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General => Technical Help => Topic started by: LizzieW on Thursday 09 May 13 17:14 BST (UK)
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Having received my new Windows 8 laptop yesterday, I've got it up and running and have it all figured out - I think ::) I know how to get to desktop and have got a folder called Liz (by default) as a desktop icon which holds lots of folders called my documents, my photos etc (all empty at the moment), as well as desktop icon for control panel. Other programmes such as Snipping Tool I've pinned to the task bar and I've downloaded Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird, Irfanview, Foxit and various other programmes, as well as Manchester & Lancs FHS toolbar, so I'm almost ready to stop using my old laptop. All this makes life much easier than trying to bring up Windows 8 new side bar which is very temperamental.
I've also managed to persuade it to accept Word 2007 - we had a disc for installation. However, what I can't get it to do is open a Word document just by clicking on it. As a test, before I copy over all my documents etc. from my old laptop, I opened up Word 2007 in Windows 8 and typed a test piece, which I then saved into My Documents. When I opened My Documents and clicked on my test piece, I get a User Account Control box asking if I want to allow the following program (Microsoft Office Word) make changes to this computer. If I choose No, nothing happens. If I choose yes, Word opens but is blank (and blue instead of white) and I get another box called C:\Liz\Documents\First Documents.docx with a message saying "There was a problem sending the command to the program". - I called my document First Documents!! - If I go to the open, blank, blue Word document and click on the large circle on the top left hand corner, I get the usual menu, New, Open, Save, etc. etc. and also a column marked Recent Documents. Under that there is 1 document, which is my "First Document". If I click on that it opens up as usual. Now obviously that is OK if I'm saving a document to Word that I want to work on and then send to somebody before deleting it, but that's not a lot of good if that is the only way I can open all my already saved Word documents.
Sorry for the long explanation, but has anyone any idea how I can open Word 2007 documents in Windows 8. I don't mind purchasing the Office 2010 if I will be able to open all my 2007 documents but I'd rather not do that if I can help it.
Many thanks for your help.
Lizzie
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Hi Lizzie,
Although you have Word 2007 and saved your doc with that program, it appears that Windows 8 thinks you have Word 2010 and saves it with that program's suffix - .docx. (I've just tried what you've done with Win 8/Word 2007 etc and that is what happens.)
Word 2007 doesn't recognise docs with the .docx suffix unless you download a particular update from Microsoft so without that, when you save a document, after you give it a name use the 'Save as type' box below & select 'Word 97-2003' Document (*.doc)'.
Also, another way to open your docs from your desktop folder is to right-click on the doc and select the 'Open with' option - if necessary navigate to your Word 2007 program.
Best wishes, Michael.
Edited with hindsight ::)
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Hi Michael
That didn't seem to work. I re-saved the document in Word 97-2003 and then tried to as you suggested and all that happens is I now get a white blank Word document. I tried right clicking and the options were Microsoft Office (which hasn't been downloaded onto the laptop yet!), Microsoft Office Word and WordPad. If I click on WordPad, the document opens with a message across the top stating "WordPad does not support all of the features of this document's format. Some content might be missing or displayed improperly.
There might be another problem as when I've saved documents in the past, I've just clicked on save, assuming that I was working in Word 97-2003 that is what they would be saved in, but I've just checked on a few of them and they are all saved in doc.x I'm going to send myself an word attachment by e-mail to the new laptop and see if I can open it and if it looks anything like the original. The only difference in the short test document I made was just that the type started right near the top of the document, rather than a short way down.
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Well, that was a disaster, I sent a word document from my old laptop to my new one and it wouldn't open at all. I tried to save it, but the only option to save was All Files, not word, or wordpad or anything else. :'(
I suppose if the worst comes to the worst, I'll just have to keep all the documents on my old laptop and refer to them when I need to, although that's not very practical as, often I refer to a word document whilst I'm doing some other work so it would mean having 2 laptops switched on at the same time - which I have at the moment.
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Hi Lizzie,
Sorry to hear about the sent document not opening, I'm not sure what the problem can be (I'm reading the Word help files at the moment).
