Word in Win7 vs. XP

I have my new Win7 machine running alongside the old XP so I can move
into the new box with great care and deliberation.

Just found this bizarre difference in opening MS Word documents:

WordPad on XP will open *.doc files, but not the newer
*.docx files (which makes sense, since docx came along
much later.

WordPad on Win7 will open *.docx files, but NOT *.doc files.
Why in the world should that be?

--
--------------------------------------------
Dick Baker
(contact via http://goon.org/contact.php)

Dick Baker wrote:

I have my new Win7 machine running alongside the old XP so I can move
into the new box with great care and deliberation.

Just found this bizarre difference in opening MS Word documents:

WordPad on XP will open *.doc files, but not the newer
*.docx files (which makes sense, since docx came along
much later.

WordPad on Win7 will open *.docx files, but NOT *.doc files.
Why in the world should that be?

I've been able to open .doc files using Wordpad (write.exe) back when I
was using Windows XP and now when I'm using Windows 7. Wordpad is
obviously not a replacement for Word so I will see a bunch of garbage
characters (formatting metadata) in the .doc file when viewed in Wordpad
but I can still see the content of the document.

"will not open" doesn't tell anyone what actually happens. You double-
click on a .doc file and nothing happens (no error message, you see
nothing show up on the screen)? You first load Wordpad and use its File
- Load menu to open a .doc file and nothing happens (no error message,
no change in the window for Wordpad)? You never see any error message?

What happens when you double-click on a .doc file from withing Windows
Explorer? If no handler is associated with that filetype, what happens
with you right-click on the .doc file and select Open With and then
navigate to %windir% to select write.exe to load and view the .doc file?

On 7/2/2014 11:23 AM, Dick Baker wrote:
I have my new Win7 machine running alongside the old XP so I can move
into the new box with great care and deliberation.

Just found this bizarre difference in opening MS Word documents:

WordPad on XP will open *.doc files, but not the newer
*.docx files (which makes sense, since docx came along
much later.

WordPad on Win7 will open *.docx files, but NOT *.doc files.
Why in the world should that be?


Using Wordpad 6.1.7601.17514, which was installled with windows 7, I can
open old .doc files. However, the display in Wordpad shows all of the
file's content, including an attempt to resolve into text characters
those binary data that are used by Winword to indicate file properties,
formatting, and possibly history. This "garbage" is actually what I
would expect with Wordpad since it is indeed a tool for displaying the
entire contents of a file.

Do you have some version of Office on your PC? Or are you trying to get
by with only Wordpad because you do not have Winword? If the latter,
try the freeware Open Office from http://www.openoffice.org/, although
I have heard of some compatibility issues (which I no longer remember).

--
David E. Ross

The Crimea is Putin's Sudetenland.
The Ukraine will be Putin's Czechoslovakia.
See http://www.rossde.com/editorials/edtl_PutinUkraine.html.

Dick Baker wrote:

WordPad on XP will open *.doc files, but not the newer
*.docx files (which makes sense, since docx came along
much later.

XP WordPad will/would/ used to/ open MSWord 6.0/2003 compatible .doc
files. It won't save MSWord6 .doc.

WordPad on Win7 will open *.docx files, but NOT *.doc files.
Why in the world should that be?

Win7 WordPad will open OOXML .docx files (but MS rec/s Word Viewer).

WordPad stopped opening MSWord6 files in the Vista model. MSsaid that
there was a security vulnerability in addition to formatting problems.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960477 MS09-010: Vulnerability in
WordPad and Office text converters could allow remote code execution
https://technet.microsoft.com/library/security/ms09-010




--
Mike Easter

After serious thinking Dick Baker wrote :
I have my new Win7 machine running alongside the old XP so I can move
into the new box with great care and deliberation.

Just found this bizarre difference in opening MS Word documents:

WordPad on XP will open *.doc files, but not the newer
*.docx files (which makes sense, since docx came along
much later.

WordPad on Win7 will open *.docx files, but NOT *.doc files.
Why in the world should that be?

