Word Doc Opens Outlook (2002)

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When I try to open a Word document, it becomes an attachment to an Outlook e-mail. I don’t see the document. All I want to do is just open the document to edit and/or print it.
How do I fix this?
Eli

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I have a simalar problem… …I am attaching a word document to an email via code in an access database. I am using Office 2000. Everything works fine until the email is received by someone who tries to open it. The attachment is there, it is a normal looking Word.doc icon, but failes to open when double clicked. Instead there is an error message that refers to a .tmp file and a path. I need to tell you that this code and email routine workied perfectly in Office 97. This error does not occur when attaching the file from the normal attach feature in Outlook. Can I correct this the same way as discussed in this topic?

Thanks

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Kevin,
I don’t know since I was the “lost soul” originally. I suggest that you try the 8 steps outlined by Hans. It worked for me and your problem appears to be similar to mine. I doubt if you can screw things up by following Hans’ solution.
Good luck,
Eli

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Thanks, I am going to give it a go.

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It looks like the association of the .doc extension with Word has gone astray. You can try the following. My description is based on Windows NT, it’s probably slightly different in Windows XP.

1. Start Windows Explorer, or open My Computer.
2. Select View/Folder Options… or Tools/Folder Options… (depending on Windows version)
3. Click File Types.
4. Locate and select Microsoft Word Document in the list of registered file types.
5. Click Edit…
   You should see several actions, like New, Open and Print. Open should be bold, to indicate that it is the default action.
   (If not, select Open and click Set Default. In this case, you might confirm by clicking OK now until you’re back in Explorer, and see if you can open a Word document normally. If you still have problems, repeat and continue with the steps below.)
6. Select Open and click Edit…
7. You should see a dialog where you can specify how to open a .doc file. If Outlook is mentioned in this dialog, modify the items to look like the attached picture. The box labeled “Application to perform action” contains the complete path to Winword.exe; only part of the path is visible here.
8. Click OK to confirm until you’re back in Explorer.

If this doesn’t help, you might try Start/Run… Type winword /r in the command box and run this command. This startup switch, which is not documented in the online help, re-registers Winword in the Windows Registry. One of its effects is to restore the file associations for Word. For more information, see MSKB article WD: Word Startup (Command-Line) Switches and Their Purpose:

/r	Starts Word in the background, makes changes in the Windows registry, and then quits. This switch forces a re-register of Word in the Windows registry.

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Hans,
I’m blown away – your solution was perfect.
Thank you so much,
Eli

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Tell us more, Eli. Which bit of Hans’s solution worked?

Ian

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Ian,
Steps 1-8 worked. Being lazy, I did try the last solution (which seemed the easiest) first but it didn’t work.
Hope that this helps,
Eli

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BTW, the command line shown in the graphic actually is one which fails to open the file correctly as it is missing the variable “%1” as detailed by the MS KB articles. Manually adding the variable often generates the frustrating “do you want to revert” message however, manually fixing Excel does not generate additional messages.

-Jester

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While I seem to recall some differences in earlier versions, I know that in Word 2000, my dialog box looks the same as the one Hans shows, and it opens files. I’ve even experimented with putting “%1” at the end (with & without quotes) & it makes no difference.

However, my registry contains
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTdoc_auto_fileshellopencommand
with a value of
“c:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOfficeWINWORD.EXE” “%1”

so I guess that’s where it’s critical.

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Almost all of my tweaking has been with Word 97 and it is in Word 97’s file types that I have seen/not seen this variable as well as the other message regarding “reverting to previous file type”.

-Jester

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Hans, I will give it a try. Otherwise, I will forget WORD shortcuts. Funny, excel shortcuts work and also access.

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Hans, I will give it a try. Otherwise, I will forget WORD shortcuts. Funny, excel shortcuts work and also access.

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Welcome to Woody’s Lounge!

You can try Help | Detect and Repair from within Word. You may have to insert your Office 2003 CD.

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