Someone known to me has sent a Word Doc as an e-mail attachment. In the OE6
'attach' bar it has the Word icon in front of the title and .doc after - but
it won't open properly.

All I get is lines of little squares and .........................'Page
Break'...........................

Any idea how to open it?


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

On 18 Sep, 20:43, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:
Someone known to me has sent a Word Doc as an e-mail attachment. *In the OE6
'attach' bar it has the Word icon in front of the title and .doc after - but
it won't open properly.

All I get is lines of little squares and .........................'Page
Break'...........................

Any idea how to open it?

Sounds like it was made using an older/newer version of Word than you
have installed, or using Notepad (or similar) and they've manually
changed the extension.
Try opening it in Notepad, or ask the sender to save it as a
compatible version (Word '07 to Word '03 for example) and resend.

--

The Medway Handyman wrote:
Someone known to me has sent a Word Doc as an e-mail attachment. In the OE6
'attach' bar it has the Word icon in front of the title and .doc after - but
it won't open properly.

All I get is lines of little squares and .........................'Page
Break'...........................

Any idea how to open it?


Maybe it is the new(ish) version of word (2007?)
I think there is some sort of free ad in you can get to allow word 2003
to open the new file format.
Don't try and open through OE - save to disc and right click 'open with'
to control what happens.
Good Luck

Bob

In article ,
The Medway Handyman wrote:
Someone known to me has sent a Word Doc as an e-mail attachment. In the OE6
'attach' bar it has the Word icon in front of the title and .doc after - but
it won't open properly.

All I get is lines of little squares and .........................'Page
Break'...........................

Any idea how to open it?

Assuming you have word 2003, it could be a word 2007 doc? Although I'm
fairly sure they are .docx files.

Might be worth trying http://tinyurl.com/2007pack

If you don't have Word 2003 then http://tinyurl.com/2007viewer might be handy.

Darren

Lino expert wrote:
On 18 Sep, 20:43, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:
Someone known to me has sent a Word Doc as an e-mail attachment. In
the OE6 'attach' bar it has the Word icon in front of the title and
.doc after - but it won't open properly.

All I get is lines of little squares and
.........................'Page Break'...........................

Any idea how to open it?

Sounds like it was made using an older/newer version of Word than you
have installed, or using Notepad (or similar) and they've manually
changed the extension.
Try opening it in Notepad, or ask the sender to save it as a
compatible version (Word '07 to Word '03 for example) and resend.

I appear to have Word 97 SR 1.

Tried Notepad, just fewer little squares :-(


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

Bob Minchin dangling via a dongle wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote:
Someone known to me has sent a Word Doc as an e-mail attachment. In
the OE6 'attach' bar it has the Word icon in front of the title and
.doc after - but it won't open properly.

All I get is lines of little squares and
.........................'Page Break'...........................

Any idea how to open it?


Maybe it is the new(ish) version of word (2007?)
I think there is some sort of free ad in you can get to allow word
2003 to open the new file format.

OK

Don't try and open through OE - save to disc and right click 'open
with' to control what happens.

I actually thought of that myself! Full of new found confidence I tried
Wordpad & Notepad - nothing I'm afraid.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

On Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:43:07 +0000, The Medway Handyman wrote:
All I get is lines of little squares and .........................'Page
Break'...........................

Any idea how to open it?

Openoffice?

On 18/09/09 21:10, The Medway Handyman wrote:

I appear to have Word 97 SR 1.

Try OpenOffice 3.1.1 then ...

http://www.openoffice.org/

The Medway Handyman wrote:
Someone known to me has sent a Word Doc as an e-mail attachment. In the
OE6 'attach' bar it has the Word icon in front of the title and .doc
after - but it won't open properly.

All I get is lines of little squares and .........................'Page
Break'...........................

Any idea how to open it?

Try downloading and installing OpenOffice 3.1.1
(http://download.openoffice.org/) It's big - so you'll need broadband. But
it's free and can open Word 2007 docs and many others, too.

--
Jeff

"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
om...
Someone known to me has sent a Word Doc as an e-mail attachment. In the
OE6 'attach' bar it has the Word icon in front of the title and .doc
after - but it won't open properly.

All I get is lines of little squares and .........................'Page
Break'...........................

