Question: Paradox displays an "Invalid File Access" error when I open a form or report. What's causing this and how do I fix it?

Answer: This error appears when you open a Paradox document (form or report) in a version other than the one last used to save the document. For example, if you save a document in Paradox version 10 and then open it in Paradox 9, this error appears.

The problem is caused by the stylesheet associated with your document; it's not compatible with the version of Paradox you're currently using. You need to re-save the document with a stylesheet appropriate for your current version of Paradox.

You need to do this for all documents you intend to use in your current version of Paradox, whether or not you specifically use stylesheets in your work. (Paradox always associates a stylesheet with a document; therefore, you need to verify that your documents are using valid stylesheets. Unfortunately, Paradox doesn't do this for you.)

In some cases, you may find yourself dealing with an endless loop of error messages as Paradox tries to process the invalid stylesheet. If this happens:

1. Use the Windows Task Manager to end the Paradox process.
2. Restart Paradox
3. Immediately replace the stylesheet associated with the document that triggered the errors.

If you have to do this, be sure to run the Table Repair utility against any tables in the affected document(s) as they may become corrupted.

Note: You can avoid the endless loop of errors by opening the document in Design mode and changing the stylesheet before selecting any objects on the document. The errors appear as soon as you select a single object.

The reason the stylesheet is no longer valid stems from changes Corel introduced to stylesheets over the past few versions. These changes modified the underlying file format of stylesheets, which in turn makes them incompatible with older versions of the program.

For additional information, please see Avoiding Stylesheet Problems, which provides an overview to related stylesheet problems and outlines a strategy for avoiding stylesheet problems. In general, you should always re-save your Paradox documents before using them in different versions. You can do this automatically using a script; for an example, please see Recursively Searching Directories.