This is an odd situation. My mother-in-law who knows NOTHING about computers, has WORD 2003 on her computer - I installed it for her. She has been creating simple Word documents and saving them for about 6 months or so with no problem. Today, somehow, all of her WORD 2003 Documents are now 2007.rtf (which I did figure out rtf means Rich Text Format), but with rtf she cannot edit or even type on existing documents or create a new document. I have no idea how she got 2007 because she has an old computer and no one except me has put anything on it for her and I only own 2003 - I don't even want 2007! So, I am trying to figure out how to put her documents back to 2003.html (I think would be the extension) or doc - whatever it was before. I thought about uninstalling and reinstalling 2003 but she is afraid she will lose all her existing docs if I do that. Any help or thoughts on this would be sincerely appreciated because I don't even know how to look this up in the HELP section of Microsoft Word. Thanks :)

When she is saving her documents somehow she has hit the "save as type" and changed it from Word Document (the default) to Rich Text Format. She has NOT gotten any 2007 version on her machine contrary to what you think!

You'll have to go into each document and "Save" the document all over again designating each one a Word Document and not a Rich Text Format. You'll see what I mean when you do the "Save As" screen to save it. It's the bottom selection in the pull down part. The Rich Text Format is at the very end of the available selections. It's an easy mistake to make when you don't know what you're doing as far as "saving" documents are concerned.

Thanks for your answer. I understand what you are saying and it makes sense but why would it say 2007.rtl instead of 2003.rtl and it is not only on the one document she was working in, it is on every single Word document on her computer now (she saves all of them to her desktop so I saw them all) - she is 78, what can I say? And why can I then not go in and create a new blank document? When I tried to, the cursor was there but I couldn't type anything, just like I couldn't type within the rtl document she saved.
Thanks again.:)

You have to go into the actual word program icon through your start button programs and make a short cut to the desktop for the word program for you to be able to get the blank document. Somehow your shortcut to the program isn't working.

You won't be able to type anything within the rtl document as it's a different type of format that cannot be altered in any way. You've got to be in the Word Document format document to be able to do anything.

Try and show mom how to at least save her documents into folders. That can help eliminate a lot of problems right there. Make some folders for her for the desktop.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/wo...444751033.aspx

Thanks for the link but she does not have Word 2007 on her computer. Does this info still apply?

Are you sure it is a 2007 rtf and not 2003 rtf?
What happens or message do you get when trying to opne the rtf file?

I am positive it is 2007.rtf - on all her Word Documents. That is what had me so confused as I know she does not have 2007 -not even a trial version - her computer is at least 4 years old. No message, you just cannot type in the box or delete or do anything. The little cursor is there but you can't type. The other person said I need to check to see if she saved it in
Rich Text Format instead of Word Document but that still doesn't explain the 2007 or why all of her documents are now saved that way when she was only working with one.

That is tru, it may save by default to rtf,
Try this
Open the rtf file as you are doing, now got up to file and choose "save as" and type in your title
Under where you type the file name, right below that is "save type as" use the dropdown box there to change file type to (.doc)
Now this should save the file you just opened and "saved as" as a doc file and not an rtf
Then open the .doc file and see if you are able to edit

OK - I was able to go back and try your suggestions on her computer today. I was wrong that all documents are saved as 2007.rtf - some are also saved as doc. However, on all of them I tried, when you go up to File, to click on Save As - it is all greyed out - you cannot click on it and therefore it doesn't bring up the box to change the rtf to Word Document. And still, I am not able to type in, or in any way change anything within the document. :( Also, a couple of times, I got a message that said the document had been locked and was a Read Only File. If it is locked, I am sure it was a mistake on her part because she wouldn't know how or have any reason to lock it. I, however, cannot figure how to unlock it. My thought now is, what if I uninstall and re-install Office 2003 on her computer? Will she lose all her documents? Do you think this will fix the problem?
Thanks again.:)

Try this

Quote:

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If you have trouble typing into the form fields we have provided, you may unlock the document by going to the Tools menu and selecting "Unlock Document." This will allow you to type freely in the form.

Note: You may only unlock the document if you have saved it to your computer and opened it in your word processor application.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by seahwk83

that is tru, it may save by default to rtf,
try this
open the rtf file as you are doing, now got up to file and choose "save as" and type in your title
Under where you type the file name, right below that is "save type as" use the dropdown box there to change file type to (.doc)
now this should save the file you just opened and "saved as" as a doc file and not an rtf
then open the .doc file and see if you are able to edit

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Hi seahwk83, I wanted to get back with you on what finally happened here. Somehow, even though she has been using Office 2003 for about 6 months, the code got removed.
I had to uninstall and reinstall and then call and get the ID#s to enter about 9 boxes on the form and just like magic, it started working. I am still confused on the 2007 thing but at least it is fixed. Thanks so much for your help.:)

Just a thought,
Go into the preferences on word 2003 and under the save settings make sure there's nothing set to save it as a 2007 type file for word.

When I installed Word 2007 on my PC a few months ago the default save format was "Word Document (*.docx)" so I had to change it to "Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc)".

My thought is it somehow got changed and so you will have to reset it to 97-2003 in your program.