Hello John.

Hopefully this support article is what you need:

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Options+window+-+Applications+panel

I have a very similar problem.

I've been using Firefox on XP at wok for a couple of years and it's always opened Word docs and other MS files without a problem. For me it used to open a whole new window then a dialog box asking me I f I wanted to save or open. This was working fine.

Suddenly, a month or so back, it stopped bringing up the dialog box. It opens a new page but then nothing. If I right click and save it will save the file, but it's slow and means saving files I just wish to open. It works for .pdf files but not Word.

I've got the right settings in the Applications panel for Word docs but it seems as if it doesn't recognise the .doc or .xls files anymore.

It's possible that you are having a problem with some Firefox add-on that is hindering your Firefox's normal behavior. Have you tried disabling all add-ons (just to check), to see if Firefox goes back to normal?

Whenever you have a problem with Firefox, whatever it is, you should make sure it's not caused by one (or more than one) of your installed add-ons, be it an extension, a theme or a plugin. To do that easily and cleanly, run Firefox in safe mode (don't forget to select Disable all add-ons when you start safe mode). If the problem disappears, you know it's from an add-on. Disable them all in normal mode, and enable them one at a time until you find the source of the problem. See this article for information about troubleshooting extensions and theme and this one for plugins.

If you need support for one of your add-ons, you'll have to contact its author.

Safe mode did nothing to help.

My options are set correctly. It says it's opening the file and then will only let me save or cancel.

It worked fine before the 3.6.6.upgrade. I had this problem before after an upgrade but I merely reset the preferences settings and it worked fine. I'm running Mac OS X 10.6.4.

All my upgrades are current.

HELP please!

And the winner is..... Googlebar!

Disabling this did it for me.

Thanks Morbus and good luck John.

I don't have Googlebar installed. I tried disabling all in Safe mode and then tried several in regular mode.

None of this helps. Do I need to go back to prior version. If so, how do I do this?