Word files showing "Convert File" window and opening with gibberish.

[Susan B. D.]

G4 Cube running OS Panther 10.3.3 and MS Office X for Mac with
Word 10.1.4.

Have been exchanging problem-free MS word files with a colleague on the
same Mac network for years, most recently Word X (10.1.4) for Mac files.

Out of nowhere, opening files received from this colleague now prompts the
"Convert File" dialogue window. When I select a file format, e.g. "Text Only"
and click ok, the files open as gobbledygook code. I checked for the
"Confirm conversions at open" option in Preferences; it is off. I tried opening
the files in Text Edit, which produced an "Open failed" message. Also tried
opening with MacLink, which immediately freezes with the endlessly
spinning beach ball.

My colleague is on a G3 PowerBook also running OS Panther 10.3.3 and MS
Office X for Mac with Word 10.1.4. (He recently had his internal hard drive
replaced with a new one).

My own Word files are fine. And the same Word files are not a problem on
my colleague's source computer. Something seems to happen to them in
transit.

Any clues out there as to why this is happening?

Susan B. D.

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Susan,

Any chance the sender changed the way s/he is encoding attachments?

Do the files come in with the .doc extension? If not, add it on and see if
it makes a difference. Use File>Open from within Word to open the document.

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>

On 5/3/04 1:30 PM, in article 7af501c4314d$7b34b0b0$a601...@phx.gbl, "Susan

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Susan,

Note: I am posting this reply to the newsgroup (as well as to you directly)
so that others can respond and I'm sorry for the delay. Your post came in
to my junk mail folder :-), which I don't check very often.

In order to avoid having problems replying to my posts in the future (it's a
bug), use the following web portal instead of the one you were using:
<http://communities2.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx
?guid=366BA05D-4181-BB41-B201-4C83D5F6024C>

As for your problem, frankly I'm puzzled.

Do you have trouble opening documents sent to you by other Word X users?
Are there others you can ask to send you test documents?

Is your colleague protecting his documents somehow?

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>

On 5/4/04 8:29 AM, "Susan Ball Dunlop" wrote:

> Hi Beth
>
> Re MS Word newsgroup post May 3, 2004.
>
> 1) No, sender has not changed way attachments are encoded
>
> 2) All files have .doc extension
>
> 3) Opening problem files from inside Word achieves same non-result as double
> clicking the file in the finder, so that零 a no go.
>
> Tried posting reply but kept getting the following message:
>
> The message could not be posted to the NNTP server. The transport error code
> was 0x800ccca9. The server response was 441 (629) Article Rejected --
> Ill-formed message id
> '=?iso-8859-1?Q?_=3CBCBC2660.3C43F=BEthro...@earthlink.net=3E?=' in
> field 'References
>
> Thanks for wading in.
>
> Susan

[John McGhie [MVP - Word]]

Susan:

A bit puzzled here: how are these files travelling to you? Are you opening
them directly from the file server, or emailing them?

Allow one to open as "Text Only" and have a look down the bottom of the
file. There should be a line that reads Word.Document.8 or Word.Document.9
in there: if not, the file you are looking at is "not" a Word document.

Cheers

This responds to article <7af501c4314d$7b34b0b0$a601...@phx.gbl>, from
"Susan B. D." <anon...@discussions.microsoft.com> on 4/5/04 6:30 AM:

--

Please respond only to the newsgroup to preserve the thread.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. GMT + 10 Hrs
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:jo...@mcghie.name

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Susan

You say you recently reinstalled Entourage. Only Entourage? So you didn't
do a complete removal and reinstallation of Office. That could very well be
your problem. You've got a "dirty" install. I highly recommend that you
follow this procedure:

The Remove Office tool is located in the Value Pack folder on the Office X
CD. Install it and run it. Now reinstall Office X using the installer on
the CD or do a Drag & Drop to the Applications folder. Also don't forget to
install any Value Pack items you need. When you've finished, you'll need to
download (<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/download/>) and install the Office X
10.1.2, 10.1.4 (includes 10.1.3) and 10.1.5 updaters.

For the most trouble-free installation, run Disk Utility First Aid to repair
permissions after you remove Office, after you reinstall it and after you
install all the updates. To repair permissions go to Macintosh
HD/Applications/Utilities; open up Disk Utility; select your hard disk and
click the First Aid tab and then the button to "Repair Disk Permissions".

Before doing the removal, consider backing up important files for later
reinstallation:

Normal Template
My Templates (your custom templates)
Custom Dictionary
AutoCorrect List ("Office ACL English" or whatever your language is)
Settings files for any or all Office applications (though in this case, I
would *not* advise reinstalling any Entourage files).

Hope this helps.

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>

On 5/6/04 10:56 AM, in article
3C874CC7-B8E9-44A3...@microsoft.com, "Susan B. D."
<anon...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> Hi Beth and John
> Thank you for for your help so far.
>
> "Text Only" produces the following: ­¦ ý°± · > śť
> 6 8 śťťť 5
> ťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťť
> ťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťť
> ťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťť
> ťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťť
> ťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťťť
> ťťťťťťťťťť. Nothing else
>
> Today I received a Word file from someone else, same problem. Also, a jpg and
> a bmp file emailed to me yesterday and today from two completely different
> sources won't open in Preview, Photoshop, Illustrator, or Word, which leads
> me to think that my Entourage may be the problem. The file attachments I am
> trying to open have been saved to assignment folders in my Documents folder; I
> am not trying to open them in Entourage, which incidentally I recently
> reinstalled.
>
> Not being able to open these files, or even read their contents in MacLink, is
> now a serious problem, not just an inconvenience, as I need them for client
> assignments with deadlines.
>
> Maybe I should post the problem to the Entourage Newsgroup. I'm stymied. Much
> obliged for any help here.
>
> Regards
> Susan
>

[John McGhie [MVP - Word]]

Hi Susan:

I'll take a wild stab in the dark here: When you re-installed Entourage, it
lost its connection with Stuffit. Consequently, it now can't decode any
compressed attachments you are being sent.

If you re-install Stuffit I think you will fix your problem.

Cheers

This responds to article
<90EA3197-00F8-4921...@microsoft.com>, from "Susan B. D."
<anon...@discussions.microsoft.com> on 7/5/04 6:21 AM:

> Hi Beth and John
>
> Further to my previous post.
>
> The problem is not with MS Word afterall. I tried downloading the relevant
> attachments directly from the server through webmail on Safari. I dragged the
> Word, jpg and bmp files off the server in Safari to my desk top and they
> opened just fine. Sorry to have taken up your time.
>
> Now I have an email problem instead, so I guess it's onto the Entourage
> discussion group.
>
> Thank you so much for your help.
> Susan