The release of write.exe that ships with Win7 is v6.X! The release that
shipped with XP was v5.x! The latter is not capable of opening MSO2007
and later because it doesn't understand the compound file structure
introduced with MSO12. The current release of write is written to
support the newer structure and any support for the older (outdated)
Word files has been deprecated.

That said, you could copy the older version of write.exe to your Win7
machine (not to a Windows folder) so you have both available, but this
involves also including the dependancy files since Wordpad is not a
stand-alone application!g Here's one (quite old) way...


http://www.computing.net/answers/win...d-1/12113.html

Optionally, you can use Open/Libre Writer or if not wanting an office
replacement there's several (free) Wordpad replacements available, of
which some are 'portable'!

--
Garry

Free usenet access at http://www.eternal-september.org
ClassicVB Users Regroup!
comp.lang.basic.visual.misc
microsoft.public.vb.general.discussion



---
This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active.
http://www.avast.com

GS wrote:

Dick Baker wrote :

I have my new Win7 machine running alongside the old XP so I can move
into the new box with great care and deliberation. Just found this
bizarre difference in opening MS Word documents:

- WordPad on XP will open *.doc files, but not the newer *.docx files
which makes sense, since docx came along much later.

- WordPad on Win7 will open *.docx files, but NOT *.doc files.

Why in the world should that be?

The release of write.exe that ships with Win7 is v6.X! The release that
shipped with XP was v5.x! The latter is not capable of opening MSO2007
and later because it doesn't understand the compound file structure
introduced with MSO12. The current release of write is written to
support the newer structure and any support for the older (outdated)
Word files has been deprecated.

That said, you could copy the older version of write.exe to your Win7
machine (not to a Windows folder) so you have both available, but this
involves also including the dependancy files since Wordpad is not a
stand-alone application!g Here's one (quite old) way...


http://www.computing.net/answers/win...d-1/12113.html

Optionally, you can use Open/Libre Writer or if not wanting an office
replacement there's several (free) Wordpad replacements available, of
which some are 'portable'!

And to add further to that suggestion:

With all the free and more robust choices for Word alternatives, I
wouldn't recommend the hacked solution of copying write.exe from the
Windows XP host to the Windows 7 host.

Getting MS Word is one option (although most users that choose that
route would get MS Office instead of just the standalone Word
component). That's a pricey option. Buying a used computer (that's
broke, like a hard drive needs replacing) that had an OEM version of MS
Office installed would be cheaper than buying MS Office alone. Friends
that buy a new computer (they want something new and more powerful or
their old one broke), using Craigslist, or finding a local scrapper are
choice. If the box still has a legible OEM sticker, I can download the
installers for free from Microsoft and use that product key. After all,
the OEM license permanently sticks to the computer and now I have that
computer.

As you mentioned, another would be to get LibreOffice (which is a more
actively maintained product than OpenOffice that got dumped at the
Apache Software Foundation). It's free but it's still slow to open
(faster than before but still slow compared to Word or the other
solutions mentioned here). It has a wonderful robust set of features
(mostly to replicate what MS Office can do although sometimes the
workarounds to effect the same task are very non-intuitive in Libre or
OpenOffice). It's a heavy-weight solution.

Another choice is to get software that emulates MS Office but is free or
very cheap, like Kingsoft Office Suite or Softmaker's FreeOffice. Those
don't have every feature in MS Office or LibreOffice but then most users
only utilize less than half of the features in the heavy-weight suites.
You have to dig or be an existing user of some esoteric features to find
them missing in these smaller and quick office tools. Both have
freeware versions. There isn't much lure users into buying the payware
version of Kingsoft because almost everything is already in the freeware
version. FreeOffice does have a few nice features that even home users
might want to lure them to the payware version. Both are much cheaper
than buying just one component of MS Office: free for Kingsoft Office or
$70 for Kingsoft Pro, and free for Softmaker FreeOffice or $100 for
Softmaker Office pro. Unless you have a real need for the extra
features in the payware versions, the freeware versions are a very good
alternative to MS Office. However, no matter if you use the free or
paid versions, they don't include a PIM with e-mail product as Microsoft
does with Outlook in some [more pricey] editions of MS Office.

