.
I’m kind of at an abrupt dead end diagnostics-wise. In a pinch I can save the LibreOffice as a Word doc and move forward, but I’m not comfortable with that as a solution—these are 200-page books with lots of graphics, formatting, tracked changes and comments; I’d hate for something to get lost in the transfers.
As you’ve found out, docx is really just a zip file.
They must be using features in their version of Word that your earlier version doesn’t understand. (Since those features didn’t exist when that version was written.)
This is one of the reasons Word is such a cash cow for Microsoft. People upgrade to the latest version just so they don’t have to deal with this.
Yes, but that shouldn’t matter. You should be able to open a .docx file with any version of Word from 2007 up.
There are a few features in Word 2013 that aren’t available in 2007 that I can imagine causing some trouble. I’m thinking of 2013’s ability to open pdf files directly into a document. There might be some other graphics issues.
I’m wondering if there’s something odd in your client’s Word template? Not that you can do anything about that if you can’t open the document, I guess.
Well the most basic is to check that Word 2007 is indeed the program being asked to open. Maybe you can open .doc but not .docx.
Right click a docx, and choose “Open with” and then choose “Browse for”
Now you can tick “use this as default” and choose “word 2007”.
Or make sure it already is …
Get all Updates…
Updates to Office are optional and not included in Windows Updates by defaults.
There is a setting which is something like “include updates to Other Microsoft products”.
So now ensure what windows updates gets all updates…
And then there is further help, registry edit to remove DDE
eg
I keep everything (Windows and Office) updated regularly, and ran Win Update again just to be sure–all okay there. An Office Configuration Analyzer Tool 1.2 scan turned up nothing either.
It’s definitely Word that’s opening the doc. Earlier steps included trying ‘open and repair’ to no avail.
My last resort (because it’s a PITA, both installing and updating seven years of customization) is to install Office 365 on a laptop to check if it then opens the file without a problem.
But I may not be there yet.
From LibreOffice (again, on a Linux VM) I chose ‘save as’ and got the message “This document may contain formatting or content that cannot be saved inthe currently selected file format Microsoft Word 2007/2010 XML. Use the default ODF file format to be sure that the document is saved correctly.”
When I chose “use Microsoft Word 2007/2010 XML format” I get the same error. But when I chose “Use ODF Format” I can almost open it in Word.
When I open in Word back on the Win 7 machine, the document opens with errors “Errors were detected in this file, but Word was able to open the file by making the repairs listed below. Save the file to make the repairs permanent.” The two errors listed are “drawn objects and text boxes 1” and “Text boxes 1” When I go to the error location, all I can see is an empty text box/frame.
I can go back to the client and start asking them questions, but before I do I should be as sure as possible that it’s not an issue on our end. Any other diagnostics or things to try?
It may be removing the Compatibility Pack that solves the problem.
There may be some issue with half a compatibility pack installed.
So install it and remove it again ?
Well all software has bugs… something somewhere has had a bug, and done something odd, like change the registry to a bad setting (which includes leaving it corrupt by making half a change and then crashing.)
Its a valid technique to remove Office and add it back in again…
She just sent two versions of the file. The one that was a plain ol’ .doc opened fine–which is what got me thinking it was a 2013/2007 compatibility issue.
But nonetheless I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around how this could be a local issue.
The Mac has Word 2008 with the compatibility pack installed and never fails to open a file–except for the same ones that I’m having trouble with.
The Win 7 machine had Office 2003 with the compatibility pack before being upgraded to 2007. It never ran into a situation where it couldn’t open a file and I had to use the Mac.
And the real it’s-not-me-it’s-you comes from my laptop. An independent install of both the OS and Office, yet it too cannot open the .docx but can open the .doc.
But the it’s-me-not-you counter is that the document opens on the client’s machine and all she did was save-as Word 2007-2003 and re-send.
Aaaarrrrghhhh!
I can upgrade my machine to Office 365, but that’s a huge step to take, both in money and time. I have seven years of customization on Office, and from what I understand there is no relatively easy ways to migrate.
In my experience, trying to figure out why an MS Office document won’t work is an exercise in futility. All you can do is experiment with workarounds until you find something that works for both you and your correspondents.
The more non-text content you put in an MS Word document, the more likely it’s going to crap out on you. MS Word lacks the stability of other desktop publishing apps such as Indesign, Quark, etc.