Any idea how to open it?


It could be it's been corrupted, so you may not get it to open properly no
matter what you do.

If it's someone known to you ask them to check it on their system and send
it again.

An alternative might be to send it to one of the places that does free
online conversion of documents to pdfs. I have done this for MS Publisher
documents, some of which I can't open with MY version of Publisher. No help
if it's a corrupt file, but it's been known to help when people send things
in odd formats (wps anyone?)

On Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:24:21 GMT, Cicero wrote:


Download 'OpenOffice'; it's free and updates are easy to get. It sometimes
manages to open things where others have failed.

It will take some time to download but once you've got it you can run it
in parallel with 'Word' and never pay again for an office suite.

Why would you want to run it in parallel with Word? I ditched M$ Office
once I was happy that OpenOffice could do just about everything and more
that I wanted. That was about a year ago and I've never had cause to doubt
OpenOffice.



--
The Wanderer

Have I understood what the other guy is saying?
Have I meant what I said? Have I said what I mean?

Andy Burns wrote:
On 18/09/09 21:10, The Medway Handyman wrote:

I appear to have Word 97 SR 1.

Try OpenOffice 3.1.1 then ...

http://www.openoffice.org/

Thanks, but now all I get is a series of ##############



--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

John Rumm wrote:
Bob Minchin dangling via a dongle wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote:
Someone known to me has sent a Word Doc as an e-mail attachment. In
the OE6 'attach' bar it has the Word icon in front of the title and
.doc after - but it won't open properly.

All I get is lines of little squares and
.........................'Page Break'...........................

Any idea how to open it?


Maybe it is the new(ish) version of word (2007?)

That would be a .docx usually though...

I think there is some sort of free ad in you can get to allow word
2003 to open the new file format.

Indeed, download from MS.

I just feel that would bugger up Word completely & I wouldn't be able to use
it. Don't link these new fangled downloads.

Don't try and open through OE - save to disc and right click 'open
with' to control what happens.

Or use the word Open, but then select "Recover text from any file" for
the document type. That will usually elt you see anything readable in
there.

I don't have those options. Do you mean 'open with'?


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

On 18/09/09 22:20, The Medway Handyman wrote:
Andy Burns wrote:
On 18/09/09 21:10, The Medway Handyman wrote:

I appear to have Word 97 SR 1.

Try OpenOffice 3.1.1 then ...

http://www.openoffice.org/

Thanks, but now all I get is a series of ##############

Then I'd say it is a corrupt .doc file or perhaps not even a .doc file
at all, but some other file type that's been renamed.

On Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:43:07 GMT, The Medway Handyman wrote:

All I get is lines of little squares and .........................'Page
Break'...........................

Little squares is how windows sometimes shows characters for a font
it has not got. Can you check with the sender what font they used and
then see if you have that installed.

I doubt it's a Word2007/.docx problem, your wouldn't even get as far
as you do if that was the case.

--
Cheers
Dave.

Cicero wrote:



I don't, because I'm using Ubuntu,

and Pan, "As She Crawled Across the Table"
now why can't MicrosoftÂ*flirt with names like that
\0

gOn Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:01:16 GMT, "The Medway Handyman"
had this to say:

John Rumm wrote:
Bob Minchin dangling via a dongle wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote:
Someone known to me has sent a Word Doc as an e-mail attachment. In
the OE6 'attach' bar it has the Word icon in front of the title and
.doc after - but it won't open properly.

All I get is lines of little squares and
.........................'Page Break'...........................

Any idea how to open it?


Maybe it is the new(ish) version of word (2007?)

That would be a .docx usually though...

I think there is some sort of free ad in you can get to allow word
2003 to open the new file format.

Indeed, download from MS.

I just feel that would bugger up Word completely & I wouldn't be able to use
it. Don't link these new fangled downloads.

I was recently sent a document in .docx and didn't have an idea from
whence it originated (apart from the originator, IYSWIM).

I had an idea that proper software was supposed to be backwards (or
reverse) compatible. So it seems that yet again M$ are breaking all
the rules - such as default top-posting and HTML in Outlook and OE.

IYR, M$ were relative latecomers to the Internet type of thing...

