Error Opening Word 2007 even after installing the Compatibility pa

[Bryan]

I have Office 2000 SP3 running on Windows 2000 SP4 and I installed the Office
Compatibility pack along with service Pack 1. I can open and edit Office
2003 files; however, Word 2007 files will not open and give this error:
"There was an error opening file." Excel 2007 and Powerpoint 2007 files will
open, but they are in read-only mode.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled Office 2000 as well as the compatibility
pack and the compatibility pack SP1. None of that helped and I still get the
same error. Can anyone help me resolve this?

 

[DL]

The MS Compatibility pack site states;
By installing the Compatibility Pack along side of Microsoft Office XP, or
Office 2003, you will be able open, edit, save, and create files using the
Open XML Formats new to the 2007 Microsoft Office system. Office 2000 users,
as well as users of Windows 2000 SP4 and later, can convert Open XML Formats
to binary file formats from within Windows Explorer.

 

[Bryan]

When I go to Windows Explorer and right click on the Word 2007 file, I see a
selection for Save As...that offers the chance to save it as a Word 2003
File. While this would help me - it also does not work. I get the error
message: "The converter failed to save the file." I expect this is a second
symptom of the same problem.

 

[pgg]

I'm having the same problem. Both on opening and Explorer convert. I've
removed office and the compatibility pack and then reinstalled. I also can't
save anything as a docx. It also say gives the error "There was an error
opening the file." I can open and save files in all other office
applications to the 2007 format. Appreciate any help. I have office
professional for access and office small business for word, power point,
excel and outlook.

 

[jef]

I'm having the same problem. Both on opening and Explorer convert. I've
removed office and the compatibility pack and then reinstalled. I also can't
save anything as a docx. It also say gives the error "There was an error
opening the file." I can open and save files in all other office
applications to the 2007 format. Appreciate any help. I have office
professional for access and office small business for word, power point,
excel and outlook.

 

[jef]

I am getting the same exact error. Excel and Powerpoint work fine. Its only
a problem with Word. I have uninstalled and reinstalled - but the problem
stil exists.

 

[Richard L.]

save anything as a docx.  It also say gives the error "There was an error
has anyone got any new suggestions on this one. same thing happening
to me.
i have uninstalled pack and reinstalled, same with microsoft update
site.
i really don't know what else to try

Richard

 

[Byros]

I had this problem the other way around, I couldn't open documents
created in Office 2007 with Office 2003 even after installing &
reinstalling the File Format Converter from Microsoft, this happened
with Word & Excel.

After wasting hours reading lots of posts through the web, deleting
normal.dot, then reinstalling office, messing with windows registry,
nothing worked.



Until out of desperation I checked the services running under Windows
XP and found that the service named WebClient was on manual and not
running, so I initialised the service and then suddenly all Office files
opened and saved flawlessly (2003 & 2007), now I don't know if this
service is the only one directly responsible for this behaviour or if
additional services need to be running in order for Office to properly
open and save documents.


But here's the solution that worked for me:


Execute services.msc

Look for a service called : WebClient



Check wether the service is running, if not initialise it, and make
sure its default settings are set to Automatic so it starts whenever you
start your PC, Click Ok .


Now try to open & save Office documents, and see if it works, it did
for me.



Like most services on WinXP the description for this service is so
generic that it almost makes no sense:
Enables Windows-based programs to create, access, and modify
Internet-based files. If this service is stopped, these
functions will not be available. If this service is disabled,
any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.




One of the reasons I still miss Windows 95 and I don't like Windows NT,
2000, XP or Vista one bit, I've already installed Ubuntu and OpenOffice
and I'm seriously considering dumping PCs and Windows in favor of Macs


Hope that helps...

 

[Vasni]

After following Microsoft's recommended procedure to install all Offic
critical updates and then download/install the compatibility pack, I wa
able to open Office 2007 Excel files.

To open the files, I had to right click on each of the 2007 files tha
were saved as .xls files in my directory, then click on save. The file
were resaved as separate files with .xlsm extensions readable with Exce
2003, leaving the original 2007 files with the .xls extension
intact--and still unreadable by Excel 2003.

I didn't try Word or PowerPoint files.

Vasn