"error in the Microsoft Word previewer"

You're quite fortunate, Terry. I almost always use Windows Explorer to avoid the problem since I'm so used to it not working. I can't see any pattern to when it doesn't work. I just opened Word on my Dell laptop (8GB of RAM, running the 64 bit versions of Office & Windows), pressed Ctrl+O, and previewing worked fine. I opened a file and tried Ctrl+O again, and got the error message. I closed the file. Same error message. I closed Word and restarted it. Same error message. I closed Word again and restarted it, preview suddenly works.

The problem occurs in safe mode as well as when running Word as administrator. There's no logic to when it works and when it doesn't work.

I will say that it works least often on my desktop machine, in which I have the most mixed environment. I have 12 GB of RAM, 64-bit version of Windows 7, 32-bit version of Office 2010, and Word 2007.  Previewing Word documents from within Word hardly ever works on this computer, but it does occasionally work. So, the mixed environment isn't what's causing the problem.

I've observed the issue on at least a dozen computers running Office 2010 and either Vista or Windows 7. After working for a few minutes, I've always been successful in eventually getting the error message to appear. My guess is that the intermittent nature makes this problem especially hard to track down & fix.

Herb Tyson Microsoft Word MVP

Herb Tyson Word Bible Blog

Is there a fix for this yet?

I still have this problem ALL THE TIME, and this is a new computer. My problem is that Word 2010 previewer used to work in windows explorer, but stopped working. Word itself still works.

curiously, adobe acrobat previewer still works, but some of the details changed. I used to be able to pull up a file being previewed and save any changes, but now it will not overwrite the file; i have to change the file being previewed, and only then can I save the edits.

Furthermore, all of these functions used to work, but stopped working. The computer itself is only a month old. Problem may have started after I installed the office home and business keycard.

I am having this problem also. I have Windows 7, 64-bit, and Microsoft Office 2010. Any updates on this issue since Aug 2010?

I am having this problem also. I have Windows 7, 64-bit, and Microsoft Office 2010. Any updates on this issue since Aug 2010?

Sorry...clicked before finished. I meant "any REAL updates on this issue."  It looks like the "solutions" are still just work arounds.