Also sorry that I may have misled you - .docx IS the default setting for Word 2007 onwards. Most of my files were created when I was using Office 2000 so they're all .doc. I'm now using 2007 and 2010 & both open all my earlier .doc files without any problems - so you should be able to do the same.
Michael.
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What was the filename & extension that you sent from your old laptop that wouldn't open on the new laptop?
How did you try to open it?
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Lizzie
Have a look at this article - http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2007-word/there-was-a-problem-sending-command-to-the-program/d64558c1-627c-49d9-a6c9-967435610086?msgId=d4473a59-a6a7-405d-9448-85654a1ddd00 (http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2007-word/there-was-a-problem-sending-command-to-the-program/d64558c1-627c-49d9-a6c9-967435610086?msgId=d4473a59-a6a7-405d-9448-85654a1ddd00) as I think it might help your problem too.
Nicola
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The one I sent was Microsoft Office Word 97 - 2003 Document (.doc), which I saved in 2008, I've looked at another document which I saved in October 2012 and that is Microsoft Office Word Document (.docx).
I can see I'm going to have a problem with these. My Oh has suggested that I should get MS Word 2013 rather than 2010, which was not set up on the new laptop, there was just an app suggesting I bought it! Whether Word 2013 is easier, or whether there is some way I can convert all my saved word documents to the 2013 I don't know. There seems to be something about compatibility that I need to download.
Nicola - Thank you for the link, I'll look at it later this evening. I've just got to go out to a Neighbourhood Watch meeting, (slight problem it's pouring with rain and my OH has gone out in the car and guess where the umbrellas are? ::) ::)
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I sent a word document from my old laptop to my new one and it wouldn't open at all. I tried to save it, but the only option to save was All Files, not word, or wordpad or anything else.
Was the above problem saving the attachment from your email program? (No need to specify a format).
Another option to try - copy a document from your old laptop onto a usb stick & then see if you can open it on your Win8 laptop.
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I tried to save it as it wouldn't just open so it was the other option. I'll try copying onto a USB stick and also thoroughly read the link Nicola sent which might just have the answer.
Thank you both for your help.
Lizzie
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I`ve not long changed to 8 from XP and also from Office 2003 to 2007.
I have no problems opening my Word Docs created in 2003, but have noticed they open in "compatability mode " , I can then save them as Word Doc, but it will now save as 2007.
Not much help I know but ...
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What I've decided to do is to transfer everything from my old Vista laptop to new Windows 8 and see what happens. Could the problem be related to Vista, as wilcoxon doesn't seem to have any real problems going from XP to8?
Lizzie
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I currently use Vista, Win 7 & Win 8 on two computers, and have no problems transferring Word docs between any of them (including docs created in XP on a previous computer) - so you should have had no problems either. I don't think Vista is the culprit.
Michael.
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Lizzie
It could be a file association issue. This was one suggestion I found via google, although I don't think they were using Windows 8:
Try to re-associate the Word documents and check the result:
· Right click on the file
· Click open with
· Choose default program
· Select Word.
· If you are unable to see Word in the list browse to the below location.
· Computer, programs files/program files X (86).
· Look for Microsoft Office ->Office 12.
· Select Winword.exe.
· Click ok.
· Check the box ‘Always use the selected program to open this kind of file’.
As wilcoxon says that his 2003 office docs are opening in compatability view, I would imagine your 2007 docs need to as well because Office 2003 and Office 2007 are only 32 bit, rather than Office 2010 which can be both 32 bit and 64 bit. If you've still got the trial of Office 2010 installed, that could well be the issue. Try checking that the file association (mentioned above) is set to open in the Office 12 (x86) version and see if that fixes it.
One other suggestion I found, but am not convinced although it was listed by a so-called Microsoft MVP on a forum posting for exactly the same issue was:
Turn off the Preview Pane by clicking on the icon to the left of the help question mark at the top right of the file open dialog.
See how you get on with those.
Nicola
PS. I've seen the same problem before with Office 2003 and Windows 7, but wasn't involved in fixing it because wasn't server-side issue (great way to avoid fixing PC related issues when only paid to resolve server issues!).
