[X4U] Can't set MS Word as the default

James Hurley jhurley0305 at sbcglobal.net
Fri Oct 24 10:25:09 PDT 2008


> I don't know how this happened but my Mac suddenly has trouble  
> recognizing Word documents.
>
> Even the screen icon is now missing on Word documents.
>
> If I control-click on a Word document, the default program to open  
> a Word file is Text Edit. If I select Other and choose MS Word in  
> my Applications folder it does open it word. But only that one  
> time. The next time I try to open it, Text Edit is again the  
> default application.
>
> If I do a Get Info on a Word file, Text Edit is listed as the  
> application in which the file will open. If I select Other and  
> choose Word, then MS Word appears in the drop down menu as the app  
> to open  the file. But if I then click on the "Change All" button,  
> the drop down menu changes to Word Pad, an application that needs  
> to go through Fusion to open.  It is not possible to do a Change  
> All to MS Word.
>
> Any thoughts on this very weird avoidance of Word as the app for  
> opening Word documents?
>
> Jim Hurley

I have had some second thoughts on this issue--my Mac not  
recognizing .doc files as Word documents.

I used to regularly get a message when I tried to open a Word  
document on one computer when another computer on the network was  
running Word. It was something  to the effect that I couldn't run  
word on two computers at once.

But I don't get that message any more. I don't mean to be paranoid,  
but is  it possible the MS has altered the cache (or whatever in the  
System files) so that Word is no longer recognized on this one computer?

Jim Hurley


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