Cannot open WORD or EXCEL documents

A

ajbrutico

Hi all -- I have read a lot about similar complaints, but the solutions
are not working. I have a new DELL, and installed my copy of office
onto it. Whenever i double click a document (Word/Excel)The program
launches, but the document doesnt load. I HAD NORTON A/V on the system
when it was delievers, but i uninstalled it as soon as I got it. Fater
reading, I thought maybe the offiveav.dll was still registered from the
old install, but i cannot find the file when searching in my system,
including hidden files/directories.

So now i have no A/V scan, had AVG, which was requesting a virus scan
of the doc before loading -- I removed it, and the virus scan message
disappeared, but the document still doesnt load.

I reinstalled office and also tried deleting the normal.dot file and
ran word to create a new one. All have not given me a solution.

BTW from within Word/Excel i can go to the open menu, and open any file
without difficulty, but I cannot tolerate this problem. Anyone else
with a sililar problem and possibly a solution.

thanks in advance.

ajbrutico
 
A

ajbrutico

Well, the filetypes are allready associated with word -- i reassociated
them, and still no go. BTW, i already re-installed office without
help. (Sigh) :(
 
D

Dad1989

I am also experiencing this problem with Word and Excel, but all within the
same machine and WinXP instance I have been using since December, 2004. I
tried:
- disabling all parts of anti-virus (NAV-2003)
- using office repair utility
- associating the file extension(s)

The part I did not try (yet) was reinstalling Office. However, I noticed
this while toying with the file association panel...
- extension of .doc and .xls were already associated with the correct program
- I chose the option to choose the program
- I picked the correct program and clicked-on the check-box to always use
the selected program
- when clicking "OK", I received an error message that quickly popped behind
the Word application window stating "Windows cannot find 'xyz.doc'. Make
sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search for a file,
click the Start button, and then click Search.'

This event makes me question whether the problem is actually within Windows
instead of Office. However, double-clicking on files with extensions of
..pdf, .zip, and .htm all open up normally as I would expect within the
corresponding applications (Adobe Acrobat Reader, WinZIP, and Internet
Explorer).

I hope this may help isolate the problem. I appreciate any help you can give.

Thanks!
 
B

Beth Melton

You have to turn off the "Enable Office Plug-in" option found under
the Miscellaneous section in the NAV Options.

Disabling NAV doesn't unregister the DLL for the "Office Plug-in"
option so it's still being utilized.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
 
B

Beth Melton

Is it possible this is happening only in Excel and not Word?

Start Excel and go to Tools/Options/General and see if "Ignore other
applications" is turned on. If it is, turn it off and see if that
resolves the problem.

Although....I just took a closer look at the other replies in this
thread and read an article that was recommended to you. I just
realized you didn't get the advice I *thought* you received. <sigh>

Along with the above, try recreating the file associations for the
applications by going to Start/Run and running the following commands:

winword /r
excel /regserver

Note the space before the forward slash.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
 
D

Dad1989

This is indeed happening in Word and Excel. I do not use Outlook on this
computer.

Since my previous post, I have tried the recommendations in regard to the
Norton AV Office plug-in, checking Excel's option for Ignore other
applications (it isoff), using the command entries for Winword /r and excel
/regserver. None has worked.

I am running Win XP SP2 (Home Edition) with all the latest patches. I am
using Office XP Small Business Edition. It too is up-to-date on the latest
critical patches. I keep my Norton (2003 Edition) up-to-date and ran a
complete virus scan on two separate occasions since this problem started
happening. I also use an up-to-date version of Spybot which has not found any
signs of a problem.

This problem started around the end of June. I noticed one patch to the
general purpose Microsoft update installer program came in on 6/28, so I even
tried with that one backed out and rebooted. No luck. This problem did start
before I applied the July Microsoft patches and continued after they were
applied.

In addition to the situation where others have reported that they can open a
document by first launching Word or Excel and then using File...Open, I have
also noticed that if I already have a document open in Word, I can
double-click within Windows Explorer and it *will* open up OK. This also
applies to Excel if an Excel document is already open. It appears like the
application must already be running before the double-click will work
successfully.

When I was toying around with the right-click, open with... techniquie to
troubleshoot within Windows Explorer, I noticed that if I chose Internet
Explorer to open up a Word document, the document opened up OK within an
Internet Explorer window.

Thanks for your assistance.
 
B

Beth Melton

Your description of the problem still indicates there is an issue with
the file associations. Occasionally Word and especially Excel can be a
little un-cooperative.
;-)

Try removing the file associations completely and then using the
/regserver switch again.

If you don't know how to do this:

1. Open an Exploring windows such as My Computer (or use WinKey + e)
2. Go to View/Folder Options
3. Select the File Types tab
4. Find the file type for Excel Worksheets (.xls) and Delete it
5. Do the same for Word Documents (.doc)
6. Go to Start/Run and run:

winword /r
excel /regserver

Note the space before the forward slash.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
 
D

Dad1989

Great News!

When I went into Folder Options as you suggested (WinKey + e) and I scrolled
down to the extension DOC, the <delete> option was not available. However,
under the Details section, the text read 'You have customized files with
extension 'DOC'. To restore these files to their default type...click
Restore'. I clicked Restore and the display changed only slightly, indicating
the normal detail text 'Files with extension 'DOC' are of type 'Microsoft
Word Document'....'. The Delete option now became available. However, before
I clicked delete, I went into My Computer and tried double-clicking once
again. And this time it worked.

I did the same with Excel documents of type XLS and it too now works.

Note I did not need to go and perform the Start...Run commands after I
restored the default settings. (I had however run them once before in this
troubleshooting event.)

While I am curious how they got corrupted in the first place, I am happy
that the double-click is back to working again.

Thanks for all your help through this problem!
 
B

Beth Melton

Perhaps another application took over your file extensions? In any
event, restoring the associations rectified the issue which is
essentially what my instructions would have done. Glad to hear the
issue has been resolved. :)

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
 
T

Tubby

Greetings,

I followed all of the steps, but I still cannot open Excel spreadsheets. Is
there anything else that I can try? Please advise.
 
T

Tubby

Never mind. I got it.

Tubby said:
Greetings,

I followed all of the steps, but I still cannot open Excel spreadsheets. Is
there anything else that I can try? Please advise.
Click to expand...
 
M

MeowMeowMeowMeow

Hello,

I have read this thread with interest, because I have a similar problem
happening with WORD 2000. All of the other Office 2000 products work within
Win XP. Word used to work as well, but stopped working a couple of months
ago, with that message that says something to the effect of "We're sorry, but
Word cannot open..." and gives the choices of send or don't send the error
report to Microsoft. I have sent one to MS already.

I have tried the following without success--all products work EXCEPT Word:

1. Repairing the installation
2. Uninstalling ALL of Office 2000 and reinstalling
3. Working with the extensions, per this thread

Can anyone help? I cannot upgrade, and need this version to work.

Thanks much, in advance.
 
B

bammers

Hi there, I have just joined this site and read your mail. I seem be having
the same problem that you experienced. Have you fixed your problem? If you
have I would really appreciate you sharing the information you received in
order to do so.
It would be great to hear from you at your earliest convenience
 
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