How to Fix “Word Experienced an Error Trying to Open the File” Error

At times when you attempt to open a document file in the MS Word application, you may receive an error message that mentions that the application experienced an error while trying to open it. In this article, we will look at what this error signifies and how to recover the contents of such a file with the help of the DataNumen Word Repair application. 

For most of us who have been working on the MS Word application for long, encountering difficult to decipher error messages is nothing new. Still, such error messages can scare the living daylights of a novice user. Let’s take the example of a student working on a dissertation on a Word file. After days, possibly weeks of effort he creates a report in MS Word and is satisfied that his work his complete. Imagine a situation when he tries to open the file the next day and finds an error message which mentions that the Word application cannot open the file due to an error. Well, this is not a rare incident, and countless users of MS Word have experienced similar issues in past and continue to experience them. 

Understanding the “Word Experienced an Error Trying to Open the File” Error Message

The error message starts with the fact that the Word application encountered an error and goes forward to offer three specific suggestions. First, it asks you to check the file permission on the drive or the document. Next, it asks if there is sufficient memory or disk space left in the system as this might be hampering the ability of MS Word to open the document. In the third option, it recommends using a text recovery converter to access the contents.

The suggestions are vague at best and do not apply in most cases. Still, you can go ahead and check if you have access permissions for the file or whether your disk space has run short.  The word document in question is most likely corrupted and the error message is just highlighting a laundry list of checks to perform. 

The suggested option in the description box, to use the Open and Repair option is MS Word can be an apt choice. However, this feature most often than not fails to properly recover the contents of a corrupted word file. In many cases, it does a partial recovery which adds to the misery. 

Run the DataNumen Word Repair Application to Deal with “Word Experienced an Error Trying to Open the File” Error

Once you receive the error message, the best bet for you is to run the DataNumen Word Repair application and extract its contents. Just start the Word recovery application and choose the document file which is throwing up the error. Next click on the Start Repair button to initiate the recovery process. This powerful application will extracts all contents from the compromised Word file and transfer the contents into the output file. You can then normally open the output file in the MS Word application. The application is exceptionally good at making a complete recovery and all data elements possibly present in the compromised files like images, tables, word art, etc. would get recovered without fail in most cases. In addition, the application has the capacity to recover multiple word files in one run using its Batch recovery mode. The tool can also be used to recover accidentally deleted or unsaved content from temporary word files.