[Brumill]

All of a sudden I can't open .doc files for MS Word (V6) from my folders. If I open Word and go to files and open, they will come up.
I went to "My Computer"/view/folder options/file types and then to the editing for Word. The DDE box was not checked so I opened it and filled in some things I got off another computer that has Word also. ex.
[File Open ("%1")]
After that I tried opening a file from a folder and the Word program would come up but I had a couple of error messages about not recognizing the file and the file doesn't open. I can open it if I go through Word's file.
I tried re-installing Word but it gets stuck about half way thru and freezes up the Computer. I tried several times with the same results.
What do I do now? also, how did this happen just out of the blue?

[stepheno]

Right click on the file in Explorer - click on Open and it will ask you which program you want to open this file. Choose Word and tell it to associate all .doc files with Word.

stepheno

[Brumill]

I did that and like I said before, it opens Word but gives me error messages that it won't open the file. After I click off the messages, I can open the file from Word.
I think it is because I don't have the right setting terminolgy in the DDE box.
Can somebody tell me what is suppose to be in the DEE box catagories?
Also why won't Word97 install from my disk?

[Anne Troy]

What is the exact error message. There's a million ways to fix Word. Let's start there. I'm here and waiting.

[Anne Troy]

You say Word 97 won't install from the disk. How do you know? Are you getting an error? Does it finish and you can't find it? How do you know it's not installing?

[Brumill]

I'm not at my office so it will probably be Sat. or Mon before I can get the exact wording.
My theory was to re-install Word from my Office 97 disk and maybe that would correct the problem.
I tried three times and it would only get about 50% through before it would stop and freeze up the computer.

[Anne Troy]

Okay, we'll arm you then.

First, are you sure you're using Version 6? Open Word, hit Help-About. Is it 6.0, 7.0, 97?

If it's 6.0, then find and rename these two files:

normal.dot to abnormal.dot
winword.opt to winword.old


To install 97, first make sure you have not programs open, particularly the Office toolbar. Hit Ctrl-alt-del and end task on everything in the list EXCEPT Explorer and systray.

[Brumill]

I checked the Word Version-- I have Word97 ver.8

I tried installing Word97 again from my Office97 disk. I had every thing turned off except what you said.

At 2% completion I got this message "Setup could not open the file Q:\WORD\OS\MSAPPS\MSINFO\MSINFO32CNT"

It asked if I wanted to abort or ignore and I chose ignore. It then went on to 100% but gave me the message "not completed succesfully"
Is this related to my other problem?

My Word still works but I still get the error messages when I try to open a .doc file from a folder. Here are the messages I get: the first box that comes up says, "Word canot open the document. Try one or more of the following.*On the file menu, click OPEN to open the document. * Make sure the document has a .DOC extension.

I click off that message and another one comes up that says, "The document name path is not valid. Try one or more of the following. *Check the path to make sure it is typed correctly. *ON THE fILE MENU CLICK OPEN. SEARCH FOR THE FILE USING THIS DIOLOG BOX."

I click off that message and before I would just have a blank Word screen. But I did one thing that it now brings up the file that I clicked on in the folder.(still after having to click off the 2 error messages)

This is what I did to atleast get it to do that. I noticed that I could click on a .RTF file in the same folder and it would bring the file up right away just like the .doc files use to. I put the same info into the .doc DDE box that I found in the .rtf DDE box. This atleast opens the file after clicking off the error messages. I did notice that when in the "file types" box from the My Computer/view that it just has "Microsoft Word 6.0 Document" not Word97 but it also doesn't have Excel97 and my Excel works fine.

So I can get to my files now from the folders but I have to click off the error messages. I'm thinking something isn't right in that DDE Box.

[Anne Troy]

I didn't realize you're installing from a network. Also, if you ever install Office, you ought to use Eraser or don't expect the reinstall to help. Eraser completely wipes Office from the registry prior to properly reinstalling it. At this point, hit Start-find-files or folders and find winword.exe. Make note of its location.

Then, Start-Run and type regedit and hit enter.

Open hkey_classes_root

Find the .doc folder and delete it.

Double-click any DOC file, then when you're asked what program you want to open it with, don't pick it from the list, instead, hit the browse button and find your winword.exe file and choose that. See if everything works then.

If not, use Eraser97 and reinstall. Here's where you can get it: http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q176/8/23.ASP

[Brumill]

I'm not insdtalling from a Network or atleast I don't have a Network

Before I delete the .doc folder I want to make sure I'm not losing something. This is what is in there:
ShellEx
Word Document.6
Word Document.8
Word Document
Word Pad

[Anne Troy]

How many winword.exe's do you have?

How many versions of Word do you intend to run?

If not from a network, what is Q drive?

If you're uncomfortable deleting any registry key, you can select it, hit File-Export and put it onto your desktop. Then delete if in the registry. Should you decide you didn't mean to delete it or shouldn't have deleted it, you just double-click it on your desktop and it re-registers whatever was removed.

I probably should have had you do that.

You can always rename it too, to something like xxxdoc or something, but I'm not sure it works that way here under the file extensions part.

[Brumill]

I only have Word97 so I guess just one.

Q drive is my CD drive

I deleted .doc file from the registry and clicked on a .doc file from a folder and it opened up right away ( I wasn't asked what program to open it with)

But another surprise! I tried opening a .rte file (which I was able to do before) and I got the same messages that I was getting when I tried to open .doc before.

So the problem swithed to .rte files, which isn't so bad since I only have a couple and I don't how I got them anyway.

Is Word using the .doc file on my desktop? if so, should i put it someplace else?

[Brumill]

I just have one winword.exe file located in Office folder

[Anne Troy]

I'm sorry. I should have thought to ask. Right-click it and hit properties. Then hit Version tab. Which one is it? I assume it's 97?

[Brumill]

Version 8