http://www.macworld.com/article/134138/2008/06/officeupdates.html?lsrc=mwweek  

Opening Old Word Files   


By Christopher Breen mailto:mac911@macworld.com   

Mac 911 Tip of the Week   

Reader Jim Harper feels like Word 2008 has severed his ties with the 
past. He writes: "I'm running Tiger and when I upgraded to Microsoft 
Office 2008 from Office 2004 I cannot open Word files created with my 
90s Microsoft Word versions. Any solution available?"  

Yes. Start by updating your copy of Office to the very recently 
released Microsoft Office for Mac 12.1.1 Update. This update is 
supposed to address an issue where older Word files won't open when 
you double-click them.  
http://www.macworld.com/article/134138/2008/06/officeupdates.html?lsrc=mwweek  

I use the phrase "supposed to" in this context because it may not 
work. Microsoft has issued contradictory information on this subject. 
In a support note, Microsoft states that the 12.1.1 Update "fixes an 
issue that prevents Microsoft Word 2008 for Mac Service Pack 1 (SP1) 
from opening Word documents when you double-click the document or when 
you download the document from a Web site."  

Yet, Knowledge Base document 953266 states that "The Office 2008 for 
Mac 12.1.1 Update blocks users from opening older Word for Mac 
documents by using the methods that are mentioned in the 'Symptoms' 
section." And those symptoms include double-clicking on a document, 
dragging a document to the Word 2008 for Mac program icon, dragging a 
document to the Word 2008 for Mac program icon that is in the Dock, 
and executing an AppleScript that uses the Finder to open a Microsoft 
Word document.  

And the reason? Apparently these older documents may pose a security 
threat and opening them in such ways puts you at risk. Of course 
Microsoft is happy to let you open them by choosing Open from the File 
menu, which is somehow more secure because... uh, it's more 
inconvenient?