Microsoft Word will not let me open up a document??

My software is Microsoft Word 97. When I try to open a certain saved document of mine, I get the simple answer "Word cannot open the document". It suggests opening the document from the File menu and checking to make sure the document has a .DOC extension. I have done both, and it will not open. None of my other documents act this way; they all open on command. I have tried everything I can think of and while I don't want this document to be toast, it very well may be. Does anyone know how on earth I can open it, or even why it's acting like this?? Thanks!!

Microsoft Word will not let me open up a document??ariel

if you have ms word 97 into your computer and it would not open the document, it could probably because the document that you want to open is save using a higher version of ms word...

try opening it into word 2003 or 2007, and then save as the file using save as type word 97...

after doing that, you should be able to open your file again...

hope this helps you...

Microsoft Word will not let me open up a document??computers

If that is the error you received, Then for sure, the file you are trying to open is not in a .doc extension. If you are really sure that you make and save your file using ms office word, Then this could be the problem. Maybe, your file has a (.) period. fro example, your file name is your a full name ex ( raymond b.francisco) If you save it that way, (with period between two letters) it will not save as an MS office word file.
Copy it to a disk or thumb drive and see if you can open it on a different computer.
Have you tried changing the file extension to rtf and see if that works.

Reasons why:

if it's on a floppy, it won't open because of space.

The file may be corrupt.

The file extension may not be correct (try lowercase, make sure there's no extra spaces)