Word 2013 doesn't open dotx

Question

Dear community,

I am using Word 2013 with Windows 8.1, but I also want to use a bunch of Office Templates dotx-Files, which were probably created with older Word Versions (not sure, are company ones) . If I try to open them Word starts up in protected mode, but never gets any further than the starting-up window. The file itself doesn't open. It doesn't matter whether word is already running before or if it is closed. Any suggestions, on how to solve this problem?

Answer 1

You need to set the folder from which you are downloading the documents as a "Trusted Location" under File>Options>Trust Center>Trust Center Settings>Trusted Locations.

Answer 2

Now it works :-) That just saved me so many klicks, thank you!

Answer 3

Turns out the Problem wasn't actually the fact that it was a template but that I downloaded those templates from the Company Network. Later on it happened with several other documents as well. By now I did find a solution, even though I am not completly happy with it. When I open the poperties of a certain document there is a Security remark stating that this file was blocked for security reasons because it came from a different Computer, if I click Unblock, the Problem is solved. Unfortunately I have to do that seperately for every single file, which is very inconvenient if you work a lot with shared documents. I have not yet found a way to turn the blocking completly of and would be thankful for any suggestions on that.

Answer 4

Unless you want to modify the templates, you should not be opening them.  Rather, you should be using File>New and then selecting the template as the basis of the document that you want to create. 

The templates should be saved into the user templates folder for which the normal location is

C:\Users[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates

If you do not see the AppData folder, in the File Explorer, click on Options on the View tab of the ribbon and then on the View tab in the dialog that appears and select the item "Show hidden files, folders, and drives".  While there, it is a good idea to uncheck the box for "Hide extensions for known file types".