--
Frank Erskine

John Rumm wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote:

Or use the word Open, but then select "Recover text from any file"
for the document type. That will usually elt you see anything
readable in there.

I don't have those options. Do you mean 'open with'?

If yours is like mine - then "Open" on the File menu, then the "Files
of Type" drop down at the bottom of the Open dialogue.

(not got a copy of word 97 here to check - but I think the option
existed in that version)

It does - I just get a blank scren.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

On Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:43:07 GMT, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:

Someone known to me has sent a Word Doc as an e-mail attachment. In the OE6
'attach' bar it has the Word icon in front of the title and .doc after - but
it won't open properly.

All I get is lines of little squares and .........................'Page
Break'...........................

Any idea how to open it?

email back and ask

a) what prog it was

b) pirate a copy of it

c) if word ask them to save the file as a word 97/txt file

--

"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...
The Medway Handyman wrote:
Someone known to me has sent a Word Doc as an e-mail attachment. In the
OE6 'attach' bar it has the Word icon in front of the title and .doc
after - but it won't open properly.

All I get is lines of little squares and .........................'Page
Break'...........................

Any idea how to open it?

Try downloading and installing OpenOffice 3.1.1
(http://download.openoffice.org/) It's big - so you'll need broadband.
But it's free and can open Word 2007 docs and many others, too.

And it will convert docs to pdfs.

Bill

The Medway Handyman wrote:
Lino expert wrote:
On 18 Sep, 20:43, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:
Someone known to me has sent a Word Doc as an e-mail attachment. In
the OE6 'attach' bar it has the Word icon in front of the title and
.doc after - but it won't open properly.

All I get is lines of little squares and
.........................'Page Break'...........................

Any idea how to open it?
Sounds like it was made using an older/newer version of Word than you
have installed, or using Notepad (or similar) and they've manually
changed the extension.
Try opening it in Notepad, or ask the sender to save it as a
compatible version (Word '07 to Word '03 for example) and resend.

I appear to have Word 97 SR 1.

Tried Notepad, just fewer little squares :-(


Download Open Office and install it. It can read MOST of word 2005 stuff.

http://www.openoffice.org/

Andy Burns wrote:
On 18/09/09 22:20, The Medway Handyman wrote:
Andy Burns wrote:
On 18/09/09 21:10, The Medway Handyman wrote:

I appear to have Word 97 SR 1.

Try OpenOffice 3.1.1 then ...

http://www.openoffice.org/

Thanks, but now all I get is a series of ##############

Then I'd say it is a corrupt .doc file or perhaps not even a .doc file
at all, but some other file type that's been renamed.


I bet it was written on a mac.

The Wanderer wrote:
On Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:24:21 GMT, Cicero wrote:


Download 'OpenOffice'; it's free and updates are easy to get. It sometimes
manages to open things where others have failed.

It will take some time to download but once you've got it you can run it
in parallel with 'Word' and never pay again for an office suite.

Why would you want to run it in parallel with Word? I ditched M$ Office
once I was happy that OpenOffice could do just about everything and more
that I wanted. That was about a year ago and I've never had cause to doubt
OpenOffice.



I've wondered about open office for a while but as an avid user of
excel, I'm curious to know how the OO version compares to M$ Excel which
I find extremely versatile and capable.
Anyone care to comment please?

TIA Bob

On 19/09/09 00:55, Frank Erskine wrote:

I had an idea that proper software was supposed to be backwards (or
reverse) compatible. So it seems that yet again M$ are breaking all
the rules - such as default top-posting and HTML in Outlook and OE.

What you require in this case (for your old version to read newer
formats) is forward compatibility, or for the person sending the file to
you to use the backward compatibility (that does exist in Office2007) .

Of course microsoft set the default format of new software when saving
to be the new file format (and even if someone is savvy enough to save
to the older format will get warnings that certain content will be
strippd from their document) so that it creates false pressure for other
people to upgrade to the newer version.

In article ,
The Medway Handyman wrote:

Someone known to me has sent a Word Doc as an e-mail attachment.



Nobody has yet suggested the obvious....


The sender should be asked to send it again in a standard format, rather
than some proprietry file. It may be no issue to the BillyGoat brigade
(although clearly it is here) but how about those who use real operating
systems?

