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Article ID: 918957 - Last Review: May 24, 2006 - Revision: 1.6
A file does not open in the program that you expect when you try to open the file in Office
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SYMPTOMS
In Microsoft Office, you open a file by double-clicking the
file, or you open an attachment in e-mail. When you do this, the file does not
open in the program that you expect. For example, a Microsoft Word document may
open in a program other than Word.
CAUSE
This issue occurs because the file associations for the
program are incorrect.
RESOLUTION
To resolve this issue, correct the file associations for the
program by repairing Office or the Office program, or by using the
regserver command.
Note Make sure that you have the correct program installed for the
file association. You can verify this by viewing the file name extension. For example, a Word document will have a ".doc" extension.
Method 1: Repair Office or the Office program
When you repair Office, the correct file association will
reassociate with the corresponding Office program. To repair Office or the
Office program, follow these steps:
- Close all Office programs, and turn off any antivirus
software.
- Click Start, click Run,
type appwiz.cpl, and then press ENTER.
- Click Office or the Office program, and then click
Change/Remove. For example, click Microsoft Office Word 2003,
Microsoft Office 2000 Standard, Microsoft Office XP, or Microsoft Office 2000
Professional. The Setup program starts automatically.
- In the Setup program, click Repair Office
(or Repair Word).
Note The Setup program performs the following functions:
- Checks the installed files
- Replaces or installs any files from an earlier version of Office that
are the wrong size, are damaged, or are missing
- After
you repair Office or the Office program, turn on the antivirus software that
you turned off in step 1.
Method 2: Use the "regserver" command to reregister the Office program
The
regserver command forces the Office program to reregister itself and then exit.
Use this command when you want to rewrite all the program's registry keys and
reassociate the program together with the appropriate program files. To do
this, and to write the correct file association information in the Windows
registry, follow these steps.
Note In these steps,
program.exe is a
placeholder for the program file for the program that you want to reregister.
If you installed Office to another location, use the path that is correct for
that location.
- Exit the program that you want to reregister.
- Click Start, click Run,
type program.exe /unregserver
in the Open box, and then press ENTER.
- Click Start, click Run,
type program.exe /regserver
in the Open box, and then press ENTER.
Note This method will not work for Microsoft Outlook.
MORE INFORMATION
For more
information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the
Microsoft Knowledge Base:
211494Â
(http://kbalertz.com/Feedback.aspx?kbNumber=211494/
)
Excel opens without displaying a
workbook
320516Â
(http://kbalertz.com/Feedback.aspx?kbNumber=320516/
)
You cannot open Excel files in Windows Explorer after you use the Text Import Wizard to open a text file
290852Â
(http://kbalertz.com/Feedback.aspx?kbNumber=290852/
)
You cannot double-click to open an Excel attachment in Outlook 2002
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003
- Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2003
- Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003
- Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003
- Microsoft Office Access 2003
- Microsoft Office OneNote 2003
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003
- Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003
- Microsoft Office Project Standard 2003
- Microsoft Office Publisher 2003
- Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2003
- Microsoft Office XP Developer Edition
- Microsoft Office XP Small Business Edition
- Microsoft Office XP Standard Edition
- Microsoft Access 2002 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Excel 2002 Standard Edition
- Microsoft FrontPage 2002 Standard Edition
- Microsoft PowerPoint 2002 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Word 2002
- Microsoft Outlook 2002 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Publisher 2002 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Office 2000 Premium Edition
- Microsoft Office 2000 Professional Edition
- Microsoft Office 2000 Small Business Edition
- Microsoft Office 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Office 2000 Developer Edition
- Microsoft Access 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft FrontPage 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Outlook 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Publisher 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Word 2000
| kbexpertisebeginner kbtshoot kbprb KB918957 |
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