File conversion dialog only on one machine

[LindaD]

Hi,

On one computer with Word 2003 SP3, I get the following message when opening
Word documents that originate from Word for Mac (do not know version):

Title bar: File Conversion - filename.doc
Message:
Select the encoding that makes your document readable
Text encoding:
Windows Default
MS-DOS
Other encoding

Other information:
1. These files can be opened fine on other computers with both Word 2003 and
Word 2007.
2. On the affected computer, these files can be opened with WordPad.
3. Also on the affected computer, the same dialog occurs if I choose Open
and Repair when opening the file.
4. I have uninstalled and reinstalled Office and applied all Office updates.
5. I have installed the Office File Converter Pack

I'm hoping someone has some additional ideas of things I could try or might
know the cause of the problem.

Thanks in advance for your assistance and ideas.

Linda
Golden, CO

 

[Terry Farrell]

Run this test. Start Word in Safe Mode and see if you can open the document.
From Start, Run (Winkey+R), type in

winword /a

and press enter. Can you open the document now?

If not, where are you trying to open the document from?

 

[LindaD]

Hi Terry,

Thank you so much for the response. Actually, I had tried opening the
document with Word running in Safe Mode (I forgot to list that among the
items that I had already tried to do).

I have opened the document from within Outlook and also from a location on
the hard drive and have gotten the same result, the file conversion dialog.

I'm thinking that something is installed on this computer that is causing
this problem but do not know what it might be. Another interesting piece of
information that I forgot to mention is that the user reports that he used to
be able to open these documents and now no longer can. That suggests a
change to the environment but the user does not remember any changes that
have been made around the time this started happening.


Linda
Golden, CO

 

[Terry Farrell]

Please try deleting the Word DataKey on this machine. Winkey+R, type in
regedit and press enter. Then navigate to the DataKey and delete it. Word
will recreate it when it is next started.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\version number\Word\Data

Terry

 

[LindaD]

Hi Terry,

Thank you so much for the suggestion. I gave it a try but it didn't help.
But, now that I think about it, this issue isn't a per user problem. It
happens for other users who log onto that computer. So, I'm wondering if
perhaps that same key exists in HKLM and could be replaced with an export
from a functioning computer and perhaps that would fix the issue.

Let me know your thoughts on that or if you have other ideas, I'm all ears.

Thanks!

Linda
Golden, CO