PROBLEM: 12.1 version of Word 2008 will not open WinWord .doc files?

[Scott Boettcher]

Al the PC files are Office 2003/2003 SP1.
It's not us, MS - it's something with your software.

Scott

 

[Scott Boettcher]

Emailing myself is fine Entourage/Mail.app.
I'm running another version of Leopard, but that's all I can say.
It's still present.
All the docs on my Mac(s) that caused the issue are PC-generated or
PC-altered/saved.


See this I posted on MacFixit: I have received messages that this has fixed
for others as well...so, why is this happening? It only happened after
applying 12.1.0.

OK, it seems that people will not read all the threads, so try this one - it
has worked on the Macs that had this issue for me...

Rebuild the launchservices database - a number of free utilities do this, I
prefer "OnyX"

Now after doing that and logging out/in (or reboot, but not needed) you need
to find a doc of each Office type (.doc, .xls, .ppt) that won't open.
It appears as though the ones causing troubles are generated (or
changed/saved) by Office on the PC (don't know if it's a certain version or
not)

Get Info on the file that won't open and associate it to Excel 2008 on your
Mac. I noticed the icon was off on the ones not working.
Before closing, select "Change all"

Now, all of the Office docs open on my Mac(s) but this is not something I
plan on doing on the machines I support so I will not roll out this version
until MS fixes this.

Please post on the MS Mac newsgroups or send them an email - they need
pressure to get this fixed.

Scott

 

[mike]

I'm seeing exactly the same thing. Documents that I could double click this
morning, both Mac and PC created, by me or by others, will not open after the
12.1 update. Double click, drag and drop to the dock, drag and drop to the
application in the apps folder, right click and select 'open with', all do
the same. Bring the MS app to the front, but do not open the document.

File, open does work to open the same documents.

Macbook Pro, 10.5.2, Office 12.1.0 (080409) multi volume license (school).
Updated with the office update assistant.

 

[Steve Maser]

Can someone test emailing yourself some docs created on the Mac (state
which version), and see if the problem occurs? Does emailing yourself
break docs that currently behave? What happens with new docs emailed to
self? Difference between .doc and .docx files?

And since emailing appear to be implicated, please state which email
program you are using.

Also, everyone, please note the OS version that is showing this problem
for you. Be exact, not just 10.5 but 10.5.1 or 10.5.2?

Related to this e-mail issue...

under 10.5.2...

If I e-mail myself a Word document <file.doc> and download it from our
*webmail interface* with Safari 3.1.1 -- it's coming down as
<file.doc.dot>.

The thread below blames Office 2008:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6549428

I don't know how much of this is interrelated to the problem at hand,
but it makes me wonder if it is -- somehow .doc/.xls files *received*
are being set incorrectly



- Steve

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Emailing myself is fine Entourage/Mail.app.
I'm running another version of Leopard, but that's all I can say.
It's still present.
All the docs on my Mac(s) that caused the issue are PC-generated or
PC-altered/saved.

Scott, did you also download those problem docs through Entourage/Mail,
or through a web mail access? Do you know?

Thanks for the specific fix instructions.

Daiya

 

[Charles]

Rebuild the launchservices database - a number of free utilities do this, I
prefer "OnyX"

Now after doing that and logging out/in (or reboot, but not needed) you need
to find a doc of each Office type (.doc, .xls, .ppt) that won't open.
It appears as though the ones causing troubles are generated (or
changed/saved) by Office on the PC (don't know if it's a certain version or
not)

Get Info on the file that won't open and associate it to Excel 2008 on your
Mac. I noticed the icon was off on the ones not working.
Before closing, select "Change all"

I tried this with a Word .doc e-mailed to me this morning from a Windows
PC but still the same problem. (I also have the problem with Excel and
PowerPoint for Windows files e-mailed to me.)

Here is my setup:

MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.33 GHz
OS X 10.5.2
Office 12.1.0 (080409)
Office 2004 (Word 11.4.2 [080415]; Excel 11.4.1 [080219]; PowerPoint
11.3.5 [070411])

Charles

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Add one more fact, Charles--how do you get your email? Program, web
access, or what? How are these files arriving on your computer?

 

[mike]

I booted to cd and ran the disk util, both repair perms and disk.

All documents I created now open when I double click. All Excel and PPT
files appear to open, mine or others (including Windoze created).

Word files created by others still do not open other than with file, open.
These all have the .doc ext, from many different people, but I think all
windows users (not too many mac users around here).

The icons have the correct mini preview display, both ones that work and
ones that do not.

If I try to double click them open, then go to the file 'get info', it does
show the last opened time as when I tried to open it and it did not open.

These are files that I have had, and have opened in the past.

No other visible differences I can think to check.

 

[Scott Boettcher]

Have not tried webmail - but I will now.
I have confirmed with another Apple seed tester that attachments emailed
from a PC are not working.
I don't know his specifics yet.

Scott

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Thanks for all these details, Mike--it's pretty much been narrowed down
to emailed documents, so now the question is (for everyone seeing this
problem, not just Mike)--

how do you get your email and download these problem docs? If through
webmail access, what browser? If through POP/IMAP access, what program?
Any other relevant details?

Exact versions, please, plus exact versions of OS and processor, in case
it's Leopard-only or PPC only or somesuch.

 

[mike]

These are docs that are on my desktop that I've opened before, too.

