Who is this article for?

Users encountering the "Word experienced an error trying to open the file" message when opening documents.

Local Administrator access and permission is required.

This article explains how to resolve an issue where Word documents in Ideagen Quality Management Professional (IQMP) fail to open and display error messages. The problem is typically caused by a missing or corrupted Office plugin, and this guide walks you through checking, installing, or reinstalling it.

1. Issue

When you select a Word document in Q-Pulse, you first see the following message: "Word found unreadable content in "[Document Name]". Do you want to recover the contents of this document? If you trust the source of this document, click Yes." 

After you click Yes, a second error message appears: "Word experienced an error trying to open the file." 

This problem is often specific to a single user's computer; other colleagues may be able to open the exact same documents without any issues^. The most common cause is a missing or improperly installed

IQMP Office Plugin on the user's local machine^. This plugin is essential for the software to correctly render Word documents.

2. Solution

Follow these seps to diagnose and fix the issue.

2.1: Check if the Office plugin is installed

First, verify if the plugin is present on your computer. Your IT support may need to assist with this step.

1. Open Programs and Features from the Windows Control Panel (or Apps & features in Windows Settings).
2. Look through the list of installed programs for an application named "Q-Pulse Word Plugin" or a similar entry related to "Quality Management 7".
3. If you cannot find the plugin in the list, it needs to be installed.

2.2: Install or reinstall the Office plugin

This plugin must be installed on the individual user's computer experiencing the issue, not on the server.

• If the plugin is missing: Please contact your organization's IT support or Ideagen Support to get the correct installer for the Office Plugin. The version of the plugin should correspond with your version of Quality Management.
• If the plugin is already installed: A simple reinstallation can often fix corruption issues. Uninstall the plugin via Programs and Features, and then run the installer again.

After installation is complete, restart your computer and try to open a Word document within Q-Pulse again.

2.2.1 Workaround: Acknowledge a document without opening it

If you are unable to resolve the issue immediately but need to acknowledge documents urgently, you can use the following workaround

To do this:

1. Navigate to Workload under the Home section.
2. Open Distributed Acknowledgements.
3. Select the box next to the document(s) you need to acknowledge.
4. Click the Acknowledge button.

This will allow you to complete the acknowledgement task without opening the file, bypassing the error.

3. Further reading 

• How To Install the Microsoft Office Plugin
• Using the Microsoft Office plugin
• Acknowledging a Document