Program Opens without the Desired Document

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 25, 2025)

Ed notes that on occasion he'll select a Word document from the recent documents list in Windows. Word then loads, but the document itself won't open. Ed wonders why this occurs.

If this happened with each document, no matter which one you clicked on, then the problem would likely be with how Word is registered with Windows. (In other words, what Windows thinks should happen when you double-click a document.) Since it occurs only on some documents, then the problem more than likely lies elsewhere.

The likely culprit is that if the document has been renamed, deleted, or moved to a different folder, the link in recent documents list maintained by Windows will no longer point to the document. If you double-click the link, then Windows tries to open the document at the old, pre-move location. Since it can't find it there, it leaves Word open, but does not load the unfound document.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (6832) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Using the Style Area

The style area is an esoteric feature of Word that allows you to easily see the styles applied to the paragraphs in your ...

Discover More

Randomly Resetting Numbering

Have you ever been frustrated by the automatic numbering feature in Word? You are not alone. Fortunately, there are a few ...

Discover More

Converting Explicit Character Formatting to Styled Formatting

If you are working with a document created by others, you may want to convert text formatted explicitly so that it is ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2019. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2019 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Multiple Document Directories for Word

Word 97 users would follow these steps to specify multiple directories for documents.

Discover More

Excellent XML Resource Available

Where to get more information on XML.

Discover More

Getting Audible Feedback

You can add a bit of sound to your editing tasks by turning on Word's sound capabilities. This tip shows where this ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is six minus 5?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.