Documents In Wrong Format

[andy-hughes]

I have had to have my desktop re-set to factory settings, it runs Windows 11, and I have put an old copy of Microsoft Office 2003 on it.

Opening a Word document stored on an external drive, it will only open in Word Pad.

Is this because the Office used to create the document is more recent that than 2003 I am using, and I need to get a more up-to-date version?

[ToraToraTora]

Yes, it must have some features that were not present in the 2003 version. Try openning word then importing the document and it should do its best to convert it.

[Old_Geezer]

Can you use WPS Office ?

[Buenchico]

The default format for saving documents in Word is now .docx and it has been since Word 2007 entered the market.

Older versions of Word used the .doc format.

While the latest versions of Word are 'backwards compatible' (i.e. they can open 'doc files), older ones aren't 'forwards compatible' (i.e. they can't open .docx files).

The solution is, as O_G has suggested, to use a modern third party program. The most popular nowadays is probably LibreOffice (which has largely replaced Apache OpenOffice, upon which it is based)
https://www.libreoffice.org/
but WPS Office
https://www.wps.com/
and Softmaker FreeOffice 
https://www.freeoffice.com/en/
both have their fans.

[andy-hughes]

Thanks all. Problem solved. I found out I got my computer in 2017, found the appropriate Office, bought and installed it.

All fine now.

Thanks all as always. 

[mjwman]

You should have just downloaded Libre Office. It is free and has the same suite of functions and functionallity as the Microsoft..