Opening a word doc made in 1994

[Alu]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel Hello

I have some word files probably made in 1994 on whatever MS Word was around at the time on a Mac (I think it must have been an LC at the time) which I cannot seem to open now. I have MS Office 2008. When I click on the files all of them respond with a dialogue box which says "the XML file cannot be opened because there are problems with the contents. Details- incorrect syntax; Location - 1"
Does anyone know what I have to do to open them?

thanks

 

[CyberTaz]

Unfortunately the year the files were created doesn't tell the necessary
information -- The question is "What version of Word was used & [more
significantly] what file format were they saved in?"

Select one of the files in Finder then key Command+I to see if the Info
window tells you anything more about the nature of the file. You can try
using Word's File> Open command & selecting different options from the
Enable list to see if you have any better luck. If nothing else works use
the Recover Text from Any File option. You won't get any of the graphic
content or formatting but you may be able to recover the text itself.

Mac Word abandoned the earliest file formats some versions ago, but if you
have access to Word on a PC it may be able to open the files intact which
can then be saved in a more current format. Alternatively, you may want to
consider a conversion program such as MacLink Plus from DataViz if the files
are of any real value. It's also possible that one of the free Open-Source
Office-compatible apps like NeoOffice may be able to open the files.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[John McGhie]

First, append an extension to those file names. Because they are so old,
your current Mac does not have an application associated with them, use the
..doc extension to do that.

Secondly, these won't open on a click; you need to use Open from the File
menu in Word to get them up. Word must be "running" and it must "know" that
this file is intended for it. If you use File>Open from within Word, both
conditions are automatically met.

The old file formats are blocked from double-click opening because people
found ways to infect documents by doing that.

As soon as you get the file open, choose Save As and save the file in .docx
(Word Document) format, with an extension, so you do not get any further
troubles.

Cheers

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel
Hello

I have some word files probably made in 1994 on whatever MS Word was around at
the time on a Mac (I think it must have been an LC at the time) which I cannot
seem to open now. I have MS Office 2008. When I click on the files all of them
respond with a dialogue box which says "the XML file cannot be opened because
there are problems with the contents. Details- incorrect syntax; Location - 1"
Does anyone know what I have to do to open them?

thanks

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Peter Jamieson]

FWIW this is probably not going to add anything helpful beyond what Bob
and John have said, but
a. simple test files saved in Mac Word 5 and 5.1 format from Windows
versions of Word opened OK in Mac Word 2008. Only files in Mac 4 format
failed to open. (I don't have any "real" Mac Word files from that era).
b. simple files saved in Mac Word 4, 5 and 5.1 format from Mac Word X
opened in Word 2008. As it happens, these were extension-free files but
I guess Word X knew to set their "file type" to "WDBN" which may help
later versions of Word open them correctly.
c. All the above opened without Word opening its file conversion
dialog - i.e. Word recognised them as "native" files.

As far as the Mac Word 4 file saved from Windows Word is concerned,
nothing I have done to it so far (change its file type, extension etc.)
helps any version of Mac Word that I can currently access (X,2004,2008)
open it. However, all the files, whether created on Mac or Windows, can
be opened by a Windows version of Word with the appropriate Mac Word
import converters.

So I wonder whether this problem may also be to do with Mac resource
forks or some such - for example if your Mac Word files have been stored
on a FAT format file system, perhaps they have lost something that Mac
Word expects to find. If so, I have no idea how you might fix that.

Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Peter:

There are two issues: The file format, and the file type.

Using Windows versions, the file formats are Word 2 (and Word for DOS), Word
6 (the eight-bit format) and Word 97 (the 16-bit format).

As best as I can remember, the rules are:

Mac Word does not contain an import converter for Word 2: it will never
open. Copies of Windows Word that have been upgraded from Word 2000 still
have it, but it's not available in the later versions of Windows Word
either.

Mac Word will barf on the eight-bit Word 6 format unless it has the latest
service pack installed. If it has the service pack, you may see a dialog
warning that the eight-bit format is "unsafe". If you use File>Open, it
will open straight up.

The 16-bit Word 97 format is fine in any flavour of Mac Word.

However: The File Associations may not be in the Launch Services database.
In which case, the user has to use Get Info from Finder and add an
association to Word for the file type in question.

File types have been deprecated in OS 10.6 in favour of file extensions, so
they will sometimes give unexpected results if the file does not have the
correct extension.

Hope this helps

FWIW this is probably not going to add anything helpful beyond what Bob
and John have said, but
a. simple test files saved in Mac Word 5 and 5.1 format from Windows
versions of Word opened OK in Mac Word 2008. Only files in Mac 4 format
failed to open. (I don't have any "real" Mac Word files from that era).
b. simple files saved in Mac Word 4, 5 and 5.1 format from Mac Word X
opened in Word 2008. As it happens, these were extension-free files but
I guess Word X knew to set their "file type" to "WDBN" which may help
later versions of Word open them correctly.
c. All the above opened without Word opening its file conversion
dialog - i.e. Word recognised them as "native" files.

As far as the Mac Word 4 file saved from Windows Word is concerned,
nothing I have done to it so far (change its file type, extension etc.)
helps any version of Mac Word that I can currently access (X,2004,2008)
open it. However, all the files, whether created on Mac or Windows, can
be opened by a Windows version of Word with the appropriate Mac Word
import converters.

So I wonder whether this problem may also be to do with Mac resource
forks or some such - for example if your Mac Word files have been stored
on a FAT format file system, perhaps they have lost something that Mac
Word expects to find. If so, I have no idea how you might fix that.

Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]