Where does the problem occur in the process? Here's a common sequence for downloading a Word document from a website:

(1) You click a link or button in the web page to download a Word document

(2) Firefox displays a download dialog with the options Open, Save, Cancel

(3) You select either:

(A) Open (using Word as the application to open the document)

(B) Save (to save to your Downloads folder or the folder of your choice) and then open the saved file

The problem is that the download dialog box does not show up. I hit Download as, select Microsoft word, and then firefox freezes when I select it. This is true for both google docs, and the browser version of Microsoft Word.

Oh, I was thinking of a different menu.

So you are viewing a Google document. You click

File > Download as > Microsoft Word (.docx)

and instead of instantly getting a download dialog, Firefox freezes.

And you have a similar problem on Office365 (or whatever site you use the online version of Word on).

Considering that two different sites are involved, I suspect a problem with a corrupted settings file -- the file that associates the Word content type with a program to handle it. You can rename or delete that file, and Firefox will regenerate it based on the settings in your Windows registry. Here's how:

Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
• (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
• type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

In the first table on the page, click the "Show Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer.

Leaving that window open, switch back to Firefox and Exit, either:

• "3-bar" menu button > "power" button
• (menu bar) File > Exit

Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then rename mimeTypes.rdf to something like mimeTypes.old (just in case we need to restore it). That's it.

Start Firefox back up again and, if relevant, use History > Restore Previous Session to get back to where you were working.

Does that help?

Note: Some customized application settings will be lost, such as your preferred PDF viewer and your preferred program/site for email links. Please see these articles if you need to revisit those settings:

• Use Adobe Reader to view PDF files in Firefox
• Change the program used to open email links

I tried doing as you said, step by step, but when I tried to rightclick on mimeTypes.rdf, the folder itself froze, meaning that I had to exit out of it and couldn't rename it

Icetailgreg said

I tried doing as you said, step by step, but when I tried to rightclick on mimeTypes.rdf, the folder itself froze, meaning that I had to exit out of it and couldn't rename it

You had to exit out of Windows Explorer? Could you try shutting down and restarting Windows, and then rename the file? Something may have stopped working correctly at the system level.

When you say shut down and restarting windows, I assume that you mean the laptop itself? I turned it off when I went to work (which is why I took so long to respond), and turned it on again when I got home a few minutes ago, and tried to access the mimeType file again, both via the button in the troubleshooter and looking through my documents manually for it, with both having the same result; I right click on it, it looks like it's about to load, but then the tab itself freezes

Icetailgreg said

I right click on it, it looks like it's about to load, but then the tab itself freezes

Hmm, normally when you right-click a file in Windows Explorer, you get a context menu, and one of the items is Delete. Windows won't even display the menu for that file? Can you right-click on the previous or next file or do they all cause this same problem?

Anyway, another option for renaming a file is to single-click it to highlight (select) it, then press the F2 function key on the keyboard. Does that method work?

I was able to rename the file using f2. However, when I restarted firefox, it wouldn't respond for a second, staying on New Tab. I closed it via the task manager and restarted it, where it worked just fine. I tried to download it again, but still it froze and I had to close out via task manager.

Sorry, but I'm a little confused by the "it" in your last reply. You "tried to download it" -- was that downloading the docx file or downloading Firefox?

Assuming it was the docx: does this work in other browsers on your system?

By it, I meant the docx, I haven't tried to reinstall Firefox. Was that what you intended for me to do?

Also, I tried to download it with Google Chrome, and while it did show the download dialog box, it wasn't able to download it, though it did look like it was making progress. And to add insult to injury, Google Chrome now refuses to open.
I'm gonna guess that it's an issue with my laptop...

Regardless, I downloaded the file just fine as a pdf file and sent it as planned, so at least I have that. I'll try to download word documents on a different computer next time.

I'm not sure why Word documents are toxic. But it's Friday evening at 7:27PM so I'm going to ignore it for a few days!