opening word documents

[John]

i have some questions about using .DOC files with windows xp wordpad.exe. i
created a document in microsoft word, on another computer, saved it on that
computer for printing purposes at home. my home computer does not have word
on it, just the standard oem version of wordpad. i had intended on simply
opening the DOC file in wordpad and printing the document. when opened
though, the document does not look the same as i had created it. though, if i
open the same file in word, it looks fine. if you download said file from
here http://www.angelfire.com/or/jrl2/CONTACTS.doc , and try opening it with
the standard wordpad program, as well as word, you will see the differences.
i am referring specifically to the lighter colored font color, shading, as
well as the grid that appears in wordpad, and the non existence of these
things under word. i realize there are features from word used in the
document that are not available in wordpad, but i would suppose that if
wordpad is able to open the document, it should at least display it properly
and as created. i want to be able to open the document in wordpad and print
it just as it looks from word. is this not possible, and, if it is, what do i
need to do something differently? i do not have internet access at home, or i
would just download the microsoft office 'trial'. nor do i have a disc large
enough to contain the download of that. id appreciate any input on this
matter.

thanks
john

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

i have some questions about using .DOC files with windows xp wordpad.exe. i
created a document in microsoft word, on another computer, saved it on
that
computer for printing purposes at home. my home computer does not have
word
on it, just the standard oem version of wordpad. i had intended on simply
opening the DOC file in wordpad and printing the document. when opened
though, the document does not look the same as i had created it. though,
if i
open the same file in word, it looks fine. if you download said file from
here http://www.angelfire.com/or/jrl2/CONTACTS.doc , and try opening it
with
the standard wordpad program, as well as word, you will see the
differences.
i am referring specifically to the lighter colored font color, shading, as
well as the grid that appears in wordpad, and the non existence of these
things under word. i realize there are features from word used in the
document that are not available in wordpad, but i would suppose that if
wordpad is able to open the document, it should at least display it
properly
and as created. i want to be able to open the document in wordpad and
print
it just as it looks from word. is this not possible, and, if it is, what
do i
need to do something differently? i do not have internet access at home,
or i
would just download the microsoft office 'trial'. nor do i have a disc
large
enough to contain the download of that. id appreciate any input on this
matter.

thanks
john

You need to install an "MS Word Reader" tool. Ask the experts in an MS Word
newsgroup for its exact name and where to get it from. About the size of the
file: Get yourself a 1GB or 2GB USB flash disk (=memory stick) - it costs
very little and has oodles of capacity!

 

[John]

thanks pegasus.

ill check out the word newsgroup. i already have a flash drive and in most
normal, everyday purposes, i really, at most, only need 100MB or so.
thousands of megabytes is just going way overboard. i am quite picky about
having 'stuff' sitting around that i never use, including so much disk space.
--i have a 30G hard drive and over half of it i will never use. thanks though.

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

You can read and print DOC files in Word Viewer.

1. Download/install Word Viewer 2007:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3657CE88-7CFA-457A-9AEC-F4F827F20CAC

2. Check-in at Office Update to install Compatibility Pack for Office 2007
(SP2) and any other Office updates required:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/maincatalog.aspx

NB: If Microsoft Update is your default update source, the Office updates
above should be offered/installed by Automatic Updates shortly after
installing Word Viewer 2007.

 

[Tim Meddick]

John,
Apart from solutions like downloading the Word Viewer pack, you
could just save the document, on the 'other' computer, as an RTF file (by
using File > Save As... from the top menu in Word, then choose 'Rich Text
Format - RTF' from the 'Save as type' dropdown list). Your WordPad program
on your own computer can handle RTF files. Check out saving in RTF format.

==


Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[John]

hello tim. actually the document was created in microsoft word, using tables.
if you go to the website in my initial post, where i have uploaded the
finished document, and open in in word, you will notice that i have used
tables. SO, saving in RTF will not carry over the table feature in wordpad,
as it seems that creating a table with wordpad is not possible.

i have also downloaded the word viewer pack and tried opening the same
document in it, and it still looks the same as it does in wordpad. so, i
would guess that there is not much else i can do than just opening the
document on a computer that has word installed. ....OR, are there other
options here??

thanks

 

[Tim Meddick]

John,
Sorry, I did not at first, download your word document. However,
now that I have. In my version of Word, at least, it looks, more or less,
the same as it does in WordPad! The only differences are that in WordPad
the "grid" (as you call it) is a shade of grey and in Word it is black.
Other than that they appear identical. I have Word 2003. Please
return-post if this is not what you are experiencing.


==


Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[John]

hi. well, i think i had mentioned in one of my posts here that i had made use
of tables when creating the document. i think this use of tables is what has
made wordpad show the grid. in using the table feature, prior to my final
draft of the DOC file, i had turned off and removed the grid of the tables.
in that final document, all i had, other than words, were a long vertical
line separating the first column of businesses from the secondary column of
other information. there was also a second horizontal line going only right,
from that vertical one. both of these lines had nothing to do with the grid,
but were just made with the shapes tool.

the document was created with word 2007 (12.0.6331.5000) SP1 MSO
(12.0.6320.5000) let me know if there is anything else i can do to remedy my
situation here. thanks

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

And you're replying to...?

 

[Tim Slattery]

hi. well, i think i had mentioned in one of my posts here that i had made use
of tables when creating the document. i think this use of tables is what has
made wordpad show the grid. in using the table feature, prior to my final
draft of the DOC file, i had turned off and removed the grid of the tables.
in that final document, all i had, other than words, were a long vertical
line separating the first column of businesses from the secondary column of
other information. there was also a second horizontal line going only right,
from that vertical one. both of these lines had nothing to do with the grid,
but were just made with the shapes tool.

the document was created with word 2007 (12.0.6331.5000) SP1 MSO
(12.0.6320.5000) let me know if there is anything else i can do to remedy my
situation here. thanks

And what's the problem? If you're complaining that you can't open this
file with Wordpad, or that wordpad screws up the formatting, there's
nothing you can do about that. Word can do lots of things that Wordpad
can't. To open it without word, you can get the free Word viewer from
Microsoft (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925180). That will let you
see but not edit the file. If you need to edit it you coiuld try the
free Open Office suite (www.openoffice.org)

 

[John]

hello tim,

i believe i had mentioned in a previous post, having already downloaded and
installed the word viewer you speak of. nonetheless, this special viewer,
displays the document no different than wordpad displays it.

i either need to get wordpad to display the document the same way word 2007
displays it, or a microsoft viewer that will display it the same as word in
this office suite. i do not have a usb drive large enough to hold a download
of the word trial install program, or i would just do that. what can i do
here??

thanks