"error in the Microsoft Word previewer"

Anonymous
2010-08-06T03:09:22+00:00

Is there a fix for this problem?

I have Office 2010 operating on Windows 7 64 bit

When I select File >> Open and click on a Word file (new format or 2003 format) the preview pane has a message as follows

"This file can't be previewed because of an error in the Microsoft Word previewer"

Even if I create a new document and save it, trying to see it in the File Open dialog box gives the same message

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2011-01-20T22:10:35+00:00

Take a look at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/983097 for workarounds.

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-02-15T18:29:57+00:00

    There is one time when preview DOES work.

    When I want to attach a Word 2010 document to an email, the preview feature always works for the file I am attaching.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-02-14T13:54:00+00:00

    If you'll check back to the beginning of this thread, you'll see that the very first reply to this issue said:  The work-around for now is to use Windows Explorer when you need to preview files of a particular type.

    Windows Explorer is able to preview Word (and other Office files) perfectly--including displaying equations. For me, that's a whole lot easier and more direct than installing and using yet another 3rd party application.

    Another thing to note is that the previewer issue isn't a problem for everyone, and doesn't occur all of the time. If Microsoft can't make the issue happen on their own computers, then it's hard for them to fix it. It's hard to fix a problem you don't see--ask any auto mechanic. The problem is intermittent for me. Right now, previewing in Word is broken. Two minutes ago, however, it was working just fine.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-02-14T13:21:25+00:00

    Rohn007 - I can't comment about the technical ability of the MS staff. I imagine they DO have the expertise, but that company policy is to work on new stuff rather than fix old issues deemed too trivial to spend valuable resource over. I don't know. I certainly feel very frustrated with the lack of progress on this issue and my "Apple" comment wasn't just a throw-away quip. I read enough about Macs to know they have their faults, but I just feel they care more about their customers than MS. My perception anyway.

    As regards the FreeFile Viewer - many thanks for pointing me in the right direction of something that works. I'll give it a go and see.

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-02-14T12:28:54+00:00

    Chas, thanks for that last line...

    Since the Word programmers at MS are too incompetent to fix the problem, or more likely, the managers are too cheap to pay for the fix.

    I just found the file viewer that can handle all office file types and about a hundred more. It was even able to open a DOCX with the XML end tag missing corruption that Word couldn't open at all.  The equations were not displayed, but the body text was still there to be recovered.  Better than nothing.

    FreeFileViewer – reads 100+ text, Office, audio, video format file types -http://www.freefileviewer.com/formats.html****

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