Windows 8 and MS Office Word 2007

[LizzieW]

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

[Michael J]

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

[LizzieW]

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.

[LizzieW]

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.

[Michael J]

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.

[Michael J]

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?

[smudwhisk]

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 as I think it might help your problem too.

Nicola

[LizzieW]

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?

[Michael J]

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.