WD2000: Double-Clicking Document Icon Does Not Open Document

In Windows Explorer, when you double-click the icon for a document created in any one of the following versions of Word: any of the following problems may occur:

• The document is opened in another program (the opened document may be unreadable).
  
  -or-
• Another program is started, and that program returns an error message because it cannot open the document.
  
  -or-
• Double-clicking the icon has no effect (the document is not opened).

NOTE: This problem is more likely to occur if the only version of Word on your computer is Word 2000.

The file is not recognized as a valid Word file. This problem occurs in the following cases:

Case 1: The File Name Extension Is Associated with Another Program

If the file name extension is something other than .doc and it is associated with another program, the file is recognized as belonging to that program. For example, if you double-click a Word document named Test.txt, Notepad attempts to open the document, because the .txt extension is associated with Notepad.

Case 2: The File Name Extension Is Unregistered

To check registered file types and extensions, follow these steps:

1. On the Windows desktop, double-click the My Computer icon.
2. On the View menu, click Folder Options.
3. Click the File Types tab.

Case 3: The File Does Not Have a File Name Extension

This problem is most likely to occur with files created on the Macintosh.

To work around this problem, use either of the following methods:

Method 1: Open the Document from Within Word

1. On the File menu, click Open.
2. Under Look in, select the drive and then open the folder where your document is located.
3. In the Files of type list, select All Files (*.*).
4. Click to select your document, and then click Open.

Method 2: Give the Document a .doc File Name Extension

1. On the Windows Start menu, point to Programs, and then click Windows Explorer (Windows 95/98) or Windows NT Explorer (Windows NT 4.0).
2. On the View menu, click Folder Options (or Options in Windows 95 and Windows NT).
3. Click the View tab.
4. Clear the Hide file extensions for known file types check box (Windows 98 or Windows NT 4.0), or the Hide MS-DOS file extensions for file types that are registered check box (Windows 95).
5. Click OK.
6. Locate your document. Right-click the document, and then click Rename on the shortcut menu.
7. If the document does not have a file name extension, add .doc to the end of the file name (for example, rename "Mydoc" to "Mydoc.doc"). Otherwise, change the file name extension to .doc (for example, rename Mydoc.abc to Mydoc.doc).
   
   NOTE: The icon changes to a Microsoft Word document icon.
8. Double-click the document icon to open the document.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

For more information about opening documents, click Microsoft Word Help on the Help menu, type open a document in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topic.