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General => Technical Help => Topic started by: lydiaann on Saturday 29 August 20 15:51 BST (UK)
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Oh dear, oh dear!
Our Windows 10 licence was running out and because of other stuff we do on the PC, we decided to go for the full Office suite running Windows 365. Before we did so, I tidied up some very messy file folders under my Genealogy heading and put every document/certificate/registration/'story' that wasn't already there on the appropriate tree on Ancestry. Because they were all 'safe' (and every one readable at that time on Ancestry) I deleted the originals.
We've now got 365 up and running and everything was hunky-dory...UNTIL (there's always an 'until'!!) I opened one of the Word documents, which was actually the transcript of an 1853 letter which contains A LOT of information. I couldn't read it!! It puts up an Error Message telling me to "Open the file with Text Recovery Converter". Now this is one of the very few I missed in the deletion process so I still do have a copy of it (phew...). I opened it up from File Explorer, all good and readable. I deleted the one out of Ancestry and re-attached the File Explorer copy. It still gives me the same message. And all Word documents are the same throughout the various trees. Every other type of 'picture' in the Galleries are fine - census forms, BMD registration documents, etc. So what can I do? Can anyone help? Please... (and can you hear that I'm relapsing into a whine :'()
Any assistance would be most gratefully received. Thank you.
lydiaann
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Some suggestions here:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_word-mso_other-mso_365hp/cant-open-word-97-2003-document-in-office-365/d96b9762-5e84-4943-95dd-701816e66f9c
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Shaun:
Thanks for the link. It's not that I can't open the Word document in the new 365. It's that I cannot open this document in Ancestry. As I said, I opened it up in File Explorer and, as everything seemed okay, I deleted the one off Ancestry and reloaded with the FE version...still won't open in Ancestry. Not sure what to do now. Would I be able to convert it to jpeg or other version that the site does take and then enter it onto the site? Not sure if I can do that either.
I'm okay using Office Suite, just not capable on the technical side!
lydiaann
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The only way I can find to add a Word document to a tree is to upload it as Media to the Gallery. Ancestry doesn't know how to show a preview, so offers to let you download it so that you can then view it at your end.
Ancestry only seems to give a preview of pictures; other file types are left for you to deal with.
Is this what you have done, or is there some other way of attaching a Word document to an Ancestry tree?
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You attach a Word document into the Gallery by inputting it as a 'story', rather than as Media, which then accepts .doc items. I have loads of them scattered around - some of them extracts of newspaper articles, copies of items that other rellies have found in obscure places, etc. Can't remember where they all are but the problem was highlighted when someone asked for some information and I knew I had it in one particular document. As I said, fortunately this one was one of the very few that escaped the delete button when I was tidying up ready for the new Windows program. Very frustrating. I'll have to see if I can re-type it in the new version of Word and enter it again...g-r-r-r! I hope I don't have to do that with all of them!
for anyone out there who knows, I am still grappling with this .... pretty please! ???
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I've tried it again, using "upload story", and the effect is the same. I've tried .DOC, .DOCX and even .TXT; only pictures get a preview.
The Gallery just shows "Preview not available", "Download to view".
What do you see under Gallery? What do you see when you click on one of the "thumbnails"?
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Sorry, I thought you didn't know how to do it. Yes, you can upload it but then when you come to view it, 'you download' it, so you know it is there. However, when I upload it and then try to view it through the 'download' instruction, it tells me to "Open the File with Text Recovery Converter". Most annoying...these instructions are designed to convert the file while you are actually in Word and not going through Ancestry so it doesn't work.
However, I am going to try retyping into the new Word and then uploading it. It's very trying as it's more work but I do want those who can access my trees to be able to see all the information.
Thanks for trying to help anyway - it is most appreciated!
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It was a brave thing to entrust your documents to a 3rd party website and not keep copies!
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It must be a 'glitch' as Himself has tried to open a document received through e-mail and is finding the same problem. He has found that moving it into 'One Drive' is a help and he can read it there, but once it is transferred into the appropriate file, it will not open. So, I guess a chat with MS is in order. Thanks for trying to help me, Chatters - much appreciated.
