Restore customization from old Normal to new Normal. Open Word; Use File>Open to navigate to the template location noted above. Change the Show drop-down list to Word Templates. Choose Normal or Normal.dotm and click Open. Title Bar at the top of the Word window must show 'Normal' otherwise, repeat from step 1. We've got a new MacBook Pro, running Lion, with MS Word 2011 for Mac. We've just copied over our old MS Word (Mac) files, with the.doc file ending. I think the files were created in MS Word 2004, some files even ealier than this. The new MS Word 2011 (which we've updated) will open the old files. To open Word files in earlier versions of Word, you need to download and install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack. Learn about Compatibility Mode, learn how features behave differently in later versions, and learn how to convert documents from earlier versions. Open a document in an earlier version of Word.
I chatted with MS technical support about this yesterday, but I'm curious if anyone else is experiencing this problem. When I try to open older.DOC files, which our business has thousands of these legacy files that we still reference from time to time, and most of which were created by Word '95 and Word '97 for Windows, Word 2016 for Mac simply tells me that the 'file cannot be opened.' There's nothing wrong with the files, insofar as opening them up in Word 2010 for Windows, or even open source options like LibreOffice, but since that worked, the technician said to use this as a work around to re-save the files into.docx format. There's nothing peculiar about the files; some have embedded pictures, but others are just simple letters with nothing special about them. Surely, Microsoft can offer better compatibility with their older.doc format?
Is anyone else experiencing this problem? I wish I could submit my doc files for Microsoft to look at and see why they won't open at all. I bumped into this problem today, and landed here, looking for a solution. Didn't find one to my liking- I really don't like installing unnecessary software on my computer. So I spent the morning testing online file conversion websites, and found ONLY ONE that will convert every single misbehaving.doc file to a functional.docx file- Zamzar.com.
Problem Open Old Files With Ms Word For Mac
It's a tiny bit of a workaround, but no more complicated, in my opinion, than any of the others. It allows me to update the files for free, one at a time, as I need them. Posting here in case others, like me, prefer not to install Libre Office, or upload and then download from Google Drive. Microsoft- what's up??? Three years and you can't fix this bug?