Why won't word open documents

For a Word document that will not open, use these supported fixes in order:

1. Repair the Office file association.
   • Select Start.
   • Type Control Panel and open it.
   • Go to Programs > Programs and Features.
   • Select the Office product.
   • Choose Change.
   • Select Quick Repair and then Repair.
2. If the file still does not open, open Word first and then open the file from inside Word.
   • Start Word.
   • Select File > Open.
   • Browse to the document and open it from there.
3. If the document may be damaged, use Open and Repair.
   • In Word, select File > Open > Browse.
   • Select the file.
   • Select the arrow next to Open.
   • Choose Open and Repair.
4. If Word reports the file type is blocked, install Office updates.
   • In an Office app, go to Help > Check for Updates.
   • Turn on Automatically keep Microsoft apps up to date.
   • Select Update.
   • Install all available updates and try again.
5. If the file opens in the wrong app or an older Office version, manually set the correct default app.
   • Open Control Panel.
   • Go to Programs > Default Programs.
   • Under Set a default for a file type or link type, find the file type and assign it to Word.
6. If multiple Office versions are installed, uninstall the versions that are not needed and restart Windows. Multiple Office versions can cause documents to open incorrectly.
7. If the document is being opened from Outlook and similar Office files from external sources fail to open, check the Windows Firewall service on Windows 8, Windows 8.1, or Windows Server 2012.
   • Press Windows key + R.
   • Type services.msc and select OK.
   • In Services, right-click Windows Firewall and select Start.

If the file still fails after these steps, the document may be corrupted.

• Double-clicking an Office file fails to open it in the correct Office program
• Open a document after a file corruption error
• Error: [Filename] uses a file type that is blocked from opening in this version
• Cannot open Word documents or Excel spreadsheets from an external source in Outlook