Cannot open documents created in older versions with Word 2007

[Guest]

I am frustrated beyond belief! I cannot open any Word documents created in
older versions with 2007. It is just jibberish when it does open. I've
tried saving it first as "All Files" or as Word Documents. I have been
searching all over and it seems this should not be a problem but it is. I am
a teacher and I have papers to grade but I can only open them at my work
computer, which runs on XP. I have no problem opening .rtf files or .docx
files but .doc files? Grrr. I feel like an idiot as I seem to be the only
one having this problem.

 

[Terry Farrell]

Yes, it should open previous versions of Word documents. I suggest that
initially, you run the Office Diagnostics. If that doesn't work, rerun
Office Setup and make sure that the import filters are all installed (though
I am fairly sure that the document filters are installed by default even if
you chose not to install any additional filters).

If that still fails, please let us know the error message when you try to
open a previous version.