Sometimes when using Microsoft Office suites, you might receive a few errors that usually hither your work and get you frustrated whether you are trying to save your work or open your file. Some Microsoft Word users might have received an error while trying to open a file; this error that might occur is the Word error Word experienced an error trying to open the file.
What is the cause of the Word error Word experienced an error trying to open the file?
This error usually occurs when opening a Word file in 2007 or 2010 with a recent version of Microsoft Word. The cause of error arises when the file is altered by third-party software during the transmission process, and therefore the file cannot be open.
Word experienced an error trying to open the file
To fix the error, “Word experienced an error trying to open the file,” follow the solutions below.
- Unblock the Word file
- Disable Protected View Settings
- Adding a new Trusted Location
1] Unblock the Word file
Maybe the file is blocked, which is why Word cannot open the file; this usually occurs when you receive a file from Outlook or a similar email client. To unblock the Word file, follow the steps below.
Open Windows File Explorer.
Locate the file that is refusing to open on the computer.
Right-click the file and select Properties.
A Properties dialog box will open.
In the Properties dialog box, click the Unblock button on the bottom right of the dialog box (if it is available).
Click the Apply button, then click OK.
Try to open the Word file again to see if it will open.
If the issue persists, follow the other solution below.
2] Disable Protected View Settings
The file you are trying to open is likely located in a location that Office considers unsafe, and the only solution is to go into the Trust Center and disable the Protected View settings.
To disable the Protected View, follow the steps below.
Click on File.
Click Options in the backstage view.
In the Word Options dialog box, click Trust Center on the left pane.
Then click the Trust Settings button on the right.
On the Trust Center settings interface, click Protected View on the left pane.
Then on the right, uncheck the option” Enable the Protected View for files originating from the internet.”
Also, uncheck the other two options, “Enable Protected View for files located in potentially unsafe locations” and “Enable Protected View for Outlook attachment.”
3] Adding a new trusted location
You can add your entire drive as trusted; Microsoft Office will have no reason to block your file. To add a new trusted location, follow the steps below.
Launch any of the Office programs (Word, PowerPoint, Excel). All Office programs share the same settings.
In this tutorial, we are using Word.
Click the File tab.
On the backstage view, click Options on the left pane.
A Word Options dialog box will appear.
In the dialog box on the left pane, click Trust Center, then click the Trust Center settings button on the right.
On the Trust Center settings interface, click Trusted Location on the left pane and click the Add new button on the bottom of the dialog box.
A Microsoft Office Trusted Location dialog box appears.
In this dialog box, select the drive you want to save your Word files and ensure to check the “Subfolders of this location are also trusted” checkbox.
Then click OK.
Close Word and try to open the file again to see if you are still getting the error.
We hope this tutorial helps you understand how to fix this error.
Related posts that offer additional suggestions:
- Office documents do not open after upgrading Windows
- Cannot open Word, Excel, PowerPoint files, or email attachments in Office.
Related:
- Word cannot open this file because it is larger than 512 Megabytes
- Word cannot open the file because the file format does not match the file extension
- Microsoft Office cannot open this file because some parts are missing or invalid
- Microsoft Office cannot open this file because the .zip archive file is an unsupported version
- Microsoft Office cannot open this file because there are problems with the contents.
