Opening a Word document from Exploerer

**KeithWhit** · 2001-02-05 08:51

When I try to open a Word document (I have Word97 under NT 3.51, by the way) by double-clicking it in Explorer, sometimes it works, but sometimes I get an error message stating that Word could not open the document. Why is this? This often happens as well when I try to open an attachment from an email in Outlook (selecting Open rather than Save To Disk), sometimes it works, but here more often it doesn't. Any ideas, anyone?

Thanks

Keith[img]/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/img]

**MaryJ** · 2001-02-05 15:24

any specific error messages? the most common is can't open file "c:my" then can't open "documents" with each breaking at the next space. This is a DDE error.

Check your file associations for the doc type and see if dde is enabled.

**KeithWhit** · 2001-02-05 16:03

Hi Mary,

The message is "Word cannot open the document. Try one or more of the following : * On the File menu, click Open to open the document, * make sure the document has a .DOC extension"
Needless to say, the first suggestion is pointless, and the second is the case. I turned DDE on, and got the same message, except that I ended up in Word with the document filepath only shown - and it did this for documets that normally open from Explorer ok! Any other ideas?

Thanks for your help.

Keith

**Phil Rabichow** · 2001-02-06 08:00

Keith:

Besides "turning DDE on", you must have the correct filepath & other entries. If you go to Folder Options/file types, find Microsoft Word, click Edit, Open, Edit, it should look like the attachment.

**KeithWhit** · 2001-02-06 08:30

Mm, success - sort of! I did what you suggested, Phil, but Word objected to [REM-DDE-Direct] saying it wasn't supported. So I removed this and tried it with just the FileOpen. This led to me getting the same message as before (Word cannot open the document), BUT this time, clicking on OK led to the document being opened anyway! So now I CAN open these documents as long as I ignore the error message! Actually, I've noticed that the documents I have problems with have long file names with spaces in. If I double click on something like "ABCD EFG HIJ.doc" (without the quotes obviously), then I get the error and the message does actually state that the document name is ABCD.doc Double clicking on a document name like XYZ.doc produces no error. Is this the real reason for the error, and if so, what can I do about it?

Thanks again

Keith[img]/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/img]

**artAlexion** · 2001-02-06 09:53

<hr>make sure the document has a .DOC extension<hr>

Why would Word give you this error message? That is if you click a Word doc with an extension not associated with Word, how would Word even activate so as to tell you it has the wrong extension? I'm confused here.

I often get a message like "Word cannot find G

ocumentsSubdirectoryword.doc or one of its components. Make sure the path name is correct ..." This only happens if Word is not running when I double clicked the file in explorer. I assumed that it was some sort of time out where the process that opens the file got tired of waiting for the process that starts the program.

Never happens when Word is already running. Any ideas?

**KeithWhit** · 2001-02-06 09:58

Your problem is something different, as the message is telling you that it's trying to start Word but cannot find all of the bits and pieces of the application it needs (this being the case, how do you get Word working, I wonder?) - and this is BEFORE it even attempts to load your document!
No, with me, I do have Word associated with .DOC (and .RTF for that matter), and so double-clicking on a .DOC file does start Word, which then gives me the error message. Actually, I now think it may have something to do with long file names with spaces in - see my previous post/reply.

Thanks for taking the time, anyway.

Keith

**artAlexion** · 2001-02-06 10:18

<hr> (this being the case, how do you get Word working, I wonder?) <hr>

Getting word to start (under normal conditions) has never been a problem. I thought that the combination of loading WOPR and the other stuff in my startup directory, plus autoexec macros, so delayed the start of Word that the process presenting the file to Word got tired of waiting and wasn't there when Word was finally ready for it.

**KeithWhit** · 2001-02-06 10:26

No, when you double-click the document, a request is passed to Windows to start Word. This will wait for Word to load before continuing (it never tires of waiting). If Word doesn't start for some reason, the request needs to be told not to wait. As I said, your problem is that Windows is telling you that it cannot start Word because something is missing or corrupt. That's why it's odd if you can start Word 'normally', because it shouldn't make any difference.
Perhaps our Word/Windows experts will contradict me here (I don't profess to be an expert!) - over to you, experts!

Keith

**rory** · 2001-02-06 10:50

Hi Keith,
Can you tell me exactly what it says under 'Application used to perform action' when you view the Open action for .doc file types? Is it something like:
"C:PROGRAM FILESMICROSOFT OFFICEOFFICEWINWORD.EXE" /n
If so, try changing this to:
"C:PROGRAM FILESMICROSOFT OFFICEOFFICEWINWORD.EXE" /n "%1"
and see if that fixes it.
Hope it helps!

**KeithWhit** · 2001-02-06 10:56

Hi Rory,

Yes, you were right, that's what I did have, together with DDE switched on using the suggestions given above - and it wasn't working completely correctly, as I said.
However, I switched DDE off and altered it to your suggestion - and it worked! No error messages or anything!
Brilliant! Thanks, Rory! If only I understood what it's all about ......
No matter, thanks, Rory!

Keith[img]/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/img][img]/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/img]

**rory** · 2001-02-06 11:02

You're welcome!
As best I understand it (which ain't sayin' much!), the %1 is a variable representing the file name. If you include the quotes, it basically passes the filename in quotes so Word reads the whole thing - otherwise Word gets as far as the first space and thinks that is the end of the file name so naturally it can't find the file.

**artAlexion** · 2001-02-06 12:23

<hr> That's why it's odd if you can start Word 'normally', because it shouldn't make any difference.<hr>

I don't know if I was clear. Not only can I start Word normally, but it starts when I double-click a file in explorer and I complains that it can't find the document or one of its components. I get the message after Word starts and the message box is captioned "Microsoft Word". I can then, switch back to explorer and double click the file again, and this time, since Word is running, the file loads without complaint.

Thanks for the help, Keith.

**KeithWhit** · 2001-02-06 12:34

Ah, I'm with you now! So you always get an error message to the effect that you have some thing missing or corrupted in "Word, the application", but then it seems to work ok? I think you should look to re-installing Word - that should fix your problem.

Keith

**artAlexion** · 2001-02-06 12:50

Not word, the application. The message is about the document. The message says that the "document[name of document] or one of its components is missing" because "Word cannot find" the document.

(I guess I caused the confusion by using "word.doc" as my document in my question and you thought I meant "winword.exe". Sorry.)

BTW, I have had the same issue with Adobe Acrobat (full product, not the free reader) when I double click a PDF in explorer, though not as frequently as with Word. Again, I have a lot of Acrobat add-ins that load at its start up.

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