Word 6 will not open Word 7 document

[nedah]

I produced a long document using Word version 7 and saved it to a floppy disc as a .doc file. I now want to edit the document using Word 6 but every time I try to open the document in Word 6 I get the message that it is not a Word document and cannot be converted.

I have tried to open it in Notepad and WordPad but with only limited success.

Grateful for any suggestions on how I can persuade Word 6 to open the document.

[Jerkymom]

Unless you go back to the PC with Word 7 installed, open and save the file on the floppy in Word 6 format, I don't think you'll have any luck opening the file correctly. In Word 7 you have the option to save as "Word Document (.doc)", which you apparently did, but you can also save as "Word 6.0/95 (.doc)" if you scroll further down the pull-down list at the bottom of the "Save As" window. If you can re-save the original document that way, it should work just fine in Word 6.

Hope this helps...
Kim

[nedah]

Kim. Your advice worked perfectly. Many Thanks.

[Jerkymom]

You're very welcome. Glad I could help!
Kim

[Hafizullah]

The "file format" did not change between Word6 and Word7, so this is very strange...

A note: I strongly suggest --- to everyone --- to ALWAYS save Word files to the hard disk and then *copy* the file to a floppy if you need to take it to another system, then upload the file to the HD of that system and open it from there.

Reason: Word keeps chunks of your document in temporary "scratch-pad" files, and doesn't delete them all until the file is closed; in fact, one tempfile might remain open until Word itself is exited. Some of these scratchpad files are kept in the TEMP folder, but others are written at the disk volume and folder where the document is opened from or saved to. Additionally, in the process of saving a file, Word temporarily needs a little over twice the space the file will ultimately take up to save it properly, as it scrapes all the pieces of your file together. In addition to being glacially slow, the space on floppy disks is limited, and if you fill up the diskette in the act of trying to save a Word file to it, Word will choke **and you may corrupt your document.**

I realize that working off floppy disks is a habit for many people. It's just not safe with Word. Word is a dynamite program in many ways, but this particular behavior is dangerous to your data. Microsoft does not consider this a bug and it likely will not be changed.

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