Old Word 6.0 file in Office XP Word

[Shaun A. Gupta]

I have a problem I just can't figure out.

Someone wanted me to open a .doc file for them and convert it to html. It
was created on an older computer (presumably Word 6.0 or so it thinks) and
opens fine on those computers. I'm using Office XP (so not exactly new
either).

On mine, the top half of the document is in reverse. Meaning, the text
(whole words) are jumbled and out of order. For example, instead of
something reading "1st Prize $1000", it reads "1000$ st Prize1" Even the
cursor is moving backwards (left arrow key goes right, etc.)... What the
heck? I've never seen anything like this, and there's nothing obvious
wrong. I also just noticed if I copy and paste, it pastes *as it should be*
instead of how it reads. Weird...

(And no, no viruses or anything of that nature.)

Thanks in advance if anyone can shed some light on this...

 

[Terry Farrell]

It sounds like the top half of the document is set in a language that runs
from right to left. Try SelectAll (Ctrl+A) and then go to Tools, Language,
Set Language and make sure it is all set to the correct default language.

 

[Shaun A. Gupta]

Very nice try, but setting everything to English didn't seem to work/help.
I did find a workaround by copying the file, pasting it in Wordpad, saving
it as an RTF, opening that in Word, and resaving it as a Word document. But
I'd still *love* to know what's causing this. What you're saying seems to
make a lot of sense - it just doesn't seem to work. (BTW, I was able to try
the file on Word 2007 as well, and the same phenomena occurs, so it's gotta
be something incompatible between whatever program made it and the newer
[post-2000] Office programs).

 

[Terry Farrell]

Shaun

It's the first I had a bug like this described, so I'm not sure where to go
from here. But I am pleased that there is a relatively straight forward
solution (although inconvenient if you have many Word 6 documents to
change).

Have you tried using Word 2003's Open and Repair to see if it works? (In
case you missed it, the Open and Repair option is accessed through the
little down arrow attached to the OPEN button in the File Open dialog.)

Terry

Very nice try, but setting everything to English didn't seem to work/help.
I did find a workaround by copying the file, pasting it in Wordpad, saving
it as an RTF, opening that in Word, and resaving it as a Word document.
But I'd still *love* to know what's causing this. What you're saying
seems to make a lot of sense - it just doesn't seem to work. (BTW, I was
able to try the file on Word 2007 as well, and the same phenomena occurs,
so it's gotta be something incompatible between whatever program made it
and the newer [post-2000] Office programs).

 

[macropod]

Hi Terry,

Possibly a partially-corrupted document, and the corruption only shows when the file is converted to the later '97-2003 format.

Cheers
--
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]
-------------------------

Shaun

It's the first I had a bug like this described, so I'm not sure where to go
from here. But I am pleased that there is a relatively straight forward
solution (although inconvenient if you have many Word 6 documents to
change).

Have you tried using Word 2003's Open and Repair to see if it works? (In
case you missed it, the Open and Repair option is accessed through the
little down arrow attached to the OPEN button in the File Open dialog.)

Terry

Very nice try, but setting everything to English didn't seem to work/help.
I did find a workaround by copying the file, pasting it in Wordpad, saving
it as an RTF, opening that in Word, and resaving it as a Word document.
But I'd still *love* to know what's causing this. What you're saying
seems to make a lot of sense - it just doesn't seem to work. (BTW, I was
able to try the file on Word 2007 as well, and the same phenomena occurs,
so it's gotta be something incompatible between whatever program made it
and the newer [post-2000] Office programs).

It sounds like the top half of the document is set in a language that
runs from right to left. Try SelectAll (Ctrl+A) and then go to Tools,
Language, Set Language and make sure it is all set to the correct default
language.

--
Terry Farrell - MS Word MVP

I have a problem I just can't figure out.

Someone wanted me to open a .doc file for them and convert it to html.
It
was created on an older computer (presumably Word 6.0 or so it thinks)
and
opens fine on those computers. I'm using Office XP (so not exactly new
either).

On mine, the top half of the document is in reverse. Meaning, the text
(whole words) are jumbled and out of order. For example, instead of
something reading "1st Prize $1000", it reads "1000$ st Prize1" Even
the
cursor is moving backwards (left arrow key goes right, etc.)... What
the
heck? I've never seen anything like this, and there's nothing obvious
wrong. I also just noticed if I copy and paste, it pastes *as it should
be*
instead of how it reads. Weird...

(And no, no viruses or anything of that nature.)

Thanks in advance if anyone can shed some light on this...

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Shaun,

It's possible that the document was used/created with a Far East Word version or Far East additions. If you select the entire
document (Ctrl+A) and use Tools=>Fix Broken Text, then use File=>Save As to save as Word 2000 document do you see a difference?

In Format=>Font does is show any Right to Left or Asian text choices?

================
Very nice try, but setting everything to English didn't seem to work/help.
I did find a workaround by copying the file, pasting it in Wordpad, saving
it as an RTF, opening that in Word, and resaving it as a Word document. But
I'd still *love* to know what's causing this. What you're saying seems to
make a lot of sense - it just doesn't seem to work. (BTW, I was able to try
the file on Word 2007 as well, and the same phenomena occurs, so it's gotta
be something incompatible between whatever program made it and the newer
[post-2000] Office programs). <<
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*