Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

I am running Vista 64 home premium. I have a file with a .doc extension. I have been working and updating this file every few days for the past several months in open office writer. Today, it will not open. When I try to open I get: This is not a WinWord97 file. I can open other files with a .doc extension. I have set openoffice my default program on my computer. Several days ago I upgraded to openoffice 3.1.0. Any ideas on how to get this file going again in OpenOffice?

Is that a message from Windows, or from OpenOffice? It doesn't sound like something from OOo.

What happens if you start OOo first, then use File > Open and select your ".doc" file?

If you get an error, please quote it exactly.

You can also attach your file here and we can give it a try. You can use the "Upload Attachment" link (below the message entry area after you click "POST REPLY"). [Forum] How to attach a document here

Just be aware that this pattern of events often seems to end up that the file is not recoverable.

It's a message from OpenOffice.

If I start OOo first, then use File > Open and select my ".doc" file - it does the same thing. I get small popup window saying, "This not a WinWord97 file". The title at the top of the popup says, "OpenOffice.org 3.1"

That's it - quoted exactly.

Here's the file I can't open anymore:

Wow, ok. I've never seen that message window before.

Sorry, but I'm unable to find out anything about what type of file it is or why OOo won't open it.

It does look like the file still has data in it--I can see some recognizable English text.

Very strange--hopefully someone has a more helpful idea.

Well, that's not the first time I see that one in forums. It contains some text indeed but very few I fear. You should have a look at your backup folder, perhaps there is a previous version: [Tutorial] The OOo user profile.

Good luck!

Thanks for TRYING! I wonder if 3.1.0 is conflicting somehow.

Anyone else out there? Anyone?

You know I DID try to open a backup of that same .doc file. It was a few weeks older.
And guess what? THE SAME THING HAPPENED: "This is not a WinWord97 file".

Really strange.

scvdesigns wrote:Several days ago I upgraded to openoffice 3.1.0. Any ideas on how to get this file going again in OpenOffice?

Perhaps worth a try: remove OOo completely, reset your OOo user profile, reinstall latest 2.x version (2.4.2, direct link for download on the main OOo web page in the right area). Then try to open your file.

Note that afterwards, you can run both 2.x and 3.x in parallel. But don't transfer your personal data during the welcome process (when reinstalling 3.x), configuration files from the former version might corrupt the new profile.

Perhaps worth a try: remove OOo completely, reset your OOo user profile, reinstall latest 2.x version (2.4.2, direct link for download on the main OOo web page in the right area). Then try to open your file.

Unfortunately I doubt that will help, the file would seem to be un-recoverable. Word can't open it either.

If I understand correctly, this is a file that was last written by OOo--is that correct?

If so, it might be worth filing a bug report and attaching the file. The developers can perhaps sort out what the problem is with the file. Maybe that will suggest what caused the problem.

[Tutorial] Reporting bugs or suggestions

I've recovered what I can (about 7 pages) and have attached it here as an .odt file.
If it hasn't already been said: It is always safer to work in the native OOo formats (.odt and .ods etc) and then use Save As to save a copy in .doc or .xls format if you need to distribute it in MS Office formats. But always then go back to the native OOo version to continue working. If the people you are sending to do not need to edit the files then it is best to send them a PDF as then no matter what office suite they use it will be possible for them to read and print the files.

THANK YOU
for recovering what you could from the file. At least you were able to recover the portion I typed in since February.
I am taking your advice seriously. To be safe, I'll work from & save the files in OOo; then export as PDFs or save in other formats for other users.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

scvdesigns wrote:THANK YOU
for recovering what you could from the file. At least you were able to recover the portion I typed in since February.
I am taking your advice seriously. To be safe, I'll work from & save the files in OOo; then export as PDFs or save in other formats for other users.

The file showing the recovered data will open in the Microsoft Viewer but one has to declare an encoding before it will open.

