How can I get a 2003 word doc file to open in Word in Vista?

I can open an rft or a 2007 word doc OK but not 2003 - it goes to notepad or
something like that and is all garbled. Somewhere else in here someone left
info about going to control panel, folder options, file types, etc. and
specify path of winword.exe - but I couldn't find File Types under folder
options on control panel.

www.openoffice.org

"llama mama" <llama > wrote in message
news:105A3864-0998-4127-8FD2-...
>I can open an rft or a 2007 word doc OK but not 2003 - it goes to notepad
>or
> something like that and is all garbled. Somewhere else in here someone
> left
> info about going to control panel, folder options, file types, etc. and
> specify path of winword.exe - but I couldn't find File Types under folder
> options on control panel.
>
>

www.openoffice.org

"llama mama" <llama > wrote in message
news:105A3864-0998-4127-8FD2-...
>I can open an rft or a 2007 word doc OK but not 2003 - it goes to notepad
>or
> something like that and is all garbled. Somewhere else in here someone
> left
> info about going to control panel, folder options, file types, etc. and
> specify path of winword.exe - but I couldn't find File Types under folder
> options on control panel.
>
>

Right click on a Word 2003 document.

Select "open with", "choose default program". Make Word 2007 the default for
opening it.

I'm still using Office 2003. but I assume that you somehow have a messed-up
file type association, and that the above will work.


Return address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

"llama mama" <llama > wrote in message
news:105A3864-0998-4127-8FD2-...
>I can open an rft or a 2007 word doc OK but not 2003 - it goes to notepad
>or
> something like that and is all garbled. Somewhere else in here someone
> left
> info about going to control panel, folder options, file types, etc. and
> specify path of winword.exe - but I couldn't find File Types under folder
> options on control panel.
>
>

Hi, Llama Mama.

Just click on the .doc file. Or start Word 2007 and then Open the .doc
file, as usual. That works for me. Or Open with, as Bob Knowlden
suggested. The only thing different about working with older Word files in
Word 2007 is the Save As command, or Save if I've changed the document; in
that case, Word 2007 asks if I want to save it in the new format, using the
..docx extension.

Can you open the file from within Word 2007?

Can you open the file by clicking on the .doc in Windows Explorer? If not,
you probably do need to update your file associations. In Vista, it is no
longer in Folder Options, but in Control Panel | Default Programs |
Associate a file type or protocol with a program. Click the .doc extension
here, then Change Program should let you choose Microsoft Office Word.

This doesn't always work for reasons not clearly understood (by me, at
least). In that case, you might get some clues from this article on MVP
Ramesh Srinivasan's page, although it doesn't specifically list .doc files:
File association fixes for Windows Vista
http://www.winhelponline.com/article...ows-Vista.html

You might get more focused help in one of the several Office and Word
newsgroups, rather than this Vista.general group. You can start with
microsoft.public.word.newusers and go from there.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

"llama mama" <llama > wrote in message
news:105A3864-0998-4127-8FD2-...
> I can open an rft or a 2007 word doc OK but not 2003 - it goes to notepad
> or
> something like that and is all garbled. Somewhere else in here someone
> left
> info about going to control panel, folder options, file types, etc. and
> specify path of winword.exe - but I couldn't find File Types under folder
> options on control panel.

Hey Mr. Brains, he already has Word. OpenOffice is NOT what he is looking
for. Actually OpenOffice isn't what anyone should be looking for.

"Bob" <> wrote in message
news:. ..
> www.openoffice.org
>
> "llama mama" <llama > wrote in message
> news:105A3864-0998-4127-8FD2-...
>>I can open an rft or a 2007 word doc OK but not 2003 - it goes to notepad
>>or
>> something like that and is all garbled. Somewhere else in here someone
>> left
>> info about going to control panel, folder options, file types, etc. and
>> specify path of winword.exe - but I couldn't find File Types under folder
>> options on control panel.
>>
>>
>