Recently, my computer was hit by a virus. My brother, who is much more knowledgeable about computers than I, fixed it for me. After the virus hit, I was unable to open many of my old .doc files. My brother fixed this for me by converting a couple of my old .doc files (namely, DISTMBA.doc and DISTMED.doc) to .rtf files (DISTMBA.rtf and DISTMED.rtf). I specifically asked about those two because they are by far the largest. I have several other, smaller, old .doc files that I would now like to convert to .rtf files. Can anyone explain for me how to do this (in words that a complete idiot can understand, because that is exactly what you're dealing with)?
Ted, open the file and then do the following: select File, Save As, Rich Text Format. You can also remane the file extension and often this will associate it to a correct application. rename ted.doc to ted.rtf Doesn't work for all applications though so the first method is the one I recommend.
Since you were hit by a virus I will make the leap of logic that you are using Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office. Were you able to open the newly renamed RTF files with Microsoft Word? If yes, then it appears the file extension association for DOC (.doc) files is broken. These steps should help you. 1. Locate any file with the extension you want to reassign - in this case .DOC. 2. Select the file by left-clicking once, then hold down the Shift key and right-click the file. 3. Select Open with... from the pop-up menu. 4. Make sure Always use this program to open this file is ticked 5. Select the program, in this case, Microsoft Word, you want to use for that file type by default from the list and click OK. 6. If the program you want to use isn't on the list, click the Browse button to search for it.
