Knowledge Base

Error Opening Files in Office 2003 and Higher


Microsoft Office 2007 was released with a change in security measures, which blocks the opening of files created in older versions of Office, which are considered a security risk, due to the ability to embed macros in the documents.

An update was issued for Office 2003 (Service Pack 3) that added this security feature in Office 2003 as well.

When you try to open Word documents created in prior version formats, you receive the following error message:

"You are attempting to open a file that was created in an earlier version of Microsoft Office. This file type is blocked from opening in this version by your registry policy setting."

Microsoft has issued a Knowledge Base article at the following link which addresses this issue and offers work-arounds to disable the limitation.

support.microsoft.com/kb/922849/

PowerChurch Software does not have any immediate plans of updating the current versions of the software with any changes regarding this issue.


Created: 08/27/2008
Last updated: 07/25/2021