The OP never said he needs to edit the files so getting MS Word Viewer
(and the other MS Office component viewers) is another option. All he
said is that he wants to "open" them (which only means to read them).
Because they are not full-blown versions of the Word, Excel, and other
MS Office components, some .doc[x] files may not display with 100%
fidelity. After all, these are just small free viewer apps. If only
viewing (reading) the doc files is all the OP wants then these free
viewers from Microsoft are sufficient.

There are probably other cheaper solutions (many free) than getting MS
Office and more lightweight solutions than LibreOffice. What to use
depends on what he wants to do with the doc files and his level of
expertise in whatever Word features he needs or wants to use.

Extremely well stated! I completely forgot about the viewer apps,
though, and so thanks for mentioning.

I'm an Excel developer and so having MSO's current version to work with
is not optional. I typically install Word because clients insist on
using it, otherwise I haven't found anything Word does that I can't
duplicate in Excel. Exception is using Adobe's RoboHTML for output to
PDF but I try to avoid that since Excel's SaveAsFixedFormat feature
does a great job without the 'weight' associated with other methods for
creating Xps/Pdf files. I can always add the nav panel later!

I knew about FreeOffice but your post is 1st I've heard Kingsoft.

I didn't know about OEM downloads being available and so would
appreciate any refs you can give about source.

Big thanks...

--
Garry

Free usenet access at http://www.eternal-september.org
ClassicVB Users Regroup!
comp.lang.basic.visual.misc
microsoft.public.vb.general.discussion

GS wrote:

I didn't know about OEM downloads being available and so would
appreciate any refs you can give about source.

The "electronic downloads" for Windows 7 are hosted at Digital River, an
authorized e-tailer of Microsoft products. The "backup downloads" of MS
Office are at Microsoft's site. Because of these downloads is why there
are sellers of just the product keys and license: you get the product
key, COA sticker, but no software because you're supposed to then go
download the software. Since you have the product keys, maybe all you
have to get are the trial versions and then validate them with the
[purchased] product keys before the 30-day trial expires. I haven't
tried using trials to see if they validate to full-blown versions.

In the last instance (that I can remember) of salvaging a broken PC with
OEM software was where I got a broken PC for free from a buddy (Brad).
It was his brother's (Rick's) gaming PC that "broke". Rick figured Brad
could fix it but keep it since Rick already bought a new PC. Brad
couldn't figure out what was wrong or didn't want to bother fixing it
(since Rick didn't want it back) and gave it to me free. My home
desktop PC had died and I was using a laptop as a replacement. Rick, of
course, couldn't find the Windows 7 and MS Office 2010 software discs
both of which were OEM licenses. So I had the product keys but no
installers. The Windows 7 product key was on the the OEM sticker on the
case. The old hard drive was severely corrupted so Windows wouldn't
load. I slaved the old HDD under a new OS installed on a new disk to
extract the product key for MS Office from the old HDD.

The PC was definitely broken. It had okay quality components but the
PSU went bad. I'm not sure what Rick did to really screw up the file
system so normal tools couldn't fix it. I don't remember how I got the
old file system fixed enough to grab the Win7 HE OEM product key off of
it (the HDD itself was okay). If I hadn't gotten the Win7 OEM key, I'd
probably still have WinXP and MS Office 2003 on this salvaged host. The
PSU was known to be dead. A new HDD was needed just in case I the old
HDD was really bad instead of just a ****ed up file system. About a
month later the video card died, I used the onboard video in the
interim, and shopped around for a new video card (since the onboard
video sucked for gaming). The only other defect was a broken onboard
temperature sensor that kept the CPU fan spinning at max speed.
Speedfan fixed that problem using softwa the fan spins at max speed
until Windows boot and I login (and I usually leave PCs powered 24x7 so
it's rare I have to listen to a loud fan).

