OfficeXP Pro: Problems Opening Files

Having a problem with OfficeXP Pro. Pardon the length-have listed the issues and fixes I've tried. Just installed it on Windows XP Pro. (All documents I have were created in prior versions of Office: 2000 and prior to that it was ‘97. ) When I try to open documents, I am almost always presented with a Convert File screen prompting me to Convert the File from a list of formats (Plain Text, Rich Text, HTML, Word 2.x for Windows, etc.).

An example of the problem: say I created a document in Word 2000, saved it as .html. When I try to open in WordXP I get the Convert File Screen. If I choose HTML from the list of formats to chooose from, it will open, but the document does not appear as it should most times (an image is x’d out, or text is not aligned properly). Also, I have a lot of .pdf documents saved that I’ve downloaded, a .pdf file extension is not available on the list of formats to choose from in WordXP ‘s Convert File screen. They appear as a bunch of blocks and symbols when I try to open .pdfs Never had a problem with .pdf files in Word2000.

I just tried creating a text only Test document and saving it as .txt. Before it would Save, I got a warning screen "File Conversion-Warning: saving as a text file will cause all formatting, pictures and objects in your file to be lost." Then I'm presented with Text Encoding options to choose: Windows, MS-DOS or Other (foreign languages, Unicode, etc.) My Test document will Save as .rtf (Rich Text Format) no problem.

I made some changes that seem to have eliminated the problem to some degree with .doc files, but there's still a problem with others.

Yesterday I spent a ton of time trying to get a vital document to open (with a .doc file extension) and it just would not open. I was getting prompts to convert the file, then change the language. Today it opened just fine - maybe fixes below helped. However, during the misery yesterday trying to open this document, at one point an error popped up that I need file proret.msi from the OfficeXP CD. I lost the prompt, and try as I might can’t seem to get the prompt back to extract this proret.msi file from the CD (IF it’s indeed needed). This M$ article explains what proret.msi is:
HOW TO: Determine Whether You Have a Retail or Enterprise Edition of Office XP . I fail to see the connection or why this proret.msi file is even needed to open documents, etc. But for the record I purchased a retail, not enterprise version. I double-checked the registry per instructions at M$ article and it's listed correctly as PRORET.MSI )

What I’ve tried: uninstalling and reinstalling OfficeXP, that didn’t help.

I looked “file conversion” up in WordXP "Help" and followed instructions to go into add/remove programs>OfficeXP> Change> Add/Remove Features> Office Shared Features>Converters & Filters. Chose the ones that seemed appropriate and chose “Install From My Computer>Update”. (By what 'seemed appropriate', I left out conversions from versions of Office prior to ’97, as that was the oldest version I’ve ever used.) Now regular .doc files are opening without the Convert File screen, but a lot of others aren't.


Has anyone encountered this? I don’t get it: why won’t documents just open- why am I persistently presented with this Convert File screen? And why the issue saving certain file types, like .txt? Any input appreciated, this one's driving me crazy. -Kat

Hi KatMac - I dont have OfficeXP so I cant really help but I can certainly understand your frustration. I found this article from Microsoft that may help you Office XP General Conversion Troubleshooter.

At very least, my answer bumps you to the top again. Good Luck :)

Thanks for the ~bump~ AnnMarie, and the Troubleshooter link-- that's a good link and has given me useful insight and helped eliminate some issues. Still working on this problem, though, and is turning into a novel that probably nobody wants to read :p
Think I've gotten it narrowed down. Will post with hopes of assistance, or if I can fix it, helping someone else who might encounter this.

Problems fixed :

• I no longer get the prompt asking for the proret.msi file (still don't get what that was all about).
• I no longer get the Convert File screen when opening many text file formats (html, txt, etc.). Perhaps downloading/installing Office XP Converter Pack fixed that.

Problems remaining:

• Can't open common graphics files (in one instance I was able to get a .jpg to open. Don't know what I did/didn't do to alter it, but I'm back to not being able to open graphics.)
• Can't view PDF files.
• And when I try to save in in .txt format, I still get File Conversion screen prompting me to choose Text Encoding (Windows Default, MS-DOS, Other).

File Conversion: Graphics. According to Word 2002 "Help", and this M$ article on Graphics Filters, many of the popular graphic file types are supported and I don't need to install separate graphics filters. Further instructions say to see a list of installed converters I have for opening Files, click File>Open and view the list in File of Types. For Saving, click File>Save As. Whatever's listed in Files of Types are Converters that Word has installed. There are no File Types for graphics in either Open or Save as. So I downloaded and installed Office XP Converter Pack. Following instructions at M$ Graphics and Filters link above, I have tried to install these filters repeatedly (with Norton AV 2002 disabled). Doesn't matter if I try installing the entire group, or each filter individually. It goes through the motions, but when I go back into Word, none of the Graphics types are listed under Files of Type for either Opening or Saving a Document.

File Conversion: PDF. This one's even more frustrating. According to Adobe, I need to upgrade to Acrobat Reader 5.05 for compatibility with Office XP. Per Adobe, part of v. 5.05 is "PDFMaker one-click macro button installs and runs in Microsoft Office XP'". So I uninstalled Reader 5.0, downloaded 5.05 and installed it. If I'm understanding how this works correctly, Acrobat Reader 5.05 is supposed to contain the template file PDF.dot for viewing .PDF files in Word as well PDFMaker macro template files, which are added to Office startup. I should have files PDF.dot, PDF.exe and PDFMaker.xla on my system. When I do a system search, none of those files are there. This article from Adobe " PDFMaker (Convert to Adobe PDF) Icons and Menu Missing from Word XP or 2000" offers fixes, but none of them have worked. Under solution #2 at that link, I can't Add PDF.dot as a template in Word 2002, as the PDF.dot is not on my system, only normal.dot . I have tried all solutions at that link, but some just can't be done, like #7, removing and reinstalling PDFmaker: I can't remove the files as instructed because they're not on my system. And I can't do a custom install as instructed: have uninstalled and reinstalled Acrobat Reader 5.05 twice with no prompt for Custom Install.

NortonAV 2002 conflict ? This Symantec article mentions a conflict with Norton AV and Adobe's PDF Maker that generates errors. "These errors can be caused by a conflict between the NAV plug-in for Microsoft Office and the Adobe Acrobat 5 PDFMaker macro template files, which are added to Office startup." I've not even reached the point of getting errors yet, but could Norton 2002 have something to do with the Word issues I've encountered? (Norton AV was disabled when I installed XP Pro)

I've also tried

• a Repair of Office XP Pro
• For the heck of it I also ran Housecall (system's clean)
• I also changed normal.dot to normal.old to force Word to create a new normal.dot file.
• Out of bleary-eyed desperation, I enabled Office in Startup Cop. (I got a twisted notion that if PDF files are in Office Startup, and I had Office disabled via Startup Cop, that might be a cause.) So I enabled Office and rebooted. No luck.

<sigh> Any thoughts?

One thing I noticed. You're confusing Adobe Acrobat with Adobe Acrobat Reader. Adobe Acrobat Reader does not integrate with Office in any way. It simply allows you to view PDF files. If you want integration with Word, you have to purchase Adobe Acrobat. That's the program described at the link you posted. Did you already purchase Adobe Acrobat? It must have been installed in order to have integrated with a previous version of Office.

Word is not a graphics viewer. You can't open JPEG files in it. You can import them, however. Is that what you're trying to do?

As for text files, I believe the prompt you're getting is perfectly normal. In Word 2000, there are several options for saving as TXT files. One is MS-DOS, and another is Encoded. My guess is that Word XP has only one TXT option, and that brings up another window asking you to choose the specific format.