word 2007 not opening Word 2003 documents

[Amy]

My Word 2003 files are not showing up with the Word icon - they are just a
blank piece of paper. I can open them if I open Word 2007 first and then go
get them, but I want to be able to double-click on them in a folder and have
them open.

I have tried the Open With and it won't let me select Word 2007 as an option.

Please help! I just switched to 2007 and have a lot of 2003 documents that
I need to be able to open quickly.

Thanks!

 

[jerry]

My Word 2003 files are not showing up with the Word icon - they are just a
blank piece of paper. I can open them if I open Word 2007 first and then go
get them, but I want to be able to double-click on them in a folder and have
them open.

I have tried the Open With and it won't let me select Word 2007 as an option.

Please help! I just switched to 2007 and have a lot of 2003 documents that
I need to be able to open quickly.

Thanks!

 

[Saravanan]

Hi "jerry",

There is an article in microsoft office website to change the program that
starts when you open a file.

check this link to get the solution.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA101749091033.aspx

If the above link doesn't give the solution then try the below mentioned
steps .

I hope you are comfortable with your machine, because this fix requires some
registry modification. Here is the process:

1. Open regedit. Before you start, it is a good idea to back up your
registry by going to File\Export. You can then import this file later should
anything adverse happen.

2. Navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts
(there will be entries for every file extension on your computer here).

3. Open the .doc entry, as well as the .docx entry. There will be
sub-entries under these named OpenWithList, and OpenWithProgids.

4. Make all entries in the .doc OpenWithList and OpenWithProgids identical
to their .docx counterparts. I deleted all of the ones in the .doc entry and
recreated them to match the .docx just to be sure.

5. After doing this, your machine will probably still associate .docs with
WordPad, but Word 2007 will now show up in the Open With dialogue after you
browse for it (I'm sure you know by now that the path is C:\Program
Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\WINWORD.EXE).

Hope this helps!

Thank you

"Saravanan"

 

[Saravanan]

Hi "Jerry"

There is an article in microsoft office website to change the program that
starts when you open a file.

Click on the following link to get the solution.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA101749091033.aspx

If the above link doesn't give the exact solution then follow the below
mentioned steps if you have windows vista installed in your system.

I hope you are comfortable with your machine, because this fix requires some
registry modification. Here is the process:

1. Open regedit. Before you start, it is a good idea to back up your
registry by going to File\Export. You can then import this file later should
anything adverse happen.

2. Navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts
(there will be entries for every file extension on your computer here).

3. Open the .doc entry, as well as the .docx entry. There will be
sub-entries under these named OpenWithList, and OpenWithProgids.

4. Make all entries in the .doc OpenWithList and OpenWithProgids identical
to their .docx counterparts. I deleted all of the ones in the .doc entry and
recreated them to match the .docx just to be sure.

5. After doing this, your machine will probably still associate .docs with
WordPad, but Word 2007 will now show up in the Open With dialogue after you
browse for it (I'm sure you know by now that the path is C:\Program
Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\WINWORD.EXE).

Hope this helps!

Thank you

"Saravanan"