Can't Open (or Save) Funny File Names

Article contributed by John McGhie

OK, this is a bug, but it won't be fixed for a while, so you need to work around it.

Word will refuse to open or save any files that include certain non-alphanumeric characters in their file names.

The error message if you are saving is "This is not a valid file name".
If you are opening, you see "The file cannot be opened ... because there are problems ... or the file name might contain invalid characters (for example < > | \ " / ).

Take the error message literally: somewhere in the file name there will be a character such as > or < or /.

By "file name" it means the entire path and file name. Inspect the name of not only the file, but every folder, all the way up to the hard disk itself, and the name of the hard drive!

If you find any character other than a to z, A to Z, or spaces: take them out.

For example: "Fred's Mac" is an illegal name: Word can't open files from a hard drive named like that. In the Apple OS X Help, check the topic "Renaming your hard disk" for instructions on how to get out of this.