Pages won't open docx documents

Pages v6.0.5 should show you all .doc/x icons as ungrayed icons available for open in the file chooser. Even if they are corrupted, or too old to open.

If you are seeing a blank icon with a docx extension, but still selectable, then it is not a Word document. Here is the dialog you get when attempting to open a PDF that had its extension renamed to docx:

Although you can drag & drop a one-page PDF, or PDF graphic onto Pages, it will show PDF, and RTF documents grayed out in its file chooser.

If you can select a legitimate Word doc/x document, but still get a “Cannot open for some reason,” then very likely the Word document is corrupted (from Pages translation perspective) and possibly too old. When this happens, I open the Word document with the free LibreOffice Writer, and just Save As... again:

Almost always, this simple process writes out a Word document that Pages can now actually open. Same technique for a document reported as too old, if Pages still provides that dialog.

You have a Pages for Mac Support Community available to you. If you would like, I can request that the hosts move this post into that community for you.

You will find the LibreOffice documentation beneficial for things that are not obvious. For instance, you look all over for a means to enable hyphenation, but only find it by right-clicking on a body of text, and choosing Paragraph... Text Flow tab. 😉 You can flow text from one text box to n-tuple text boxes. You can place multiple sections within a single Frame... etc.

The LibreOffice documentation is written with LibreOffice Writer.

LibreOffice v5.3.* will open simplistic Pages '09 and Pages v5.5.3 or later documents. Emphasis on simple.

Apple only keeps the most current release of Pages (right now, that is v6.0.5) in the App Store, and does not provide a download location for previous versions. If you do not have Pages v5.6 through v5.6.2 on your MBA (with El Capitan), then you are out of luck. However... there is another Apple word processor available...

Although Apple retired the iWork '09 DVD and App Store applications, the Pages '09 v4 that comes on that DVD has over 100 features and functionality not found in Pages v5 or v6. That DVD is still available from Amazon, or Ebay resellers, and once installed, must have the Apple iWork 9.3 updater applied to it so that it will work on El Capitan (as mine does).

Boot your Mac into Safe Boot mode, and then attempt to open that same Word .docx document in Pages again. Any change? Reboot normally.

On the fresh reboot, press and hold the shift key while launching Pages. Then attempt to open the same Word .docx document again. Any change?

Pages is normally a plaintiff with dialog or warning boxes when it cannot open a file.

After upgrading to High Sierra, when I attempt to load a .docx file, Pages acts like it knows what it is doing and looks like it is opening the file, but there is no document opened on my computer. No warning, no alerts nor notices, just nothing happens.

Seems like Pages and High Sierra simply cannot open .docx. is this correct?

If not what can I do. I have hundreds of docx files and cannot use other software on each file like LibreOffice.

OpenOffice works, but would like to use Pages.

jac

What specific version of Pages are you using on High Sierra (Pages menu : About Pages)? I have no issue opening Word .doc/x files with Pages '09 v4.3 or v6.3.1 on High Sierra. Even 200 page documents show a brief progress bar as Pages translates/opens them as .pages documents.

If you installed MS Word, OpenOffice, or any other application that forces Word documents to be opened by them, then Pages will not be the default opening application. Right-click on any Word document that Pages cannot open, and choose Get Info from the secondary menu. On the Get Info panel, 1) What is the creation date for the document, and 2) look at the Open with section. What application is shown?

That is odd. I am using Pages version 6.3.1 (5249).

I do have OpenOffice installed, but it is not the default for .docx I set it to Pages.

Open With, does show Pages and has the very same problem. does not work with pages.

File info shows creation date 30 Dec 17.

Any other ideas?

Appreciate your help

jac

My Bad!

When you said to reboot in safe mode, it reminded me that I had not tried rebooting at all. I know better as that often "fixes" stuff.

Rebooted and it works just fine.

Thank you so much for your help.

Have a great new year!

Jac

For backwards compatibility with Pages '09 v4.3, one must export Pages v5/v/6 documents to Pages 09 format beforehand.