Plain text is for email, if the "pretties" are essential, then PDF is the
answer

--
AJL Electronics (G6FGO) Ltd : Satellite and TV aerial systems
http://www.illifauthouse.co.uk : http://www.ajlelectronics.co.uk

On Sat, 19 Sep 2009 08:18:09 +0100, Andy Burns wrote:

On 19/09/09 00:55, Frank Erskine wrote:

I had an idea that proper software was supposed to be backwards (or
reverse) compatible. So it seems that yet again M$ are breaking all
the rules - such as default top-posting and HTML in Outlook and OE.

What you require in this case (for your old version to read newer
formats) is forward compatibility, or for the person sending the file to
you to use the backward compatibility (that does exist in Office2007) .

I've had good results asking people to use RTF (Rich Text Format) as a
portable format. Works in nearly all cases.



--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

"Bob Minchin dangling via a dongle" wrote in
message ...


I've wondered about open office for a while but as an avid user of excel,
I'm curious to know how the OO version compares to M$ Excel which I find
extremely versatile and capable.
Anyone care to comment please?

Its different, it doesn't support office applications (vba, macros, etc.),
it works well enough to be useful, its free as opposed to the £18 office
costs nhs workers.

"Frank Erskine" wrote in message
...

8

I was recently sent a document in .docx and didn't have an idea from
whence it originated (apart from the originator, IYSWIM).

I had an idea that proper software was supposed to be backwards (or
reverse) compatible.

It is, it will open and write the old formats.

You appear to think that vi should open and write OO formats or that OO
should have used vi formats.


So it seems that yet again M$ are breaking all
the rules - such as default top-posting and HTML in Outlook and OE.

IYR, M$ were relative latecomers to the Internet type of thing...

So what old application is OO default format compatible with?

I've wondered about open office for a while but as an avid user of
excel, I'm curious to know how the OO version compares to M$ Excel which
I find extremely versatile and capable.

Personally I've not Microsoft Office installed on any of my machines for
well over five years, and I produce and receive documents from many
customers, I can think of a few that needed minor tweaking (of the sort
that would happen when changing printer or paper size) but can't think
of any documents that were a write-off.

For your spreadsheets it depends how sophisticated a user you are, for
sheets containing "just" formulae and charts, no problems, it'll read
and write .xls files, when entering new formulae you need to get used to
";" instead of "," I can't speak about "advanced" usage.

If you make use of VBA macros then the stock version of OOo won't play
it has its own scripting instead, but the Novell Version (who signed a
pact with the devil) known as go-oo is available - can't say I've ever
used it

http://www.go-oo.org/download/

John Rumm gurgled happily, sounding much
like they were saying:

Maybe it is the new(ish) version of word (2007?)

That would be a .docx usually though...

....and would open fine in OpenOffice.

On Sat, 19 Sep 2009 08:38:41 +0100, dennis@home wrote:

"Bob Minchin dangling via a dongle" wrote in
message ...

I've wondered about open office for a while but as an avid user of excel,
I'm curious to know how the OO version compares to M$ Excel which I find
extremely versatile and capable.
Anyone care to comment please?

Its different, it doesn't support office applications (vba, macros, etc.),
it works well enough to be useful, its free as opposed to the £18 office
costs nhs workers.


OxygenOffice (an enhanced version of OO) does support more than OO does;
not sure about your examples, Dennis, but it could be worth a try.

Warning: if OxyOffice is installed, OO itself can't be without uninstalling
Oxy.

http://go-oo.org/
--
Peter.
The head of a pin will hold more angels if
it's been flattened with an angel-grinder.

On Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:43:07 GMT, The Medway Handyman wrote:

Someone known to me has sent a Word Doc as an e-mail attachment. In the OE6
'attach' bar it has the Word icon in front of the title and .doc after - but
it won't open properly.

All I get is lines of little squares and .........................'Page
Break'...........................

Any idea how to open it?

If all else fails and it's not 'sensitive', e-mail it to me and I might be
able to open it with WordPro (seems to open a few things that Word 2003 and
OO won't). Easy then to make a PDF.
--
Peter.
The head of a pin will hold more angels if
it's been flattened with an angel-grinder.

In article ,
Frank Erskine wrote:
I had an idea that proper software was supposed to be backwards (or
reverse) compatible.

