Word for Mac won't open another Word doc

Becca C. · Apr 4, 2015

Hi all!

My agent's computer and mine hate each other. We've always had trouble file sharing, but when I bought Microsoft Office for my Mac a while back, I hoped the problems would be solved. However, my Word will not open a file she sent me. The only way I can read it is to open the "view preview" thing. I can see the text, but not any comments she may have inserted, or Track Changes if she used it. The file is .docx so I don't see why this is a problem. I've tried converting the file in various ways but it just ends up scrambled into symbols.

I can do my reviews from the text in the preview, but it's pretty annoying, and I'd really like to see the spots where it looks like she added comments. Any help anyone can give me would be very much appreciated!

Oh, and I tried borrowing my boyfriend's PC laptop, but his Word could only access the plain text, saying certain elements were missing. Maybe she's using a very old version of Word?

jimmymc · Apr 4, 2015

Save the file in .rtf... .docx is a blight.

Sage · Apr 4, 2015

Is there a second extension? I remember getting a beta document that was .rtf.doc or something like that, when someone had tried to save their non-Word document as a Word doc, and I had to do all sorts of tricky things to get it into Word.

amergina · Apr 4, 2015

I've never had any trouble opening any sent Word documents with Word on my Mac.

It sounds like either the issue is on your agent's end or something is corrupting the file when it's being mailed.

Could your agent save the file as a .doc (and not a .docx?) And send that to you? Try that first.

Or have her save it as .rtf and try that.

amergina · Apr 4, 2015

Sage said:
Is there a second extension? I remember getting a beta document that was .rtf.doc or something like that, when someone had tried to save their non-Word document as a Word doc, and I had to do all sorts of tricky things to get it into Word.

.rtf is rich text format. It *shouldn't* be a second extension.

If you get a doc that's filename.rtf.doc... I'd make a copy of the original, then try renaming the file first to just filename.doc and opening it. if that doesn't work, rename it to just filename.rtf.

Sage · Apr 4, 2015

Yeah, whatever I got had two extension names and it really screwed it up. I don't even know how that happens, unless the person tried to change the format by changing the name.

Fuchsia Groan · Apr 4, 2015

Which version of Office do you have? I also have a Mac. With Office 2011, I can handle both .doc (using Compatibility Mode) and .docx. But when I was using Office 2004, I couldn't open .docx except in Text Edit or whatever. So if that's the problem, your agent could save the file as a .doc to make it readable by you.

This brings up a related question. A lot of agents used to specify they wanted to see no .docx files, .doc only. So all my mss. are still .docs. But I worry that future Word versions will leave the format behind. Are agents and editors making the switch?

Come to think, I'd better ask my agent and editor. No one has remarked on my format so far, or had trouble opening files or using Track Changes.

Maryn · Apr 4, 2015

Word has backward-compatibility going back a pretty long ways. Where you get into trouble is the absence of forward-compatibility--your Word2003 that creates .doc cannot handle .docx without a conversion program of some kind. But my newer Word that creates .docx can deal with .doc, no problem.

Maryn, leaving the Mac-ness out, since she has no experience

AW Admin · Apr 4, 2015

Becca as Sage notes:

Sage said:
Yeah, whatever I got had two extension names and it really screwed it up. I don't even know how that happens, unless the person tried to change the format by changing the name.

I expect that's exactly what happened.

Ask her to save the file again.

If you want to be thorough, have her send it once as .doc and once as .docx by using the Save As option in the File menu.

If you convert the tracked/commented file to rtf it makes it difficult to read and follow the changes/comments.

It is also possible that the file is being messed up by an overly-aggressive email app; if you and she have DropBox that might be a safer way to pass the file to you.

hahart · Apr 4, 2015

Try using Open Office from Apache. It's a free open source software that reads .docx files without a problem, as well as transfers track changes between Mac and PC Word. I love it! I can track changes in a .docx file with it and send it to a collaborator using PC word without any major issues. And I can read the comments and changes from any .doc or .docx file.

https://www.openoffice.org/

Maryn · Apr 4, 2015

I don't know about that. I have OpenOffice and I've had a lot of trouble with the Track Changes feature, enough that I want to get Word again, or at least try LibreOffice. OO on Track Changes skips around, failing to display the changes in order, and freezes if I use some other features (i.e., spell check) while it's on. This is no good on a short deadline.

I don't want to complain when it's free. In most respects it closely mimics Word2003, which is just fine for writing and editing novels.

Maryn, whose editor is reasonably sympathetic

Matera the Mad · Apr 4, 2015

I've seen some pretty screwed up doc names -- it's not that the person tries to change the extension, but sometimes they simply mess up how much of the name is selected and overwritten in the Save dialog. Word takes care of making it worse.

Kind of a supertypo.

hahart · Apr 5, 2015

I guess I've been lucky with OpenOffice and the projects I've collaborated on using it!

Becca C. · Apr 5, 2015

Thank you, all, especially hahart -- OpenOffice worked! It was a bit of a rigamarole installing it but it displays all the Track Changes and comments perfectly!

Maryn · Apr 5, 2015

We love a happy ending. Glad this is working out so nicely. Thanks for keeping us posted.

Maryn

Reziac · Apr 5, 2015

A handy viewer for DOCX files:

http://www.epingsoft.com/docx/docxv.asp

Open the file with Docx Viewer, Select All, Copy and Paste into your editor of choice. I use it to dump DOCX files into my RTF editor, and it does a pretty good job of preserving formatting.

amergina said:
.rtf is rich text format. It *shouldn't* be a second extension.

If you get a doc that's filename.rtf.doc... I'd make a copy of the original, then try renaming the file first to just filename.doc and opening it. if that doesn't work, rename it to just filename.rtf.

In this case it does appear it was just a file-naming mixup. BUT ... for general reference:

When you receive a file with two contradictory filetype extensions, your first move should be to consider it a virus and behave accordingly, no matter where it came from. These things are still plentiful in the wild; they rely on computers set to hide extensions, so a file named, frex:

whatever.jpg.exe

is displayed as

whatever.jpg

on the screen... but executes a nasty when doubleclicked since it's really a program.

Don't mess with such files unless you have an absolute confirm where it came from and what it is, or are familiar with safe handling for malware.

Now, there are programs that are a little stupid about extensions when you "Save As" some other file format, but they're not the norm and should not be assumed.

Word for Mac won't open another Word doc

Becca C.

jimmymc

Benefactor Member

Sage

Supreme Guessinator

amergina

Pittsburgh Strong

amergina

Pittsburgh Strong

Sage

Supreme Guessinator

Fuchsia Groan

Becoming a laptop-human hybrid

Maryn

At Sea

AW Admin

hahart

Earned thick skin elsewhere

Maryn

At Sea

Matera the Mad

Bartender, gimme a Linux Mint

hahart

Earned thick skin elsewhere

Becca C.

Maryn

At Sea

Reziac

Resident Alien