Word has just stopped letting me open or save word documents

Question

Microsoft word has just stopped letting me open existing or save new documents ?? how do I rectify this ??

Answer 1

Hi @David Hall,

Here are a couple of troubleshooting steps to try:

1. Make sure that Windows and Office are up to date. Sometimes, updates can fix issues with Office programs.
2. Check if the file you are trying to open or save is too large. If you receive a message that says "Word cannot open this file because it is larger than 512 Megabytes," try splitting the file into smaller parts or compressing it.
3. Try repairing your Office installation. To do this, close all Office programs, go to Control Panel > Programs and Features, click on Microsoft Office, and select "Change." Then, select "Repair" and follow the prompts.
4. Another troubleshooting option is to try creating a new global template file. To do this, exit all Office programs, open the Command Prompt, and type "rename normal.dotm oldnormal.dotm." Then, start Word and check if the issue is resolved. If it is not, restore the original global template file by typing "rename oldnormal.dotm normal.dotm" in the Command Prompt.
5. If none of these solutions work, you could try disabling any add-ins that may be causing issues with Word. To do this, exit all Office programs, open Windows Explorer, and navigate to the Startup folder. From there, temporarily disable any add-ins and see if the issue is resolved.

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.