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"Do you want to download the converter?" when you try to open a file in Excel, Word or PowerPoint KB Article

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Hello, this is Laura from the content team from Microsoft. We are seeing a lot of traffic to this KB article, Error message "Do you want to download the converter?" when you try to open a file in Excel, Word or PowerPoint https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/967950

I can’t figure out why this article is getting so many hits, or what type of content that you are searching for. This is where I need your help, if this article didn’t fix your issue, please answer the following questions, and post your answers here.

Note: Your information will not be posted publicly and it will help us get the correct content or fix to help resolve the issues you are running into.

 

1.What version of Office Application are you using?

    If unsure how to know what version of Office follow,  the steps in this article, What version of Office am I using?

2. What version of Windows  are you using?

    If unsure how to know what version of Windows follow the steps in this article, Which Windows operating system am I running?

3. What type of file are you trying to open?

4. What error message do you get when attempting to open the file? (Please record the exact error message)

5. Are you trying to open a file sent to you in email? (examples: open an attachment, double clicking on a file while in your email client.

6. Are you trying to open a file from a Cloud location?  (example: OneDrive, DropBox, GoogleDrive, iCloud)

7. Any other information that you can provide that you feel would be beneficial.

Thanks for helping me collect this information!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 17, 2017
    Using Office 2013, Windows 8.1, trying to open a particular .docx file"We're sorry, we can't open Yxxx.docx because we found a problem with its contents." OK Details"Word found unreadable content in "Yxxx.docx". Do you want to recover the contents of this document? If you trust the source of this document, click Yes." Yes"This file cannot be opened by Microsoft Word. Do you want to search Office.com for a converter that can open the file?" Download Open Cancel"Open" opens the document. This can then be saved and reopened with Word.Download takes you to https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/967950/error-message-do-you-want-to-download-the-converter-when-you-try-to-open-a-file-in-excel,-word-or-powerpoint This gives instructions and a converter for Word 2010, and a link to the Microsoft Office Word Support Team Blog, which leads to this page.Obviously, there is something wrong with the file, and something on your site allows it to be opened. Word 2013 opens .docx so a .docx "converter" isn't needed per se, but something additional is clearly being done.So there you have it. I'd like to request that this not be posted publicly, and as I've taken the time to provide the information you requested, I'd also like to receive an email that explains what is going on. Thank you.
    • Anonymous
      January 18, 2017
      Thank you so for posting and taking the time to explain what you are seeing. Will you email me directly (since I don't have your contact info) we would like to get a copy of that file to repro in-house. Or a sample file exhibiting this behavior so we can get to the root cause of the problem. Thanks again my email is lauraho@microsoft.com