Preview doesn't work in Open dialog window Office 2007

[Antonio00]

I am using Office 2007 Standard SP2 on Windows 7 OS. When I click on Office Button-Open and choose the Preview pane and select any word document, then the preview pane will say that "This file can't be previewed because of an error in the Microsoft Office Word previewer". This same message usually appears in Excel as well. I also ran a Office diagnostics with no errors reported. Can anyone help me? Thanks.

[Coolestman]

Have you been getting the issue for all files or just some of them? I ask this because for a few files that were created with an early MS Word verion, but not with most files. In MS Word, if it is happening for all files, then what happens when you start word using the /a switch?, like go to start and then windows /a? Can you let us know whether the preview work in Windows Explorer or not as well?

[Antonio00]

Thats exactly what it is doing, and now it seems to be working in Word when its been started normally which is quite strange. But Excel will still wont work and even using "Excel /a" to start.

[Tomthegreat]

I think that Excel doesnt has a /a switch. Instead of that, you can hold down the ctrl key when starting Excel and then click Yes to the prompt to starting Excel in Safe mode. You should check both Word and Excel for any add-ins they might be using and you should try to disable the to check if the issue goes away or not.

[Damien25]

Even I am facing the same error message that I was getting. The Word previewer used to work fine in Office 2007 on the Windows XP system that I was using. I had recently installed Office 2007 on a new computer that came with Windows 7 and now I have no Word previewer. There doesnt seems to be any solution for this problem.

[janis2]

Please explain to a techno challanged old broad.....what does this mean "using the /a switch". I open word like nomal, click on to open a file, and I get the message "this file can't be previwed..etc, etc" also. Step, by step, please..how do I fix it s that I can preview the files.

[approachmey2k]

Kindly explain if there is any proper solution to see preview in Word 2007

[EINSTEIN_007]

You can try to do the following to see preview in Word 2007:

1. Open the document to preview, if you are not currently working on it.
2. Click the round "Microsoft Office Button" in the top left-hand corner of your screen. You will find numerous features here that used to be on the "File" menu in former versions of Microsoft Word.
3. Highlight "Print" and then select "Print Preview." You will see the document on the screen.
4. Look at the options on the Ribbon now that you are in the "Preview" mode. You can change margin size, page orientation, change print options and select many other print functions while in the "Preview" mode.
5. Leave the "Preview" mode by "clicking" on "Close Print Preview."

[steener]

I have the same problem (using office 2007, Win7 home premium 64bit), and none of the suggested workarounds provide anything but a temporary fix.

I noticed today however, that the previewer does work when attaching documents to an email in Outlook. That is, if the previewer in Word happens to be open when I browse for the document I want to attach to the message, it shows up in the preview pane in the dialogue box.

It would be nice if MS could figure this out. I find the previewer a very handy item.

[Jimmo]

I found that the solution to this problem was to go back to the program file (WINWORD.exe, etc.), right click and under Properties, untick (clear) the 'Run as administrator' box. Then go back and open it again - hey presto! You get your preview back, and clicking on '.doc' files now opens Word.