I tried a number of filters for the file - once getting the declaration that it was a WinWord2 file. The file has been converted with the SO Word filter and obviously there has been a glitch. There are known problems with the OOo3.x.x word filter so please report this file. I have found that I have had to revert to OOo2 or StarOffice 7 to handle the occasional Word 97 file.

Phil

PGAGA wrote:The file showing the recovered data will open in the Microsoft Viewer but one has to declare an encoding before it will open.

The recovered file isn't meant to be any kind of Word file - or do you mean the original file?

Saturday, August 15, 2009

TheGurkha wrote:

PGAGA wrote:The file showing the recovered data will open in the Microsoft Viewer but one has to declare an encoding before it will open.

The recovered file isn't meant to be any kind of Word file - or do you mean the original file?

Yes the original file with the DOC extension opened in word viewer showing the data found in the recovered data file.

Phil

FOUND THE SOLUTION.

Same problem happened to me. Corrupted .doc file. Couldn't open it in anything. Kept getting winword97 errors. And it turned out that all my back-ups of that file were versions of the corrupted file as well.

What I did was changed the extension to .rft and then uploaded it to Google Docs while clicking the convert option.

When it was done uploading, I opened it and all my text was there. Now I might just copy the text over or download the google docs version and overwrite the corrupted file.

Try it next time this problem comes up.

HI,
I runa a Windows 10 and happened the same to me: worked with odt extension and saved the last time in .doc 97. Now I have only one file in .doc that doesn't open. Openoffice simply says "This is not a winword97 file" and closes. Every time I try to open, the .~lock file stays on the desktop despite the program closes.
Trying to change the format name doesn't help, I can't find any file in the backup folder despite I save every 5 mins my work.
This is rather urgent since it is a file for a job test that I have to send in few hours.

Thanks

Possibly a corrupt file: try resaving as Windows 97 file from the .odt file

Hi, thanks for your reply. Do you mean rename the file extension with .odt and try to open? It appears the same error and Openoffice closes.. don't understand why!

Can you upload the file for someone to have a look at?

Try to open it with the free Microsoft Word Viewer - see How to obtain the latest Microsoft Word Viewer

If it is confidential, I have sent you my email ID - click New Messages to see it and send me to file.

Open the .odt file, then /File /Save As, choose Word 97/2000/XP from the file type dropdown, and make sure "Automatic file name extension" is checked.

That is the _ONLY_ way to change a file type when saving from OpenOffice.

RoryOF wrote:Open the .odt file, then /File /Save As, choose Word 97/2000/XP from the file type dropdown, and make sure "Automatic file name extension" is checked.

That is the _ONLY_ way to change a file type when saving from OpenOffice.

Hi Rory, thanks for your piece of information. I cannot open the file now since after the error message the program shuts down, but I'll do like that in the future.

John_Ha wrote:Can you upload the file for someone to have a look at?

Try to open it with the free Microsoft Word Viewer - see How to obtain the latest Microsoft Word Viewer

If it is confidential, I have sent you my email ID - click New Messages to see it and send me to file.

Thank you very much, John! I have sent the file. I tried with Word Viewer and the file is totally messed up..I am sure that the filed has been automatically saved every 10 mins and that I have saved manually in win 97 format without seeing any error reported.

gdb sent me his file.

It was an MS Word file and a binary editor (HxD) showed that it was a "Microsoft Word 6.0-Dokument.....MSWordDoc.....Word.Document.6" file which is a very old file format. I got the same error message when opening it with Writer.

When I unzipped the file, WordDocument was 1.15 MBytes.
Only the first 20 kBytes or so carried recognisable text, albeit interspersed with some binary characters. The remainder of the file was binary gibberish apart from some recognisable words (table contents, heading, footer, Internet link, a number of font names etc) at the very end of the file. There were large blocks of hex FF which is binary "11111111". I wondered if the "binary gibberish" was perhaps an image.

gdb tells me that the 20 kBytes contains the the most important part of his file.

See [Tutorial] Differences between Writer and MS Word files for why you should always work in and save files as .odt.