Help with MS Word on Vista

[Bitsy]

I hoped someone might be able to guide me about a problem I am having with my word processing program. No matter how many times I install the software, MS Office XP, all of my text documents remain in WordPad, or in the notepad format, and the only way I can open MS Word is to go to the Start Menu and click on Microsoft Word on there, open a blank document and then click File and open a file I have to find using the browse. When I right click on a document to open it with a different program, MS Word is not listed anywhere as an option, then when I browse the Office program files to find and try to add the MS Word program to the list, I find WINWORD and click on it but absolutely nothing happens. I added Excel and PowerPoint to the list in this way and they worked without a problem.

I need help...please...

[Niki]

You have to look at in wich format the textdocuments are saved. Try this

Open word, open your document with word, save it as "Microsoft Word Document" with the .doc extension.

I hope this works.

[Bitsy]

Hi Niki,

Thanks for your reply. I did try that, but it doesn't matter, the file doesn't stay in Word, it reverts to whatever it was before - currently all of my text documents are in PowerPoint. If I want to, I can put them all in Excel, Wordpad, the notepad thing (of course I can't read the texts then, but I can save them in those formats), I can save them in ANYTHING else under the sun EXCEPT WORD.

I have given up.

[ixmatus]

I don't use Vista, but I know to fix the extension associations you would do this (in XP, so to give it a shot in Vista):

Right click the file in question -> select 'Open With' -> select MS Word -> find the checkbox that says 'Always use the selected program to open this kind of file ' -> click 'Ok'

Also you can try this google search if that doesn't help you: "Windows Vista: changing file extension association"

[Bitsy]

Hi, thanks for your reply.

That doesn't work. MS Word is not in the list to select from, and when I browse in the Office program files and try to add it to the list, it doesn't add. I can add anything from the program files, but not the Word. There is something wrong with just that program I need. I don't know what it is.

[Lil Chris]

This may sound silly, but it sounds like the program is not installed... Are you sure you installed it (no offense intended)... Did you get any errors installing the program?

You might try and reinstall it, as soon as it installs, shut down the pc and then restart it.

[Bitsy]

It's installed. It is Office and Excel and PowerPoint are registering fine. Just Word is behaving like it is not there, except Word has been added in the Start Menu but none of the others have and the only way I can open Word is to open it from the Start Menu.

I have installed and uninstalled it time and time again, the result is always the same.

[aussieNickuss]

Try this.....

Go to Start > Control Panel
Click "Programs"
Click "Default Programs"
Click "Associate a file type or protocol with a specific program"
Find ".doc" in the list and click "Change Program..."
If Word is in the list, click it and click ok or you may have to browse for Word.

See how you go.

[Bitsy]

Hi,

I tried that. The problem is Word is not in the list and when I browse in the program files and select the Word program, it doesn't add it to the list. Whether I right click on the text document icon or try to set the default program from the control panel doesn't matter, Word is not in the list and doesn't get added when I try to add it.

[Bitsy]

1. all of my text documents have the .doc extension, despite the fact that they are now in and open up in PowerPoint.

2. I just sent a text document to my work and they informed me that it shows up in MS Word.

I know, this is one of those inexplicable retarded computer things that happen to barely computer literate people like me and no computer people anywhere can understand or figure out what's wrong...

...or is it just refusing to work properly with Vista...

[Ree]

Bitsy, I'm late getting into this thread but I wanted to say that I've had quite a few problems with Vista as well. My son removed it from my new laptops and installed Windows XP for me and everything's working fine again.

[Lil Chris]

I'll do a little research for you, but I need to know a few things...

What version of vista are you running (home, premium, ultra )...?

and are you running the 32bit or 64bit version (if you don't know it's probably the 32bit)

What version of office are you running... (previous, 2003, 2007)

[Bitsy]

I'll do a little research for you, but I need to know a few things...

That would be so nice .

What version of vista are you running (home, premium, ultra )...?

