Unreadable Word files Thread poster: Guido Villa
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Guido Villa 
Croatia
Local time: 11:14
Member (2006)
German to Italian
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Dear colleagues,
I have old Microsoft Word files (approximately from the year 2000 to 2010) that are unreadable with today's app (belonging to Office 365).
The miniatures of the files are not the classic ones from Microsoft Word, and when I open them, a windows appears asking the conversion of the file by choosing the appropriate text codification. Both with the standard codification (Windows) and with the other options, in the file only programming sign.
Probably - but I'm no... See more Dear colleagues,
I have old Microsoft Word files (approximately from the year 2000 to 2010) that are unreadable with today's app (belonging to Office 365).
The miniatures of the files are not the classic ones from Microsoft Word, and when I open them, a windows appears asking the conversion of the file by choosing the appropriate text codification. Both with the standard codification (Windows) and with the other options, in the file only programming sign.
Probably - but I'm not sure - it is a problem with the Word version with which they were saved.
Can anyone help me solve the problems. Needless to say, all these files are very important.
Thank you ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Two ideas for the beginning. | Feb 6, 2024 |
I would start with opening these files in OpenOffice. If unsuccessful, then maybe an OCR software such as FineReader.
HTH
| | | | Stepan Konev
Russian Federation
Local time: 13:14
English to Russian
| Try a CAT tool | Feb 6, 2024 |
First you can try to open them with a text editor like Notepad or Notepad++.
Also you can try to import them into your CAT tool. If that works, copy all source content in to target and save the target as if you have translated them.
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MagnusRubens (X)
Local time: 10:14
| LibreOffice might be an option too | Feb 6, 2024 |
You could try LibreOffice too.
I can't guarantee success of course, but I have had good results opening most MSOffice documents with the newer versions of LibreOffice Writer.
A couple of times I managed to open problematic DOC/DOCX files by simply changing the file suffix to RTF before opening them. Once opened, I saved a new DOC/DOCX etc. document from my own word processor.
You may already have tried this of course, and I can't say categorically that it will work for ... See more You could try LibreOffice too.
I can't guarantee success of course, but I have had good results opening most MSOffice documents with the newer versions of LibreOffice Writer.
A couple of times I managed to open problematic DOC/DOCX files by simply changing the file suffix to RTF before opening them. Once opened, I saved a new DOC/DOCX etc. document from my own word processor.
You may already have tried this of course, and I can't say categorically that it will work for others. But it might be worth a try. ▲ Collapse
| | | | PAS
Local time: 11:14
Polish to English
+ ...
Assuming the files are not corrupt
Open Word, click "File", open "Options", go to "Trust Centre", click on "Trust Centre Settings", on the left choose "File blocking settings"*
You will see a long list of file types and two columns - open and save as
Check all of the Word file types (and any others) that interest you and you should be good to go.
*or similar - I don't have an English version of Word on hand
| | | | Natasha Cloutier
Netherlands
Local time: 11:14
Member (2023)
Dutch to English
+ ...
| Crowdsource it with IT folks | Feb 7, 2024 |
All the answers here are definitely worth a try, but somewhere out there, there's an IT person who can do this in a flash. I'd ask on a bigger platform and someone is bound to help you faster. Please let us know what worked!
[Edited at 2024-02-07 10:37 GMT]
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PAS wrote:
Assuming the files are not corrupt
Open Word, click "File", open "Options", go to "Trust Centre", click on "Trust Centre Settings", on the left choose "File blocking settings"*
You will see a long list of file types and two columns - open and save as
Check all of the Word file types (and any others) that interest you and you should be good to go.
*or similar - I don't have an English version of Word on hand
You translated the path correctly.
Here's a screenshot of the File Block Settings:
As far as I know, these security settings aren’t needed in Word for Mac.
[Edited at 2024-02-07 11:26 GMT]
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PAS
Local time: 11:14
Polish to English
+ ...
Hans Lenting wrote:
You translated the path correctly.
Well, that's a relief!
I'm guessing this may be the cause. At some point Microsoft decided that old MS Office files are "unsafe" and blocked access.
IIRC, at one point it was impossible to open old Word files altogether. Then, in later versions they made it a user option, but still buried pretty deep in the settings.
Let's see if it works for the OP.
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