Thought we were talking about an MS product?

--
*He who laughs last has just realised the joke.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Bob Minchin dangling via a dongle wrote:
The Wanderer wrote:
On Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:24:21 GMT, Cicero wrote:


Download 'OpenOffice'; it's free and updates are easy to get. It
sometimes
manages to open things where others have failed.
It will take some time to download but once you've got it you can run it
in parallel with 'Word' and never pay again for an office suite.

Why would you want to run it in parallel with Word? I ditched M$ Office
once I was happy that OpenOffice could do just about everything and more
that I wanted. That was about a year ago and I've never had cause to
doubt
OpenOffice.



I've wondered about open office for a while but as an avid user of
excel, I'm curious to know how the OO version compares to M$ Excel which
I find extremely versatile and capable.
Anyone care to comment please?


It talks these days limited VBscript? otherwise its pretty much the same.

Faster of course.


TIA Bob

Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics) wrote:
In article ,
The Medway Handyman wrote:

Someone known to me has sent a Word Doc as an e-mail attachment.



Nobody has yet suggested the obvious....


The sender should be asked to send it again in a standard format, rather
than some proprietry file. It may be no issue to the BillyGoat brigade
(although clearly it is here) but how about those who use real operating
systems?

Plain text is for email, if the "pretties" are essential, then PDF is the
answer

I am afraid I have to say you are IMHO completely right.


The only excuse for sending something in word processor format, is so
that it may be subsequently edited.

dennis@home wrote:


"Bob Minchin dangling via a dongle" wrote in
message ...


I've wondered about open office for a while but as an avid user of
excel, I'm curious to know how the OO version compares to M$ Excel
which I find extremely versatile and capable.
Anyone care to comment please?

Its different, it doesn't support office applications (vba, macros,
etc.),

Does these days, in a limited sort of way.

it works well enough to be useful, its free as opposed to the £18
office costs nhs workers.

The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics) wrote:
In article ,
The Medway Handyman
wrote:
Someone known to me has sent a Word Doc as an e-mail attachment.



Nobody has yet suggested the obvious....


The sender should be asked to send it again in a standard format,
rather than some proprietry file. It may be no issue to the
BillyGoat brigade (although clearly it is here) but how about those
who use real operating systems?

Plain text is for email, if the "pretties" are essential, then PDF
is the answer

I am afraid I have to say you are IMHO completely right.


The only excuse for sending something in word processor format, is so
that it may be subsequently edited.

Or that you don't know of any alternatives...

Like most users.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

John Rumm wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote:

Or use the word Open, but then select "Recover text from any file"
for the document type. That will usually elt you see anything
readable in there.

I don't have those options. Do you mean 'open with'?

If yours is like mine - then "Open" on the File menu, then the "Files
of Type" drop down at the bottom of the Open dialogue.

(not got a copy of word 97 here to check - but I think the option
existed in that version)

Now just get a blank screen :-(


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

John Rumm wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote:
John Rumm wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote:

Or use the word Open, but then select "Recover text from any file"
for the document type. That will usually elt you see anything
readable in there.
I don't have those options. Do you mean 'open with'?
If yours is like mine - then "Open" on the File menu, then the
"Files of Type" drop down at the bottom of the Open dialogue.

(not got a copy of word 97 here to check - but I think the option
existed in that version)

It does - I just get a blank scren.

What, once you have opened the file that way? If that option recovers
no text from the file, then there is a fair chance it is corrupt or
not even a doc file. If its non sensitive, email it to me and I will
have a look at it.


Will do, thanks.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

In article ,
The Medway Handyman wrote:
John Rumm wrote:

(not got a copy of word 97 here to check - but I think the option
existed in that version)

It does - I just get a blank scren.

What, once you have opened the file that way? If that option recovers
no text from the file, then there is a fair chance it is corrupt or
not even a doc file. If its non sensitive, email it to me and I will
have a look at it.

Will do, thanks.


Try the word reader from MS - that usually lets you read it. If it won't
open it then I suspect it's corrupt and you won't get anything to open it
correctly.

http://tinyurl.com/2007viewer

Something else that might be worth trying is getting http://www.zamzar.com/
to convert it to pdf or something more readable.

Darren