Reading Office 2007 format in Office 2003

[John]

I have Office 2003 with all available updates. I have also installed the
compatibility pack for the Office 2007 system and all available updates.
This is on a Windows XP Pro SP3 system.

I have two .doc files which were sent to me by email. I believe they are
scans of a printed document. In any case, I am unable to view them with
Word 2003. I *can* view them using WordPad, and they look fine. I can
also view them on a different computer which does not have MS Office,
but does have the MS Word Viewer v1.8313.8221 SP3.

I would like to be able to view these documents in Word 2003. Is this
possible, and if so how do I fix my problem? Thanks!

Sorry for the cross posting. None of these groups seem to be exactly
what I want, but I can't find any that are better.

John

 

[Peter Foldes]

Install the Word Viewer. Those files are they from another version of Office aside
from 2003 or 2007

 

[Terry Farrell]

You don't tell us what happens when you try to open the two documents in
Word 2003. Does Word open? Do the documents open? Are there any error
messages? Please explain what happens when you try to open the documents in
Word.

 

[John]

You don't tell us what happens when you try to open the two documents in
Word 2003. Does Word open? Do the documents open? Are there any error
messages? Please explain what happens when you try to open the documents
in Word.

Word opens but the document appears to be empty.

John

 

[John]

Word opens but the document appears to be empty.

One more bit of information: When I look at the properties for the
documents, it shows that they were created using Microsoft Word 9.0

John

 

[Peter Foldes]

And there you go. Did you read what I posted earlier

 

[John]

And there you go. Did you read what I posted earlier

Yes, I did. And I see that I was incorrect in stating the document files
were the Office 2007 version. I *thought* that all versions of Word were
backward compatible with documents created by earlier versions. And
since these documents wouldn't open, I assumed they were created by a
*newer* version.

These documents were created by Word v9.0. Word in Office 2003 is
v11.8307.8221 SP3. Are you're telling me that Word v11 is by design
incapable of opening documents created by Word v9?

John

 

[Gordon]

These documents were created by Word v9.0. Word in Office 2003 is
v11.8307.8221 SP3. Are you're telling me that Word v11 is by design
incapable of opening documents created by Word v9?

No. I can open a document created in Word 95 (Office 7) perfectly well in
Word 2007 (Office 12)
What is the history of these documents? Have they been subject to some sort
of process like Windows Easy Transfer or some sort of backup, that may have
corrupted them?

 

[Terry Farrell]

If you have Word 2003 and the files are .doc files, then compatibility has
nowt to do with your problem. It doesn't matter if they were created in Word
2007 because only docx/docm format is different requiring the compatibility
converter: these are doc format so they are in Word 2003 format anyway. So
your problem is totally different.

Is this a standalone PC or are you on a company network? Have you saved the
docs to your local HDD? Which AV are you using? I presume other documents
open fine and it is only these two documents? Test what happens if you open
Word in Safe Mode. From Start | Run (Winkey+R), type in

winword /a

and press enter. Try opening the documents now. What happens?

Terry

 

[Graham Mayor]

Could your problem be the issue at
http://www.gmayor.com/Problems_opening_2007_docs.htm ?
A document created from a Word 2007 template - even if saved in
compatibility mode - will display this issue.

There is no essential difference in file format between Word 2000 and Word
2003. Word 2003 will open the documents created by earlier versions, however
see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922849/en-us

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[John]

I found a way to open and view the document in question with Office
2003. When I double-click on the document, Word 2003 opens and shows
what appears to be a blank document. At the bottom of the windows, there
is a message displayed briefly: "doc3.doc: 1 characters (an approximate
value)." Looking at the View menu, the document is in Normal mode. If I
switch to Web Layout, Print Layout, or Outline the document still
appears to be empty. If I switch to Reading Layout, the document becomes
visible. In addition, I notice that even if I am in Normal mode and
unable to view the document, if I go to Print Preview the document
becomes visible.

As I said in an earlier posting, the document consists of a scanned
image, and it was emailed to me. There is no text other than what is
contained in that image. I have created many documents myself with
embedded images and I don't recall ever seeing this sort of behavior.
I'm now wondering if what I've experienced could be the result of some
incorrect setting in the software that created the document?

My immediate problem is resolved, but I'd still like to understand why
it happened. Thanks!

Regards,

John

If you have Word 2003 and the files are .doc files, then compatibility
has nowt to do with your problem. It doesn't matter if they were created
in Word 2007 because only docx/docm format is different requiring the
compatibility converter: these are doc format so they are in Word 2003
format anyway. So your problem is totally different.

Is this a standalone PC or are you on a company network? Have you saved
the docs to your local HDD? Which AV are you using? I presume other
documents open fine and it is only these two documents? Test what
happens if you open Word in Safe Mode. From Start | Run (Winkey+R), type in

winword /a

and press enter. Try opening the documents now. What happens?

Terry

 

[Jay Freedman]

Go to Office button > Word Options > Advanced and scroll down to the
"Show document content" group. Make sure the "Show drawings and text
boxes" option is checked and the "Show picture placeholders" option is
not checked. That should make the picture (which is what a scanned
image is) visible in the other views.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

I found a way to open and view the document in question with Office
2003. When I double-click on the document, Word 2003 opens and shows
what appears to be a blank document. At the bottom of the windows, there
is a message displayed briefly: "doc3.doc: 1 characters (an approximate
value)." Looking at the View menu, the document is in Normal mode. If I
switch to Web Layout, Print Layout, or Outline the document still
appears to be empty. If I switch to Reading Layout, the document becomes
visible. In addition, I notice that even if I am in Normal mode and
unable to view the document, if I go to Print Preview the document
becomes visible.

As I said in an earlier posting, the document consists of a scanned
image, and it was emailed to me. There is no text other than what is
contained in that image. I have created many documents myself with
embedded images and I don't recall ever seeing this sort of behavior.
I'm now wondering if what I've experienced could be the result of some
incorrect setting in the software that created the document?

My immediate problem is resolved, but I'd still like to understand why
it happened. Thanks!

Regards,

John

 

[John]

Go to Office button > Word Options > Advanced and scroll down to the
"Show document content" group. Make sure the "Show drawings and text
boxes" option is checked and the "Show picture placeholders" option is
not checked. That should make the picture (which is what a scanned
image is) visible in the other views.

I don't see an Office button. When I click on the document, Word opens
directly. Is there supposed to be an Office GUI which shows options for
all the installed Office apps?

In Word, I find Tools->Options->View
"Show picture placeholders" is unchecked.
There is no checkbox under "show" for "show drawings and text boxes".
Under "print and web layout options" I checked "drawings" and "text
boundaries". Now I can see the content when "View" is set to "web
layout", "print layout", or "reading layout", but when "View" is set to
"Normal" the content is still not visible.

John

 

[Graham Mayor]

I don't see an Office button. When I click on the document, Word opens
directly. Is there supposed to be an Office GUI which shows options
for all the installed Office apps?

In Word, I find Tools->Options->View
"Show picture placeholders" is unchecked.
There is no checkbox under "show" for "show drawings and text boxes".
Under "print and web layout options" I checked "drawings" and "text
boundaries". Now I can see the content when "View" is set to "web
layout", "print layout", or "reading layout", but when "View" is set
to "Normal" the content is still not visible.

John

The Office button is in Word 2007. You appear to have Word 2003.

The 'normal' view does not display graphics that are not inserted in line
with text. It is merely a draft viewing/editing option. If you want to see
the document layout use the print layout view.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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