Word 2003 file open problem

[aclivity]

have you tried using OpenOffice to open the document (do you have OpenOffice?).

[Woz]

Originally Posted by turbanator

I tend to agree with Aclivity.

Another work around (if there are not too many docs) would be for another user to open all of the docs, alter something and then change it back and then save the modified document.

Fine if it's one ot two, but a PITA if there are hundreds.

There are quite a few. Probably into the couple of hundred. Well- about 5 years worth.

[Woz]

Originally Posted by aclivity

have you tried using OpenOffice to open the document (do you have OpenOffice?).

No. And no, I don't.

[dry suit diver]

try microsofts online help ,usually pretty good ,if no solution you have option to email them the problem and they will usually sort a solution.

[gunsentry]

Hi Woz,

Have you got any Anti Virus software running on your server that holds the Word documents?

If so stop the Anti virus services and then retry opening the documents.

Pound to a penny it’s the antivirus that’s causing the crashes.

You will then need to upgrade to latest and greatest version of the anti virus to get round the problem.

Cheers,

Gary.

[Woz]

Will give the AV thing a go and Garf- I'll email a culprit over to you if that does not work.

Nice one, chaps.

And I would post 'nice one girls' if a girl would like to post some help.

[KimH]

We have a similar problem relating to old documents formed from templates that were resident on a previous server. Some were taking up to half an hour to open and it did appear that Word had hung but it hadn't it's just a question of waiting. It appears that although the documents have been moved successfully they are still trying to reference that original location that no longer exists. Eventually it gives up trying to find it and opens anyway. We have masses of docs (thousands) and some just need referencing again which we are in the process of scripting - you can do it manually but as it takes so long to open each one it would take forever.

If you go into Word, Tools, Templates and Add-ins and check the template are these any different on the dodgy docs. By default it should either be blank or Normal - ours show the full old path + normal which is where it's getting confused. Although in our case it is the server location causing the problem could it be that it can't recognise the different "normal", try deleting what's in "document template" and it should locate the current "normal.dot" as if it were a brand new document.

HTH

[Seadart Mark]

Woz.

From your description, I think I can see the problem. The key word here is "Accounts". If the word doc files are created by the 'Accounts Department' (Beancounters), nuff said and you should know better than to let them near a keyboard with more letters than numbers on it. If so you have two options.

1. Tell them there is a calculator exhibition on at the NEC and whoosh their gone for a few days.

or

2. Empty 50kg of dried kidney beans on the office carpet and tell them to knock themselves out. Should keep them amused for hours. When they have a total, pull the one bean you stashed in your pocket at the begining out and ask them if they had accounted for it. Off they go again.



Cheers
Mark

ps. I would bet on it being AV related also.

[Woz]

The AV thingy on the server was a non-starter as I made a local copy and it still would not play.

The problem appears to be not with the document itself as if I log in as another user I can open it straight away. It only happens when I log in as Accounts and open up an old document created by Accounts on the previous PC.

[Woz]

Update- it's now doing it with other users so I think it is a problem with the template referencing. Pile of Shiite.