# Office files **URL:** \ **Category:** Chatting over the Back Fence\ **Created:** [October 16, 2012, 5:54pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/office-files/23206 "2012-10-16T17:54:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![System1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@System1](https://forums.suse.com/u/System1)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 5:54pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/office-files/23206/1 "2012-10-16T17:54:31Z")
We are running into issues where users’ files are becoming inaccessible. We have had word docs, excel docs, and recently started having issues with a couple publisher files. These files are pretty old, like modified in 2003, and when we try to open them in office 2003, 2007, and 2010, we get an error: Publisher cannot open this file. This file was saved from a previous version of Publisher. Publisher no longer supports files that were saved in this version. Around 2003 is when we weren’t using office just yet, just a very few were. We’ve tried opening these in pretty much every software package we can think of, all to no avail. Any ideas? – Stevo ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 6:01pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/office-files/23206/2 "2012-10-16T18:01:43Z")
On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 14:54:31 GMT “Stevo” [steveSPAM@LESSccgov.net](mailto:steveSPAM@LESSccgov.net) wrote: [color=blue] > We are running into issues where users’ files are becoming > inaccessible. > > We have had word docs, excel docs, and recently started having issues > with a couple publisher files. > > These files are pretty old, like modified in 2003, and when we try to > open them in office 2003, 2007, and 2010, we get an error: > > Publisher cannot open this file. This file was saved from a previous > version of Publisher. Publisher no longer supports files that were > saved in this version. > > Around 2003 is when we weren’t using office just yet, just a very few > were. > > We’ve tried opening these in pretty much every software package we can > think of, all to no avail. > > Any ideas? > [/color] > Hi > LibreOffice? Maybe MS have a viewer to confirm the version? – Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890) openSUSE 12.2 (x86\_64) Kernel 3.4.11-2.16-desktop up 19:24, 3 users, load average: 0.01, 0.03, 0.05 CPU Intel i5 CPU M520@2.40GHz | Intel Arrandale GPU ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 6:28pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/office-files/23206/3 "2012-10-16T18:28:33Z")
malcolmlewis sounds like they ‘said’: [color=blue] > LibreOffice?[/color] So my response to malcolmlewis’s comment is… Didn’t seem to have any filters in it for publisher. Lots of ones for powerpoint, word, etc, just no publisher. – Stevo ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 6:47pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/office-files/23206/4 "2012-10-16T18:47:00Z")
On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 15:28:33 GMT “Stevo” [steveSPAM@LESSccgov.net](mailto:steveSPAM@LESSccgov.net) wrote: [color=blue] > malcolmlewis sounds like they ‘said’: > [color=green] > > > LibreOffice?[/color] > > So my response to malcolmlewis’s comment is… > > Didn’t seem to have any filters in it for publisher. Lots of ones for > powerpoint, word, etc, just no publisher. > [/color] > Hi > Sounds like you need an older copy from someone with a Win95 or 98 > install…? – Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890) openSUSE 12.2 (x86\_64) Kernel 3.4.11-2.16-desktop up 20:01, 3 users, load average: 0.15, 0.10, 0.07 CPU Intel i5 CPU M520@2.40GHz | Intel Arrandale GPU ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 6:49pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/office-files/23206/5 "2012-10-16T18:49:06Z")
malcolmlewis sounds like they ‘said’: [color=blue] > Hi > Sounds like you need an older copy from someone with a Win95 or 98 > install…?[/color] So my response to malcolmlewis’s comment is… That’s what I’m wondering. Although one of our user support people has been working on this for a while, trying to help a user w/ their excel files, and she has tried all kinds of programs which have not worked. Not sure if she’s tried an actual office 95 or 97 install. – Stevo ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 6:49pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/office-files/23206/6 "2012-10-16T18:49:25Z")
On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 15:47:00 GMT malcolmlewis [malcolmlewis@no-mx.forums.novell.com](mailto:malcolmlewis@no-mx.forums.novell.com) wrote: [color=blue] > On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 15:28:33 GMT > “Stevo” [steveSPAM@LESSccgov.net](mailto:steveSPAM@LESSccgov.net) wrote: > [color=green] > > > malcolmlewis sounds like they ‘said’: > > [color=darkred] > > > > > LibreOffice?[/color] > > > > So my response to malcolmlewis’s comment is… > > > > Didn’t seem to have any filters in it for publisher. Lots of ones > > for powerpoint, word, etc, just no publisher. > > [/color] > > Hi > > Sounds like you need an older copy from someone with a Win95 or 98 > > install…? > > [/color] > > Or maybe this? > > [http://blog.zamzar.com/2008/01/25/convert-ms-publisher-files-pub-files-to-doc-pdf-odt-rtf-and-more/](http://blog.zamzar.com/2008/01/25/convert-ms-publisher-files-pub-files-to-doc-pdf-odt-rtf-and-more/) – Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890) openSUSE 12.2 (x86\_64) Kernel 3.4.11-2.16-desktop up 20:13, 3 users, load average: 0.31, 0.10, 0.07 CPU Intel i5 CPU M520@2.40GHz | Intel Arrandale GPU ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 7:23pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/office-files/23206/7 "2012-10-16T19:23:01Z")
