Troubleshooting Word

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Many people, when having a problem running Word, immediately reinstall Office. For many problems, reinstalling Office does not help. Here are the steps you should take, in order. They apply to all versions of Microsoft Word on Windows 95 and new versions of Windows.

Tip 59: Recovering Lost Toolbars & Menus

If you have lost your toolbars in Word, take only Step 3. If that does not work, then take Step 5, which always works for lost toolbars.

Step 1. Ensure that Word, and not the document, is the problem.

If you experience the behavior in any file, and particularly in a new file, then you know that the problem lies with Word. If you cannot duplicate the behavior in another file, it is likely a corrupt document.

The steps to troubleshoot corrupt documents can be found in Word Document Troubleshooting on page 24-14.

Step 2. Clean up your hard drive.

Keeping your hard drive clean is of the utmost importance, particularly when attempting to troubleshoot other problems. Complete instructions are provided on page 24-1.

Step 3. Rename normal.dot.

This is one of the most common fixes for Microsoft Word application problems.

With Word closed, find and rename the normal.dot file on your system. If there is more than one, rename them all.
If you cannot find normal.dot or if you are on a network, you can find where your normal.dot is stored by checking under User Templates on the Tools → Options, File Locations tab.
If you do not have “permission” to rename normal.dot, check with your network administrator or internal helpdesk (should apply only on some PCs at work, not home users).
After you have renamed normal.dot, launch Word. If the problem is not resolved, move to step 4.

See page 23-3 for more information on finding and working with the normal.dot file.

Step 4. Check the Startup folder.

With Word closed, use Windows Explorer to find the Word Startup folder, usually:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Office\Word\Startup
Be sure that there are no files in this folder that you did not intentionally put in there yourself.

Word has the STARTUP folder and Excel has the XLSTART folder. Files in either of these folders are automatically opened when you launch the respective program.

Tip 60: Programs That Interfere With Word

Some programs can interfere with the smooth and errorfree operation of Word.

Newer versions of Norton Antivirus have a setting that can cause Word to slow down significantly upon opening of a file. This is because you have a setting in Norton to scan all Office files for viruses upon opening them.

If Norton is doing its job, files that contain viruses should have been caught on your PC long before you had the opportunity to open it. However, you should always download files from the web before opening them on your PC so that your virus checker software has an opportunity to scan it BEFORE you open the file.

Adobe Acrobat, PDF Writer and Visio are programs that can interfere with Word. While some people use these options all the time, others do not and may not understand certain error messages.

If Word is not working properly for you, you will often find the exact error message in the Microsoft Technet Knowledgebase at http://support.microsoft.com.

Step 5. "Dump" the registry key.

Ensure that Word is closed.

You'll be opening the Windows Registry Editor. You may have read that this is dangerous and that can be true. Normally, we would backup your registry to be safe, but we're going to rename only your Word key.

In the unlikely event that your Word application becomes totally disabled, you can simply delete the new Word key that gets created in the registry and rename the old one back to its original name. If you follow the instructions exactly, you will not have a problem.

1. Start → Run and type: regedit

Hit your Enter key. As you might browse folders in Windows Explorer, browse to the appropriate path:

For Word 97:

hkey_current_user\software\microsoft\office\8.0\word

For Word 2000:

hkey_ current_user\ software\microsoft\office\9.0\word

For Word 2002/XP:

hkey_ current_user\ software\microsoft\office\10.0\word

Caution
If you are unable to find this folder, or do not understand how to find it, then you should stop here and get support over the phone or in person.
Once you have found the path, right-click the Word folder, hit Rename and rename it to OldWord.
Hit Enter and then exit the Registry Editor; relaunch Word. If this still has not resolved the problem, move on to Step 6.

Step 6. Uninstall, Erase and Reinstall Office.

Uninstall using Add/Remove programs in the Control Panel.

Start → Settings → Control panel. Select Office and then choose Remove.
Run Eraser 97 or 2000, as appropriate. Instructions and downloads can be found at:

Office 97:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q176/8/23.ASP

Office 2000:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q219/4/23.ASP

Office 2002/XP:

There is no Eraser program available, nor is it necessary, for Office 2002/XP.

Note
Prior to installing or reinstalling any significant program, be sure that there are no programs running in the background that could interfere with the installation.
Hit Ctrl+Alt+Del to bring up your task list. One by one, end task for all items EXCEPT Explorer and Systray.
Reinstall Office using the installation disks.

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