Unable to read WordPad Document

[Paul]

When I try to open or read a document, a box pops up
entitled "WordPad Document": and then, Microsoft Word 97
Conversion ... Unable to load graphics conversion
filter ... Continue with document conversion?
Trying to continue isn't successful.
Could anyone tell me what the problem is and how to fix
it? (I don't have MS Word or any such software installed
because I don't use word processing ordinarily and like
to keep things simple.)
Thanks,
Paul

 

[Lem]

When I try to open or read a document, a box pops up
entitled "WordPad Document": and then, Microsoft Word 97
Conversion ... Unable to load graphics conversion
filter ... Continue with document conversion?
Trying to continue isn't successful.
Could anyone tell me what the problem is and how to fix
it? (I don't have MS Word or any such software installed
because I don't use word processing ordinarily and like
to keep things simple.)
Thanks,
Paul

More than likely this file is not in current MS Word format despite
having a "doc" extension. If it's a text file, ask the person who sent
you the file to "save as" rtf and try again. If it's a graphics file,
download and install IrfanView from http://www.irfanview.com/ Irfanview
is a terrific image viewer that's capable of dealing with a huge number
of graphics file formats, and it's free.

Although Microsoft does make free viewers available for files created by
its various application programs, you ought to consider buying a
"universal" file viewer, like Quick View Plus
http://www.avantstar.com/solutions/quick_view_plus/default.aspx
That way you don't have to guess what format a file is in.