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You could also try changing the compatibility settings for Word 2007, picture attached. It shows compatibility for Windows Vista, but you can also select others.
Michael.
Added: sorry the picture is so big; if I reduce the size the text becomes unreadable. You need to scroll across to see the settings box.
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Doesn't that look different to Windows 7 :o
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You're right; the Win 8 desktop is like Win 7 without the aero effects - all the window borders are solid like XP.
However there's no start button etc, this is all on the first screen.
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Yes I gather a lack of a start button has caused a lot of complaints. ;D
I'm assuming the screen shot was of the windows explorer window, which does look somewhat different to XP and Windows 7. It's interesting to see how microsoft have tweaked things to get it looking more like Apple's MAC o/s than ever, just don't think it's done them much good. ;D
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OK - having taken all day to transfer from vista to Windows 8 - caused by my OH. ::) He suggested it would be a good idea to do transfer via a network connection, so I had both laptops next to each other and near to the router, installed Easy Transfer onto Vista and set the transfer going between the two laptops, then OH decided he wanted to see if he'd got any e-mails. The effect was that the transfer stopped with an error message and each time I tried again, I got the same message. So OH said I could transfer using the hard disc we have. I told him I didn't need to do a back up first because the easy transfer system did it, but would he listen - what do you think. So he set the hard disc to do a back up, which took 2 hours, then when I started the transfer again, guess what the easy transfer programme does its own back up - so another 2 hours wasted. Aaaagh. Whilst I was transferring from the hard drive to the new laptop, I thought I'd do some work on the other laptop by downloading an unzipping a file - but it wouldn't work, I got a message saying I didn't have permission to unzip the file. As it was for transcription work that I've been doing for over 2 years and I have unzipped files all the time, I don't know wha
Fortunately, most things have been transferred, but I still can't open Window documents. So at last I'm going to try the fixes suggested above. Wish me luck.
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Ok - I'm using Firefox not IE, next problem my C drive is called Windows8_OS (C:). Next problem when I continued to Program Files and clicked on Microsoft Office, then Office12, nothing of note there, so I tracked back and clicked on Program Files (x86) then Microsoft Office, then Office 12, but no Windows.exe. This is what I get near to where Windows.exe should be. Fortunately, I can open the Word docs by right clicking and opening in Notepad. Having spent most of the day messing about with this new laptop - hindered by my OH - I'm going to give up until tomorrow.
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All the suggestions above relate to Winword.exe being the problem, but I haven't got that on my laptop. So I've checked on my old Vista laptop and Winword.exe isn't on there either. I don't understand that, as the Windows 2007 disc we have is a genuine Word disc which we bought from a reputable supplier. However, with or without winword.exe, Word 2007 has always worked perfectly on my old laptop.
ps. I meant Winword.exe in my previous post, not Windows.exe - it's been a long day. I think the answer is going to be that I have to get Windows 2013 and hope that works. Alternatively, I could try downloading Windows 2007 from the disc again.
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All the suggestions above relate to Winword.exe being the problem, but I haven't got that on my laptop.
Hi Lizzie,
You HAVE got Winword.exe on your laptop - on the screenshot 'Office 12 files' you posted it's the seventh file down from the top. It shows just as 'Winword' because you haven't got 'show file extensions' ticked in File Explorer, but you can see that it's listed as an application.
If you right-click on that file & select 'Properties' you will be able to set compatibility mode if necessary. Or you could right-click on one of your earlier docs, select 'Open with' & navigate to the Winword file that you've found.
I think you're nearly there, well done.
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Thank you. I didn't think to right click on it ::) If I just clicked on it, it just opened a blank windows document. I right clicked as you suggested, went to properties and compatibility and changed it to Run this program in compatibility mode for Windows 7 - and it works. Hurrah.
Thank you everyone for your help and input. I am OK using a computer, but don't know much about its workings - like driving a car but not being able to fix the engine. ::)
Lizzie
ps. Is it just me, or have the little emoticons gone green? :'(