All Word files suddenly appearing as Wordpad files (and other problems)

[pasdetrois]

All my Word files in all my document folders are suddenly appearing as
Wordpad files. The icon in the doc folder is Wordpad, but the file
description next to the icon says DOC file. When I click on the
WordPad icon in the folder to open the files, the Wordpad files open in
WordPad. I can open the Word application, however, and open the
Wordpad files using the Open function, at which time the file opens as
a Word file.

My PowerPoint files are appearing as a file format I don't recognize
and that will not open from the icon (the system does not recognize the
file format). I can open the files from within the PowerPoint
application and have them be PP files.

I tried opening one of the Word files within Word, then saving it, but
it still appears in the document folder as a WordPad file. If I send it
via email, it appears as a WordPad file.

I ran an updated virus check and got nothing.

What the heck is going on? Is this a Windows thing or a Word/Powerpoint
thing?

Thanks!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

For Word, see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ReRegisterWord.htm.
PowerPoint will also need to be reregistered, but I don't offhand know the
command line for that (possibly powerpnt.exe /regserver).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

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all may benefit.

 

[pasdetrois]

Can you tell me why this happened so I can prevent it from happening
again?

Thank you for the fast reply.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

No idea, but it seems to happen fairly often to some people.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[pasdetrois]

OK, thanks. I've had this notebook and Word/PowerPoint for about three
months. The only recent odd thing was that I uninstalled the trial
version of WordPerfect, and since then the Windows Installer tool keeps
popping up. Don't know if that would affect my other applications.
Thanks again!

 

[Graham Mayor]

Word Perfect and Word would fight for control of the DOC file association
hence the lost file association when you uninstalled. Repair Office from the
Word Help menu.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

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[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

WP hasn't used .doc for several versions, though, has it?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Graham Mayor]

I haven't installed it to check, but as it did so previously I would have
expected it to retain that compatibility - and as the file association has
obviously been screwed up, this is as likely an explanation as any

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

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