Applescript to open word doc directly in word

Question

I have hundreds of old word files that I would like to convert to pdf format.
Im running OSX 10.6.8 and Word 2008 (12.3.3).
When I go to open the files in the finder, I get an error from Word that says:
"The file type is blocked from opening in this version. To help secure your computer, some file types are blocked from opening when you double-click the fire or drag the file to the Microsoft Word icon,  If you trust the file is secure, you can open the file by clicking Open on the File menu."
From the official Microsoft support page it says the following:
"Consider the following scenario. In Microsoft Word 2008 for Mac, you try to open a document that was created in an earlier version of Microsoft Word for Mac. To do this, you use one of the following methods:
You double-click the document.
You drag a document to the Word 2008 for Mac program icon.
You drag a document to the Word 2008 for Mac program icon that is in the Dock.
You run an AppleScript that uses the Finder to open a Microsoft Word document.
In this scenario, the document does not open as expected in the Word for Mac program."
When I open the file as suggested (open Word, choose File>Open, select file), it opens.
I created the following applescript, which I though would be the same as using Word to open the file:
set x to choose file
tell application "Microsoft Word"
    activate
    open x
end tell
For some reason, running this script gives me the same error as trying to double click the file in the finder.  Is my syntax in the above script still somehow trying to use the finder to open the file?  Is there anyway to automate this?

Answer 1

Maybe you would like to try the following script. The Word document must be on the desktop though.
set x to choose file default location (path to desktop)
tell application "Finder"
    -- Get the name of the file (without the name extension):
    set theName to name of x
    set P to offset of "." in theName
    set theName to text 1 through (P - 1) of theName
end tell
tell application "Microsoft Word" to activate
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Microsoft Word"
        keystroke "o" using {command down}
        delay 1
        keystroke "d" using {command down} -- desktop
        keystroke theName & return -- open the file
    end tell
end tell
Message was edited by: Pierre L.