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It probably is a problem with MS and Win10.
My local gene society secretary sends out emails with two attachments sometimes, like just this week.
One Word document was OK but the other was blank when I opened it. It's happened before.
She sent me the 'blank' one again by itself and it is OK.
It's like the way email messages sometimes take quite a while till I get anything on the screen, and sometimes it takes days for an attachment to become available properly so I can open it.
Win 10 has a lot to answer for and I don't know why MS can't fix it. A friend has the same problem I've recently discovered ??? ???
Dawn M
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It probably is a problem with MS and Win10.
My local gene society secretary sends out emails with two attachments sometimes, like just this week.
One Word document was OK but the other was blank when I opened it. It's happened before.
She sent me the 'blank' one again by itself and it is OK.
It's like the way email messages sometimes take quite a while till I get anything on the screen, and sometimes it takes days for an attachment to become available properly so I can open it.
Win 10 has a lot to answer for and I don't know why MS can't fix it. A friend has the same problem I've recently discovered ??? ???
Dawn M
That sounds more like a problem with your email system. Are you reading your email in a browser or using a mail program at your end? Windows 10 ships with a simple offline reader called "Mail", but there are much better offline readers out there - mostly for free. If you buy into Office, that usually provides Outlook for handling email.
Email messages are sent between mail servers as a single slab of data, with markers in the middle to show what and where attachments are. If the email has arrived, so have the attachments. The protocol used between servers does not allow a partial email.
If an attachment is corrupted, do other recipients get the corruption too? If so, the problem is at the sender's side, either with their machine or their mail provider.
There are often limits on the total size of a single email, imposed by the provider on the sender's side. A common limit is 10MB. Perhaps the second attachment made the email break that limit and the sending provider truncated the attachment?
Don't forget that this limit is arbitrary. The largest email I've ever seen was over 600MB long. That was a valid business email, containing plans for a city metro system, and we had to lift the corporate limit on mailbox size so the recipient could deal with it.
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It must be a 'glitch' as Himself has tried to open a document received through e-mail and is finding the same problem. He has found that moving it into 'One Drive' is a help and he can read it there, but once it is transferred into the appropriate file, it will not open. So, I guess a chat with MS is in order. Thanks for trying to help me, Chatters - much appreciated.
You can use the free version of Office, accessed through a web browser, from any machine, but it is limited to using files inside OneDrive.
If you buy Office 2019, or pay a subscription for Office 365 (now rebadged as Microsoft 365), you should be able to use files on a local drive.
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This is the problem. We paid for 365 and this has caused the trouble we are having...but it is mainly with Ancestry, only occasionally with attachments to e-mails. I'll contact MSN, they may have a simple solution. Oh yes, and I have tried using Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge as the browser, same thing happens. We'll get there - watch this space!
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Thanks Andrew
You said:
"Email messages are sent between mail servers as a single slab of data, with markers in the middle to show what and where attachments are. If the email has arrived, so have the attachments. The protocol used between servers does not allow a partial email."
What I meant is that the email shows there is an attachment but the system won't open it, sometimes it takes days before it suddenly becomes openable. If I need to read it in a hurry I have to go to my friend's place and read it on his Windows 7 system! Win 10 put my three email accounts into a Mail folder and they don't have any system, either, for emptying Junk & Deleted folders - again, I go to my friend's computer to do my tidying up!! A real pain in the proverbial, I can tell you.
Dawn M
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Hi Dawn,
To clear the Junk or Deleted item folders in Windows 10 Mail, click the 'More' button which will then show the Junk & Deleted items folders. Left click either folder, which will then open, & on the very top right click that icon which will replace the Search box with 3 more icons - including the dustbin which you can click to empty that folder.
Michael.
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Thanks Michael
That worked with one of my Hotmail accounts but not the other ???
And not at all with my ISP account. ???
However, just yesterday I got connected to the NBN (in Oz, supposedly super quick National Broadband Network ???) so maybe that's why.
Also, I had to 'dustbin' each item separately, it didn't want to know about clearing it all at once like on normal Hotmail.
But it's an advance! :)
Dawn M