Posted by John_NorCal on 1/7/09 6:24pm
Msg #273783

OK you MS Word guru's....

I write something in Word and save it as a Word document. In the past if I opened said document outside of the Word program like in a My Documents folder, it would automatically open as a Word document. Now when I attempt that, the file will open as a notepad document so any settings that I make are not carried over. Anyone know of any way to stop that short of opening Word each time I want to open a document?

Reply by Marian_in_CA on 1/7/09 6:34pm
Msg #273784

It sounds like your file associations got mixed up.

If you go to the folder where the file is located..

1. Right click on the icon.
2. Select 'Properties' from the menu.
3. Find the "Opens with..." phrase near the top of the Properties box that pops up.
4. Note which program it lists there. It probably says Wordpad now. If it does...
5. Click the "Change" button, which will bring up a list of programs.
6. Choose Word from the list and click "OK"
7. Click "OK" again to close toe Properties box.


Now try to open the file like normal. If it works, great. If not, let me know.

Reply by Vince/KS on 1/7/09 9:00pm
Msg #273797

In addition to what Marion said

check the file's properties. How is the file formated? If it ends in ".txt" That would be a typical Wordpad document. If it ends in ".doc", that would be a typical Microsoft Word file. When you save a file, you typically have a choice as to the format it is saved under - Word default should typically be "doc". If not ask how to change.

If all is well - then simply change the "file associations" as stated by Marion.

Reply by John_NorCal on 1/7/09 10:01pm
Msg #273803

Voila! Thank you Marian and Vince, it opens correctly now. n/m