malcolmlewis sounds like they ‘said’: [color=blue] > Or maybe this? > [http://blog.zamzar.com/2008/01/25/convert-ms-publisher-files-pub-files](http://blog.zamzar.com/2008/01/25/convert-ms-publisher-files-pub-files) > -to-doc-pdf-odt-rtf-and-more/[/color] So my response to malcolmlewis’s comment is… Had already seen & tried that, email I got after trying said there were problems converting that file…of course. – Stevo ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 10:45pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/office-files/23206/8 "2012-10-16T22:45:40Z")
Have you tried [zamzar.com](http://zamzar.com)? : ) – Susan Novell Community Chat Moderator [http://forums.novell.com/faq.php?faq=novfor#faq\_rules](http://forums.novell.com/faq.php?faq=novfor#faq_rules) [http://www.ncci.org](http://www.ncci.org) NCCIrregulars Web Site [https://www.facebook.com/groups/NCCIrregulars](https://www.facebook.com/groups/NCCIrregulars) Please read the following before posting in here: [http://preview.tinyurl.com/27zopdy](http://preview.tinyurl.com/27zopdy) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 11:16pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/office-files/23206/9 "2012-10-16T23:16:50Z")
Susan sounds like they ‘said’: [color=blue] > Have you tried [zamzar.com](http://zamzar.com)? : )[/color] So my response to Susan’s comment is… Yeah, they had trouble converting the file, of course. – Stevo ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 9:17am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/office-files/23206/10 "2012-10-17T09:17:12Z")
“Stevo” [steveSPAM@LESSccgov.net](mailto:steveSPAM@LESSccgov.net) wrote in news:Hyefs.419$Cn5.228 @kovat.provo.novell.com: [color=blue] > Any ideas?[/color] Hex editor? Ontrack? Old article for commercial tools to try? [http://www.techrepublic.com/article/recovery-tips-and-tools-for-corrupt-](http://www.techrepublic.com/article/recovery-tips-and-tools-for-corrupt-) microsoft-office-files/1032049 – Ciao, Dave ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 8:27pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/office-files/23206/11 "2012-10-17T20:27:05Z")
Set up a VM with really old versions of stuff on it and try and open them. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 7:40pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/office-files/23206/12 "2012-10-18T19:40:22Z")
2 suggestions - 1. try restoring from backup on to a PC without antivirus software on it. 2. Shut down the antivirus on the server and on a PC and try opening the files. “Stevo” [steveSPAM@LESSccgov.net](mailto:steveSPAM@LESSccgov.net) wrote in message [news:Hyefs.419$Cn5.228@kovat.provo.novell.com](mailto:news:Hyefs.419$Cn5.228@kovat.provo.novell.com)…[color=blue] > We are running into issues where users’ files are becoming inaccessible. > > We have had word docs, excel docs, and recently started having issues > with a couple publisher files. > > These files are pretty old, like modified in 2003, and when we try to > open them in office 2003, 2007, and 2010, we get an error: > > Publisher cannot open this file. This file was saved from a previous > version of Publisher. Publisher no longer supports files that were > saved in this version. > > Around 2003 is when we weren’t using office just yet, just a very few > were. > > We’ve tried opening these in pretty much every software package we can > think of, all to no avail. > > Any ideas? > > – > Stevo[/color] ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/suse/original/2X/5/5012ba89e3ffb5220dac47d5ea0ba032e2fe1cb6.png) [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2012, 1:47am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/office-files/23206/13 "2012-10-23T01:47:51Z")
If that are real office files, that should be no problem. At least Word (_.doc) and Excel (_.xls) files open correctly even from the first versions of Word and Excel for Windows (3.1) till Office 2003 and 2007 (2010 not tested) if you install the converters for those formats. Older versions of Word (for DOS) produced \*.txt files and not \*.doc files. Publisher is relatively new it started with Office 2000 or 2003 in Office 97 it was not included. Those files should open easily with the correct converters, too. ## I suspect file corruption or files produced by another application, if you cannot open them, if you have all converters installed. W. Prindl Stevo wrote: [color=blue] > We are running into issues where users’ files are becoming > inaccessible. > > We have had word docs, excel docs, and recently started having issues > with a couple publisher files. > > These files are pretty old, like modified in 2003, and when we try to > open them in office 2003, 2007, and 2010, we get an error: > > Publisher cannot open this file. This file was saved from a previous > version of Publisher. Publisher no longer supports files that were > saved in this version. > > Around 2003 is when we weren’t using office just yet, just a very few > were. > > We’ve tried opening these in pretty much every software package we can > think of, all to no avail. > > Any ideas?[/color]