Microsoft KB Archive Search

Notice: This website is an unofficial Microsoft Knowledge Base (hereinafter KB) archive and is intended to provide a reliable access to deleted content from Microsoft KB. All KB articles are owned by Microsoft Corporation. Read full disclaimer for more details.

  1. Home
  2. "This is not a valid file name" or ""<Application> Cannot open this file" when saving or opening an Office for Mac document/file

"This is not a valid file name" or ""<Application> Cannot open this file" when saving or opening an Office for Mac document/file

Symptoms

When you try to save Microsoft Word 2011 for Mac or Powerpoint 2011 for Mac document you may receive the following error message:
This is not a valid file name. Try one or more of the following: Check the path to make sure it was typed correctly. Select a file from the list of files and folders.


In addition, when opening a file, you may receive the following error message:

"<Application> Cannot open this file. The file might be in use, the file might not be a valid, <application> file, or the filename might contain invalid characters."

↑ Back to the top

Cause

This issue can occur, if you are trying to save a file with an invalid character in the file name. Some characters have special purposes and aren't valid within file names. 

Examples of these characters are: < (less-than sign) 
> (greater-than sign) 
/ (forward slash) 
\ (backward slash) 
: (colon) 
| (pipe) 


If you have tried to use an unusual character in the file name (as listed in the Cause section of this article), remove it from the file name and then try saving the file.

If the file you are trying to open has an invalid character, rename the file and then try to open it again. 

↑ Back to the top

Keywords: kb, dftsdahomeportal, macofficeportal, consumermacoffice2011track

↑ Back to the top

Article Info
Article ID : 2462364
Revision : 8
Created on : 8/19/2020
Published on : 8/20/2020
Exists online : False
Views : 140