Now I had the keys but no software. They were OEM licenses and I now
owned the computer on which they were installed so those licenses were
mine. Although I took the dead PC from my buddy, I had no clue if I
could fix it. I figured if he couldn't then I couldn't but it turns out
my hardware expertise is as greater for me than him as his programming
expertise excels over me. He's yin, I'm yang.

For Windows 7 "backup" download, I went to:

heidoc.net

which had the download links from Digital River. They also list the MS
backup downloads but I recall that I read somewhere else about where to
get those Office backup downloads.

mydigitallife.info also had an article giving the Digital River links
for the Windows 7 ISO downloads. Someone said the Digital River links
are now offline yet the couple of DR links I just tested still work. I
didn't save a URL to the web page with the link but instead saved the
web page which has the links. The web page could go away even if the DR
links were still valid so I only wanted to save the DR links.

For MS Office "backup" downloads, I went to:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/pr...103427465.aspx

At eBay, you can find lots of sellers that only sell the product key.
You have to use a download to get the installer to actually use the
software. So I knew the downloads were separately available. I already
had the product keys so I didn't want to pay for them again to find out
to where I would be told to get the downloads.

Again.., big thanks!
My reason for interest is a neighbor who can't find the OEM discs for
his laptop. It has Win7 HP installed and I want to do a 'clean install'
for him. Thus, I need to know where to download Win7!

--
Garry

Free usenet access at http://www.eternal-september.org
ClassicVB Users Regroup!
comp.lang.basic.visual.misc
microsoft.public.vb.general.discussion

On 02/07/2014 19:23, Dick Baker wrote:
I have my new Win7 machine running alongside the old XP so I can
move into the new box with great care and deliberation.

Just found this bizarre difference in opening MS Word documents:

WordPad on XP will open *.doc files, but not the newer *.docx files
(which makes sense, since docx came along much later.

WordPad on Win7 will open *.docx files, but NOT *.doc files. Why in
the world should that be?


You need to save the file as .rtf which can be opened in Wordpad. Also,
you can use free word on Microsoft cloud to read and convert your
documents. Finally, here are free converters that you can download from
microsoft website and they will open and read any Microsoft document
even in XP ;-)

Taking a rest from word cup football so you have this reply in rich text.

Good luck.

Good Guy wrote:
you have this reply in rich text.

What makes you think everyone (or even anyone) renders your html?

Everything after the f=f plaintext disappears (for me).

It seems that if your mixmin provider had their cleanfeed optimally
configured, html messages wouldn't make it.

http://www.mixmin.net/cleanfeed/config.html Cleanfeed - Configuration
Parameters

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleanfe...et_spam_filter) As well as
blocking spam, it is also able to block binary image posts in non-binary
news groups and HTML posts.


--
Mike Easter

On 03/07/2014 01:08, Mike Easter wrote:


What makes you think everyone (or even anyone) renders your html?

Intelligence of the people I guess. Most intelligent people in the 21st
century must be accustomed to HTML in the corporate emails as a matter
of course. We don't get many hunters and fishermen around here.



Everything after the f=f plaintext disappears (for me).

In that case you need to get a better newsreader.



It seems that if your mixmin provider had their cleanfeed optimally
configured, html messages wouldn't make it.

http://www.mixmin.net/cleanfeed/config.html Cleanfeed -
Configuration Parameters

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleanfe...et_spam_filter) As well
as blocking spam, it is also able to block binary image posts in
non-binary news groups and HTML posts.



What has the above crap got to do with me? I can't do anything about it
if mixmin can't configure their servers optimally.

HTML is what people will get. If they are on a narrow bandwidth then
they have to learn how to kill-file my posts. Perhaps you can write a
tutorial for these people.

On 7/3/2014 1:38 PM, Good Guy wrote:
On 03/07/2014 01:08, Mike Easter wrote:


What makes you think everyone (or even anyone) renders your html?