POP3, Thunderbird version 2.0.0.14 (20080421)
Webmail, gmail and gaggle (yes, gaggle, not google)
MacBookPro, 10.5.2

 

[jrider]

Hi.
I have just finished running some tests and here is what I have found.
It is definitely email related. I have use gmail (web interface), Thunderbird (2.0.0.14) and Mail.app (3.2) for testing. I'm running Mac OS X 10.5.2 on both the Macs ( Al 2.8 iMac and 2.2 2006 MacBook Pro) , Windows XP on the PC. Office 2008 12.1.0 on the iMac, office 2004 on the MacBook pro, and Office 2003 on the PC.
All documents are word documents, and all have the .doc extension. All open Word when double clicked and show the Word icon.
Any type of direct copying works, Mac to Mac, or Windows to Mac.
If I email from a Mac to a Mac using Mail everything works as it should if I use Mail.app.
If I send from Mail.app, and receive with either Thunderbird or gmail it works as expected.
If I send from gmail on either Mac or Windows., and receive with Mail.app is works, but it does not work if I receive with Thunderbird. Double clicking opens Word but not the file.

Comparing the files that do work, with the one that doesn't, the file sizes are slightly different. 19,456 bytes for the non-working version, and 19,742 bytes for the working version.
Comparing the actual data, they are identical, byte for byte.
I'm thinking that somehow the Finder meta data is missing or the resource fork.
Previous versions didn't seem to care, but 12.1.0 appears to.
I can provider examples of these files if need be.

I have also tried the fix above and several others and they have not worked.

Cheers,
Jason

 

[Steve Hodgson]

Thanks for all these details, Mike--it's pretty much been narrowed down
to emailed documents, so now the question is (for everyone seeing this
problem, not just Mike)--

how do you get your email and download these problem docs? If through
webmail access, what browser? If through POP/IMAP access, what
program? Any other relevant details?

Exact versions, please, plus exact versions of OS and processor, in
case it's Leopard-only or PPC only or somesuch.

I am seeing the problem with emailed documents received via POP using
the Mailsmith 2.2 (245) beta.

I am running Office 2008 12.1.0 under 10.5.2 on a MacBook Pro.
--
Cheers,

Steve

The reply-to email address is a spam trap.
Email steve 'at' shodgson 'dot' org 'dot' uk

 

[Steve Maser]

I am seeing the problem with emailed documents received via POP using
the Mailsmith 2.2 (245) beta.

I am running Office 2008 12.1.0 under 10.5.2 on a MacBook Pro.

I am using Eudora 6.2.4 and see this problem. I have e-mailed
attachments going back 10 years (so this would be using multiple
versions of Eudora over the years) where those files will not open.

As other posters have mentioned direct file copying (ie, moving a file
through the network from PC to Mac or copying to USB stick) -- those
same files will open (but will not open when e-mailed...)

- Steve

 

[Charles]

Add one more fact, Charles--how do you get your email? Program, web
access, or what? How are these files arriving on your computer?

I get my e-mail via POP using Eudora 6.2.4 (paid mode).

Charles

 

[Scott Boettcher]

Another thing - apparently, some files emailed get a ".dot" extension added
after the .doc - which might explain why it opens the app, but not the file.

Scott

 

[DKSTUDIO]

I installed the 12.1 update and cannot get any office 08 apps to open. each time I launch an app the setup assistant opens...can't get around it.
trashed many .plist prefs. any solution?
Thx.
dkstudio

 

[Charles]

Another thing - apparently, some files emailed get a ".dot" extension added
after the .doc - which might explain why it opens the app, but not the file.

In my case they all have ".doc" extensions.

Charles

 

[Richard_Starling]

Can someone test emailing yourself some docs created on the Mac (state
which version), and see if the problem occurs? Does emailing yourself
break docs that currently behave? What happens with new docs emailed to
self? Difference between .doc and .docx files?

And since emailing appear to be implicated, please state which email
program you are using.

Also, everyone, please note the OS version that is showing this problem
for you. Be exact, not just 10.5 but 10.5.1 or 10.5.2?

Related to this e-mail issue...

under 10.5.2...

If I e-mail myself a Word document and download it from our
*webmail interface* with Safari 3.1.1 -- it's coming down as
.

The thread below blames Office 2008:

<http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6549428>

I don't know how much of this is interrelated to the problem at hand,
but it makes me wonder if it is -- somehow .doc/.xls files *received*
are being set incorrectly



- Steve
[/QUOTE]

Steve, I think you are on to something here. The above thread talks about UTIs, Universal Type Indicators, which Leopard uses for application launch. The issue in the thread above related to a 'mismatch' in mimetype treatment between Leopard and Office resulting in Word documents having a .dot extension appended. The problem most people seem to be having with Office 2008 SP1 is with emailed attachments which will have a MIME envelope. When an attachment is opened or saved this information will be used to determine the file type and application to load. The target application will take action based on the information in it's info.plist file. Could it be that we have two related problems here, firstly email attachments either open or don't based on how the MIME envelope is handled by your particular mail program and how that affects the action taken based on the data in the info.plist file of the target application, secondly for stored files launched from the Finder, again the data in the info.plist file conflicts/is mis handled by Leopard causing the target application to load but then passing incorrect settings so that the application cannot load the document.
The above probably has many technical inaccuracies but based on what I've read it looks like a plausible theory.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

This thread has outlived its usefulness--please see the announcement here:
http://www.officeformac.com/ProductForums/Office/1973