Publisher cannot open the file

[LJM]

I pastor a small church and want to print out donations for 2007. I keep an
ongoing document with a separate page for each donor. We have not upgraded
Publisher or made any changes to it. Today I tried to open last year's
(2006's) document to compare with this year. I got an error stating:
Publisher cannot open the document." When I tried to open the 2007 document,
I got the same error.

Microsoft suggests contacting Symantec because it prevents Publisher from
opening a document from a previous year. I don't own Norton's virus
protection. I have not upgraded from another version.

I tried to repair the Publisher installation, but it made absolutely no
difference.

Please help!

LJM

 

[Mary Sauer]

Have you tried opening the documents with the anti-virus you do have disabled?
Have you changed printers? Do you have a default printer selected in the printer
folder? Is your printer driver current?

What version Publisher are you using?

How to troubleshoot a damaged publication in Publisher
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/198256/en-us

 

[LJM]

Mary,

Have you tried opening the documents with the anti-virus you do have disabled?

Yes, and it still won't open.

Have you changed printers?

No, I have not changed printers.

Do you have a default printer selected in the printer folder?

Yes, my default printer is still selected.

Is your printer driver current?

Yes, the printer driver is current.

What version Publisher are you using?

I'm using Publisher 2002

How to troubleshoot a damaged publication in Publisher
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/198256/en-us

I've gone through this web site and tried everything. I even copied the file
to a thumb drive and tried it out on another computer. It worked on the other
computer, but it still won't work on my machine. I even renamed the file and
it won't open.

Any other suggestions?

LJM

 

[LJM]

Don,

Is the file on a CD? If so, maybe copy to a hard drive and try opening
again.

I opened it on another computer and it worked just fine. I renamed the file
and brought it back to my computer. My computer won't open either the
original nor the new one.

LJM

 

[Mary Sauer]

Can you send the file my way? I don't know why it would open on another computer
but not on yours.

mary-sauer at columbus.rr.com

 

[LJM]

Mary,

Can you send the file my way? I don't know why it would open on another computer but not on yours.

I am quite hesitant to send the file, as the information within it is very
confidential. Is there another way to handle the problem?

LJM

 

[LJM]

Mary,

Thanks for all your help. I just un-installed Publisher and then
re-installed it. Tried to open the file and it worked just fine. Somehow the
program just became corrupted.

Again, thank you for your help.

LJM

p.s. Thanks for your understanding about not sending the file, too.

 

[Jababas]

Hello from Illinois. I had the same problem, and NOTHING on the Microsoft
website has helped me at all. I maintain a school district newsletter, which
is sent out monthly. I take last year's newsletter, open it, save it as a
new file, edit as necessary, etc. Never had one issue EVER until I had to
download the Office 2007 compatibility patch. That is what hosed my files!!!
Once I removed the patch my troubles were almost over....I still had to
completely copy/paste every single text box & clipart from the OLD newsletter
into a brand new blank publisher document, which was a pain, but at least I
had the ability to get my newsletter done again. I started a thread
somewhere on this list, which I cannot find again, and the ever-so-helpful
Mary berated me for using OLD files!!! Why in the world would anyone ever
want to use a program and have to reinvent the wheel each and every month? I
thought the whole purpose of using Office was to make your life simpler?
anyway, I've had it with the microsoft so called knowledge base, with their
so-called "experts", and all of it, and rely on other users like us for
answers. I hope this helps you in some way...happy publishing!

 

[Mary Sauer]

Did I really berate you? Corruption happens, when you use the same file over and
over the file will become unstable. Stuff that you included, then removed will
still be part of the file. Pictures especially are problematic.

The compatibility patch did nothing to correct problems in Publisher. Publisher
2007 is compatible with all prior versions. We are the orphans of the Office
group. Publisher 2007 has a host of bugs...

 

[LJM]

Funny, since uninstalling the program and reinstalling it, I can open the
files. But the next time I try to open it, I run into the same problem. I
have uninstalled and reinstalled now four times. I have opened the program
and saved it as something new and I can't even open the new file. As a matter
of fact, almost all of the files on the computer can't be opened.

Maybe there is something to the 2007 patch.

LJM

 

[Mary Sauer]

When you are able to open the file after the re-install remove the images if
there are any and resave. It is usually images that have corruption.
A poster sent me his file with many pictures, I couldn't open it, even in safe
mode. I finally downloaded a trial recovery program and recovered what I could.
The poster had worked on the file for a long time; it wasn't the content he
wanted recovered, but the formatting.
Anti-virus programs can be problematic.
The 2007 patch had nothing to do with Publisher. We are under the radar for some
reason. There are lots of bugs in the 2007 version that have not been addressed
by the developers.

 

[LJM]

There was only one picture in the file. I had deleted that and saved it, and
when I tried to open it, it couldn't open it.

LJM