Intelligence of the people I guess. Most intelligent people in the 21st
century must be accustomed to HTML in the corporate emails as a matter
of course. We don't get many hunters and fishermen around here.



Everything after the f=f plaintext disappears (for me).

In that case you need to get a better newsreader.



It seems that if your mixmin provider had their cleanfeed optimally
configured, html messages wouldn't make it.

http://www.mixmin.net/cleanfeed/config.html Cleanfeed -
Configuration Parameters

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleanfe...et_spam_filter) As well
as blocking spam, it is also able to block binary image posts in
non-binary news groups and HTML posts.



What has the above crap got to do with me? I can't do anything about it
if mixmin can't configure their servers optimally.

HTML is what people will get. If they are on a narrow bandwidth then
they have to learn how to kill-file my posts. Perhaps you can write a
tutorial for these people.



Problems with HTML-formatted E-mail and newsgroup messages, from my own
research:

1. Many E-mail and newsgroup applications generate really bad HTML.
HTML-formatted messages contain an average of 5.0 HTML syntax errors per
KB of file size. That is okay if you and I both use the same
application. It is not okay if we use different applications.

2. Because of HTML syntax errors, the message might not be processed by
audio applications used by the deaf. For businesses in the U.S., this
can be a legal problem, a violation of the Americans with Disabilities
Act. If you think I am kidding, ask the Target Corporation what
happened in 2007-2008.

3. HTML-formatted messages average 4.0 times the size of the equivalent
ASCII-formatted WITH THE SAME CONTENT. This is called bloat and is a
problem for corporations that are mandated by law to retain all
corporate E-mail messages.

--
David E. Ross

The Crimea is Putin's Sudetenland.
The Ukraine will be Putin's Czechoslovakia.
See http://www.rossde.com/editorials/edtl_PutinUkraine.html.

On Thu, 03 Jul 2014 21:38:08 +0100, Good Guy
wrote:

On 03/07/2014 01:08, Mike Easter wrote:


What makes you think everyone (or even anyone) renders your html?

Intelligence of the people I guess. Most intelligent people in the 21st
century must be accustomed to HTML in the corporate emails as a matter
of course. We don't get many hunters and fishermen around here.



Everything after the f=f plaintext disappears (for me).

In that case you need to get a better newsreader.



It seems that if your mixmin provider had their cleanfeed optimally
configured, html messages wouldn't make it.

http://www.mixmin.net/cleanfeed/config.html Cleanfeed -
Configuration Parameters

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleanfe...et_spam_filter) As well
as blocking spam, it is also able to block binary image posts in
non-binary news groups and HTML posts.



What has the above crap got to do with me? I can't do anything about it
if mixmin can't configure their servers optimally.

HTML is what people will get. If they are on a narrow bandwidth then
they have to learn how to kill-file my posts. Perhaps you can write a
tutorial for these people.


It's hard to take a person seriously after they've publicly declared that
they'll continue to use this newsgroup as their personal toilet.

--

Char Jackson

Dick Baker seesig4address wrote in news:XnsA35E7383B1581kx97@
216.196.97.131:

I have my new Win7 machine running alongside the old XP so I can move
into the new box with great care and deliberation.

Just found this bizarre difference in opening MS Word documents:

WordPad on XP will open *.doc files, but not the newer
*.docx files (which makes sense, since docx came along
much later.

WordPad on Win7 will open *.docx files, but NOT *.doc files.
Why in the world should that be?

My thanks to those who responded and apologies to all for (1) a horrible
typo, i.e., subject should have been WordPad in Win7 vs. XP, not just
Word (although you figured that out from the context) and (2) not being
clear by saying WordPad 6.0 in Win7 "will not" open older Word *.doc
files; it will open them, but displays binary code. Quite frankly, I
didn't scroll down far enough to discover that it was displaying the
original text after all the gibberish.




--
--------------------------------------------
Dick Baker
(contact via http://goon.org/contact.php)