On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 14:50:52 -0600, Adam Albright <AA@ABC.net> wrote:
[color=blue]
>On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 19:46:18 GMT, "Xalil" <nolankingston@verizon.net>
>wrote:
>[color=green]
>>This is interesting because I have .doc files from W98, W95, and W2003 that
>>I have pulled up with no problem in WV. I have the option to keep it in
>>these version formats or to upgrade the documents to Windows 2007. Could it
>>be that Dell installed something for me that you would otherwise have to
>>install yourself? Although Dell customer service has really sucked with me,
>>I really am impressed with their customization of my computers. Regardless,
>>I believe (if my memory serves me correctly, which is not usually the case)
>>there is with WV an option you can download or access to make everything
>>extremely conversion friendly. Maybe it's a Word 2007 option instead of MV?
>>I would also find the answer to you inquiry enlightening.
>>
>><alamo@nomail> wrote in message
>>news:e93uu2l354hj6vv6b5p1m6jfoef9ec3rmd@4ax.com...[color=darkred]
>>>I have thousands of documents created under W98 and saved as .doc
>>> files that I need to transfer to my new computer running Vista Home
>>> Premium. Neither WordPad v.6, which came with Vista, nor Word 2007
>>> recongizes .doc files. I'm looking for suggestions how I can
>>> convert these files, preferably in large batches, to make them
>>> readable under Vista.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Signa[/color][/color]
>
>That's curious since .doc is the default file type for Word documents.
>I would first look in Control Panel, default programs, then pick the
>associate file types option then scan the list for .doc and see what
>Vista is currently set to use to open .doc files.
>
>I have a REALLY old version of Office, vintage 1997. I just opened it
>up and wrote a test document. Both it and Notepad open and display it
>without problems.
>
>Try this:
>
>Start, Search, then for the search term type .doc and you'll shortly
>get a list of all the .doc files on your computer. See if you can open
>any directly from Search, that at least willsee if there are other
>misconfigurations issues.
>
>If all else fails,
>
>[url]http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=95E24C87-8732-48D5-8689-AB826E7B8FDF&displaylang=en[/url]
>
>or search for a similar viewer or just reinstall word or whatever you
>used to create them.
>[/color]

Thanks to all for your suggestions. I had created most, not all, of
the .doc files in WordPad - whatever version came with Windows 98,
preferring WordPad to Word for its simplicity and ease of use. (Plain
laziness, I confess.) The rest I'd created in Word. With those older
versions I could open individual files in either Word (the default)
or WordPad, depending how I went about it.

I hadn't done much exploring in Word 2007 until just now. I just
unpacked and set up the new computer a week ago yesterday and am still
working at getting things I use frequently, like the Run command,
available in places where I can find them quickly. The computer is a
Dell, as Richard's is.

On a quick poke around in Word just now, I found it indeed handles
..doc files. I copied Adam's reply into Word and saved it as a .doc,
in fact. So that solves my problem.

Thanks again, to all who responded.
Signa