Introduction

Have you ever tried to open a document in Microsoft Word, only for the program to struggle and fail? If so, you’re not alone. The immediate go-to solution is to close the program and try again. But what happens when the problem persists? What if your files won’t open at all in MS Word? Are they lost forever? No need to panic! We’re going to walk through some of the most common reasons why Microsoft Word won’t open documents, along with some simple fixes that should get your work done in no time.

Why is Microsoft Word not opening my document?

Microsoft Word is a word-processing program that allows you to create, edit and save documents. If you have trouble opening a Microsoft Word document and are unable to edit or save it, your problem may be due to one of the following reasons:

• The file format is not compatible with your version of Microsoft Word. For example, if you are using Microsoft Office 2016 but the file was saved using an older version of Microsoft Office such as 2003 or 2010 (or even 2007), this could cause problems when attempting to open the document in 2016.
• The file name is incorrect or missing altogether. If there are no spaces between words in a filename like this: my_document

instead of this: My_Document then it can cause problems when attempting to open that document from another computer that does not have exactly identical settings as yours does (which includes having different regional characters set up).

How to Re-open a Document that was Saved on Your Computer

• Open the folder where you saved the document.
• Find your file and double-click on it to open it.
• If you can’t find it, try opening another folder on your computer and looking there.
• If all else fails, try opening the file from another computer that has Microsoft Word installed on it (but doesn’t have any shared folders). This will increase your chances of being able to open a document that was saved in an unknown format or location because other computers use different versions of Microsoft software than yours!

What to Do if the File is Not in a Known Format

If you’re having trouble opening the file, try these steps:

• Open the file using a different program. If you can open the file when you click “Save As” but not when you double-click on it in your list of recent documents, then it’s likely that some other program is opening it instead of Word. Try opening the document in Notepad or Notepad++ and see if it works there.
• Use another version of Microsoft Word if possible; it might be that an older version of Microsoft Excel is opening your documents for some reason instead of saving them as .docx files.
• Use a different device. There could be something wrong with your computer, like malware or viruses which are conflicting with Word’s ability to save documents properly–try plugging into an external hard drive and trying again later on another computer altogether (e-mailing yourself copies first).
• Try using a different operating system if possible; this may resolve any issues where one program won’t open certain types whereas another one will recognize them just fine! This can happen because each OS has slightly different security settings built into its software packages–so by changing over from Windows 10 Pro Edition 64 bit Edition v1903 Build 16384 NSPP

Fixing an Unrecognized File Type Error in Microsoft Word

If Word is not able to open your document, first try to change its file type. To do this:

• Right-click on the file in question and select “Open With.”
• Select Microsoft Word from the list.

If changing the file type doesn’t work, you can also attempt to open the document with another program by doing one of the following:

• Open it as a PDF or XPS file (if available).
• Open it in another word processor (such as Google Docs or LibreOffice) or a spreadsheet program like Excel.

Why Microsoft Word Won’t Open Files

• Check if you have the latest version of MS Word
• Check if the file is corrupt
• Check if the file is in a format that MS Word can’t read
• Check if there is an error in the file
• Check if the file is too large for MS Word to open (some files can be as big as 2GB)

This blog should help you figure out how to open a file in MS Word.

When Microsoft Word programs won’t open a file, the problem can be caused by several issues. Some of those issues include:

• An unrecognized file type error where it says that the document is in an unknown format (something like “Document Not Found”). This usually happens when you try to open a file that was saved on your computer without changing the settings of that particular program. To fix this issue, go into your Microsoft Word program’s settings and select “Open File Types” or “File Type Associations.” There should be an option for opening text documents or something similar; make sure to check off this option so that Microsoft Word will recognize all kinds of files as text files (so they don’t have to be saved under another name). You can also try opening an older version if it doesn’t work right away; some users have reported success with doing so!
• Another reason why documents may not open could be because they weren’t saved properly when being edited last time around–perhaps they were never actually closed out properly before shutting down your computer? If so then maybe try going into those files again now while keeping them open one after another each time until everything works out fine again just like before.”

Conclusion

Hopefully, one of these solutions fixed your problem. Now, you’ll have a document open and ready to edit in no time! Remember, if the file is corrupt or damaged, it’s still possible to recover the original text. If worse comes to worst, you can also use an online converter to save your file in a new format or convert it into another program like Google Docs for editing.