Knowledge Base

WD: "Word is Converting <Filename>" Message Opening Document

Article ID: 179242

Article Last Modified on 1/22/2007

APPLIES TO

This article was previously published under Q179242

SYMPTOMS

When you open any document in Microsoft Word, including a Word document, you will see the following information in the status bar:
Word is converting <file name>.
When the file finally opens, it will appear with unreadable characters or garbled text.

CAUSE

The file associations are not set correctly.

MORE INFORMATION

To check the file association for Word for Windows documents, follow these steps:

  1. Double-click My Computer.
  2. On the View menu, click Options or Folder Options.
  3. Click the File Types tab.
  4. In the Registered File Types box, click Microsoft Word Document. In the File Type Details section verify that the extension is DOC.
  5. Click Cancel.
For additional information about associating file types in Microsoft Windows, see your Windows printed documentation or click the Index tab in Microsoft Windows Help, type the following text

associating, file types

and then double-click the selected text to view the "Creating or modifying a file type" topic.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this behavior, reregister Word by running Word or Office Setup with the /r and /y switches. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Insert the Word or Office compact disc into the CD-ROM drive.

    If you installed Word or Office from floppy disks insert Setup Disk 1 in the floppy disk drive of your computer.
  2. On the Windows Start menu, click Run.
  3. In the Open box, type the following

    <drive>:\Setup.exe /r /y

    where <drive> is the letter of the drive that contains the compact disc or Setup Disk 1.
  4. Click OK.

Additional query words: garbage characters.

Keywords: kbprb KB179242


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