Unable to open a large Word 2007 file saved as DOC

[Guest]

A colleague running Word 2007 routinely creates both DOCX and DOC files that
I am able to open using Word 2003 with the compatibility pack.

He recently created a large document (1 meg) and saved it as both a DOCX
file and a DOC file. I am able to open the DOCX file as usual, but
strangely, cannot open the DOC file. We tried this experiment because we
have a client running Word 2002 without the compatibility pack.

When I (and the client) try to open the DOC file, I receive an error message
that says, "Word experienced an error trying to open the file". Clicking the
option that says, "More information about this error message online" opens
the Events and Errors Message Center, which says the message ID is 10112 and
that "Currently there are no Office Assistance articles available for this
error message."

Any thoughts?

By the way, we tried converting the DOCX to DOC using another version of
Word 2007 with no success. We finally succeeded by opening the DOCX file
using Word 2003 (with the compatibility pack) and saving it as a DOC file,
which the client was able to open.

Thanks,
Tom

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

My guess would be that you've discovered a bug in Word 2007's capabilities
as a .doc savior... so to speak. It would be interesting to see if you could
isolate what part of the document is creating the problem. If nothing else,
this would be useful information to send to Microsoft so they can fix it.

What I would do...

Split the document in half, and create two new .docx files. Saving the first
half in .doc format... then the 2nd. Try opening each on the 2002 machine. I
would expect for one of the two files to succeed, and the other to fail. If
that happens, take the failed file's parent .docx file, split *it* into two
parts, lather, rinse, repeat...

I've done this a number of times, and I find that by the time I get to the
4th or 5th split, something looms as the obvious culprit, so I just it to a
file to test, and if it also fails or otherwise demonstrates the problem in
question, then you've got the villain. If nothing else, it provides a way
for Microsoft to replicate the bug and it gives YOU a way to anticipate when
to expect problems when saving in .doc format.

If you decide to do this, please let us know what you discover.