Home

and are you running the 32bit or 64bit version (if you don't know it's probably the 32bit)

32

What version of office are you running... (previous, 2003, 2007)

2002 Office XP

To note, I had installed a different Word version I had obtained from my office - don't know what version it was, it worked fine. However, since I left the country where my office is, I uninstalled their version because it kept interrupting my work with questions to install further parts of the program and I don't have the installation disc, ergo, I installed my own Office.

[Lil Chris]

Yeah,
So after poking around this morning in various forums and Microsoft's website, several things kept coming up. Unfortunately, your exact problem hasn't come up at all... The big thing was that your particular version is no longer supported by Microsoft (mainstream support stopped in 2006).

You could try and visit microsofts support center for office xp products, although this may not get you very far, the product is still under extended support (support meaning bug fixes and such) but it's minimal support... The thing is that it's 5 years old (ancient for a program version).

So, the only thing I would suggest (you won't want to hear it though) is to upgrade your version to at least 2003, you might even be able to purchase the upgrade at a discount (rather than buy the full version, if cost is an issue)...

In the long run you'll be much happier than trying to fiddle with this trying to get it to comply... sorry ;c(

[Bitsy]

Well, thanks a lot for checking around for me Lil Chris. I sort of resigned myself already to the idea that it was not fixable...and after reading how so many programs don't work on Vista...

It's a minor pain in the butt, but as computer problems go, it's not a big deal I guess. Surprisingly, I quite like Vista otherwise, it's a shame they made it so so much software won't work on it. I guess they want you to buy their new software...?

[ixmatus]

I quite like Vista otherwise, it's a shame they made it so so much software won't work on it. I guess they want you to buy their new software...?

Well, backwards compatibility is sometimes an issue for developers that many Users have no clear idea of.

Most often, programs that utilize old functions of an OS will not work with newer versions because those functions have been rebuilt, replaced, or removed; which effectively breaks those programs.

I think that is one major downfall of Microsoft, they try too hard to maintain backwards compatibility - therefore allowing their users to grow complacent.

It will be a beautiful day when Exokernels come out of the closet.

[aussieNickuss]

Bitsy, the problem of a program not appearing in the Open With... dialog after you have manually gone through and selected it has plagued me a couple of times in XP. The times I had that problem though was when I had multiple versions of the same software installed. In one case, that was having Macromedia Flash MX and Flash 8 installed at the same time. Windows kept defaulting to opening .FLA's in Flash MX, even though I explicitly told it to use Flash 8 to open those files. Trying to get Flash 8 to appear in that dialog was near impossible.

One thing you should check. Make sure ALL VERSIONS (EVERY single trace) of Microsoft Office is uninstalled, then do a re-install of 2002. I've noticed in Vista on one laptop that I have set up came with a trial of Office 2007, but in the Add/Remove Programs window, there were 3 or 4 entries for Office 2007...not just the one software installation. Remove any item that even refers to Microsoft Office.

As to Vista.....

It appears to be just XP with a prettier interface and a lot of the functionality thrown out the window.

I liked Vista when I first tried it, but after a couple of months, it has just become annoying. IMHO, Windows XP (SP2) was the best version of Windows ever. I reckon that Vista is equivalent to ME, so look out for Windows 7 on a couple of years.

I actually switched to Mac about a year and a half ago (the best thing ever!!), but still keep a PC around for old times sake.

[Dooby]

Open regedit, by typing "regedit" into the Search bar on the Start Menu.

In the left hand pane, expand "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT", and scroll down to the ".doc" key, then click on it (looks like a folder).

In the right-hand pane, what is listed next to "(Default)"?

In my case, the value is "Word.Document.8". Scroll down using the left pane to this value.

So, expand "Word.Document.8" in the left hand pane, expand "shell", then expand "Open", then click on "command". In the right hand pane, "(Default)" should read something like "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\WINWORD.EXE" /n /dde

That is essentially the association with the Word program.

Don't edit anything yet.. just check it out.

[Dooby]

Oh, also check HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\ and ensure winword.exe exists.

Yes, file associations are quite a web of confusion.. lots of links here and there!