OFF98: "Could Not Find Application" Error When Opening File

ID: Q181191

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition
Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition
Microsoft Word 98 Macintosh Edition
Microsoft PowerPoint 98 Macintosh Edition

SYMPTOMS

When you double-click a workbook, document, or presentation that is stored on a network server or on a floppy disk, you may receive the following error message:

Could not find the application program that created the document named
"<filename>".

To open the document, select an alternate program, with or without
translation:

Also, the icon for the workbook, document, or presentation appears as a generic icon that contains the letters "PC."

These problems occur even though the correct program (Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, or Microsoft PowerPoint) is installed on your computer.

CAUSE

These problems may occur when the following conditions are true:

The files you are trying to open were created in a program running under Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows NT, or any other non-Macintosh operating system.

-and-

The PC Exchange Preferences file on your computer does not contain the proper entries for the files.

NOTE: To view the PC Exchange Preferences file, point to Control Panels on the Apple menu and click PC Exchange. The preferences file is missing the proper entries if the only item that is listed is the following:
```
      .TXT   SimpleText   TEXT 
```

WORKAROUND

To correct these problems, follow these steps:

Quit all running programs and restart the computer.

In the Finder, open to the System Folder:Extensions folder.

Drag the Microsoft Structured Storage file into the trash. Then, click Empty Trash on the Special menu and click OK.

Start one of the programs that is included in Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition:
Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition
Microsoft Word 98 Macintosh Edition
Microsoft PowerPoint 98 Macintosh Edition

After you start the program, quit the program.

On the Apple menu, point to Control Panels, and click PC Exchange.

The PC Exchange Preferences file should contain the proper entries, and the files should be opened correctly.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

Under normal circumstances, these problems occur only if you do not have a PC Exchange Preferences file on your computer when you install Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition. If the PC Exchange Preferences file is not present, it cannot be updated when you install Microsoft Office; as a result, the preferences file does not contain the proper entries.

Additional query words: OFF98 XL98 WD98 PP98

Keywords : kberrmsg kbsetup offmacsetup
Version : MACINTOSH:98
Platform : MACINTOSH
Issue type : kbbug