That's because the ancient version of Word they were created with can't be found. The OS isn't even assigning the correct app to the ones it is giving an icon for. Since it isn't reading them, it doesn't know what a file without an extension is. What you're seeing there is Office 2016 has been updated to ignore Type and Creator codes. You aren't forced to use the Open dialogue box with Word to open files. If you drag and drop those old Word documents onto the 2016 version, they'll open. No, definitely not true if you're running Office 2016, and not Office 365. Office for the Mac has undergone dramatic changes in Office 365. 'It has been mentioned that users are having problems with version 16.9 and higher of Office.
That message should never, ever appear when opening a. As I said before, it is treating a simple text file as if it were an application.
