Window 8 to Windows 7

MNtundraRet wrote:
When it comes to your recent problems with MS Word (or Excel) for that matter, there is a very sneaky ad that some MS sales employee thought was a good idea. It is most likely the cause of your past problems. It seems to have been included in the last year as one of their many up-dates. :M

Most of us over the past years have set up folders for members of the family who might use the computers owned at different times.

Any folder that had saved letters (Word), or Excel sheets, could be opened later for use by just clicking the title stored in the list in the folder. It would automatically open either Word or Excel with the stored data open.

Here's the current problem:

If you click on the title found in the list, a pop-up opens suggesting you do not have the version of MS Word needed to automatically open the "data stored".

They want you to "download" one of their versions to be billed for. Click "No".

In order to use another version installed (I use the "free-be" with ads which can with my Asus computer two years ago), instead of going to the folder first, as in the past, open your own version of MS Word and then click "open" to see the data list in the wanted folder.

This time the letter will open in your version of Word. This would have eliminated the unnecessary purchase of newer Word and any change to stored data.

I've installed and used every version of Word since the DOS days and have NEVER, not even once, been prompted to buy a newer version of Word to be able to open any files I created along the way. I have been prompted to download the "MS Office Compatibility Pack" which is a FREE utility from MS to enable you to read newer file formats using older versions of Office. There is no problem opening older files using newer versions of Office, the issue is using older versions of Office to open files created with newer versions of Office. Newer versions of Office maintain backwards compatibility for data files but older versions of Office cannot maintain forwards compatibility.

Opening the application first then selecting the file from the Open dialog is a FAR less efficient way of doing things. You have a computer that is smart enough to know which program to use to open a particular file so why not let the computer do the work?

If I wanted to use a freebie software package such as "Libre Office" to open Word files, I would set the extension of my doc files to use Libre instead of Word to open that file type and be done with it.