I can't open my Word files after update

Question

I can't open my Word files after update

Yesterday I updated my OS from Snow Leopard to El Capitan, along with installing Waterfox to replace Firefox and LibreOffice to be my office suite. N ow I can't open any of my files that were written in Microsoft Word 2004. I get a message saying that I can't open Power PX files – even though the files were written and kept on an Intel computer (late 2008 MacBook). I don't know what I might have done to prevent that, but I never suspected that it would happen. I don't see how they could be considered PowerPC files, and I never have had any problem with using Word, even with documents people sent me in later versions of Word, nor did they have problems with Word files I sent them.

I don't know what to do. These form the majority of my files, and I really need them. Should I try to restore everything on the computer from the latest backup (Time Machine) before I did the updates? I'm not really sure how to do that, but I'm certain I can find out. But if there's another way to handle this, I'd really like to know that. Boy, do I wish that I hadn't updated!

Thanks!

MacBook

Posted on Jul 24, 2017 8:56 AM

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Answer 1

LilyLC

Level 4

2,834 points

Jul 24, 2017 8:42 PM in response to jennywren1420

Microsoft Word 2004 is indeed a PowerPC app that runs on MacOS 10.2.8 through 10.6.8. El Capitan is 10.11. Some options are

(a) upgrade to the current version, which is Word 2016 for Mac or the Office 2016 for Mac suite or Office 365 subscription (at microsoft.com);

(b) Apple Pages is free, as well as Numbers (spreadsheet) and Keynote (presentation); or

(c) the opensource LibreOffice suite.

. . . even with documents people sent me in later versions of Word, nor did they have problems with Word files I sent them.

If those document had the extension ".doc" then no problem for you to open them. The file extension for Word 2008, 2011 and 2016 is ".docx". If you can open .docx files then you might have the Microsoft Open XML File Format Convert app. Generally, new versions of applications can open documents that were generated by older versions of the app but not the other way around.

I don't know what to do. These form the majority of my files, and I really need them. Should I try to restore everything on the computer from the latest backup (Time Machine) before I did the updates?

You could but bear in mind that Word 2004 is 13 years old and Microsoft ended support in January 2012. The last stable version 11.6.6 was released in December 2011, which means you miss out on security updates versus more current versions that Microsoft still supports. Here's two links about restoring from TM: (a) by the great Pondini (may he RIP) and here. Consider searching for other how-to advice on that.

In the future, before upgrading macOS, consider checking the compatibility of your apps with different versions of macOS at RoaringApps.

HTH

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Answer 2

Jul 24, 2017 8:59 AM in response to jennywren1420

One more thing: One of the documents is a list that I wrote yesterday. These are not old files.

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