Can't remove thumbnails in Word 2003

[David]

Many thanks to all who have tried to help with this problem, but it is now
buried a long way down (with a scurrilous title), so I thought I would start
a new thread.

My problem is that in Word 2003 I cannot permenantly get rid of the
thumbnail display on the left of the screen.

Whenever I create a new document, or open an existing one, there are the
thumbnails. I can remove the thumbnail display OK, but hate having to do
this every time. If I save a document with it not showing, when I reopen
the document there it is again!

Also in Word 2003 whenever I do a File | Open, and then Tools | Search (and
how awkward that dialogue now is compared with Word 2000!) Word crashes.

Suspecting problems I then tried a repair of Office 2003 - no good, so I
have just done a complete reinstall - and I still have these same two
problems.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

TYIA

David

 

[Beth Melton]

Hi David,

Did you try the second portion of my reply in the previous thread?
(I cited it below)

If recreating the Reg key doesn't resolve it then as a confirmation,
did you say the problem *doesn't* occur if you start Word using the /a
switch or in Safe Mode?

--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[David]

Beth

Brilliant! Many thanks for this.

I had not tried your registry suggestion, being a bit cautious about
fiddling with the registry, but now I have, and that has fixed the problem.
Despite your caveat I did not seem to lose too many of my preferences (e.g.
it restarted OK with no tool bars).

That is such an improvement.

Thank you again.

David

 

[Beth Melton]

Hi David,

That's good to hear.

The only preferences that would be reset are the majority found under
Tools/Options and Tools/AutoCorrect Options. There are a few others
but it isn't likely you changed them. If interested here is an article
on what the Data key stores:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/DataKeySettings.htm

Note I have yet to update the article for Word 2002/2003 so new
features are not included.

Did you by chance export the branch to a *.reg file? If you did and
still have it would you mind emailing it to me? I'm curious to know
more about what you encountered specifically. So far this has been the
first report I've heard on this or similar issues.

Thanks!
--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[David]

Beth

I have tried to send the registry branch I saved to you here, but it was
bounced back twice as too large (only 94 kb!), and even when zipped.

I'm trying to send it to you direct. I hope it reaches you OK this time.

Thank you again for your help.

David

 

[Beth Melton]

Thanks Dave.

I'm not sure what I'll find but it is a start anyway.

--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Beth Melton]

Hi David,

I'm fairly comfortable with this area of the Registry so I merged your
key into my Registry and started Word. It defaulted to the Thumbnail
view as you described however when I turned it off and restarted Word
the Thumbnail view did not reappear.

This leads me to believe the problem doesn't lie in the Registry key
(that is simply where the Thumbnail view setting is stored) but rather
something is preventing key from updating correctly when you exit
Word. If that is the case then I suspect you will encounter other
situations where your preferences are not retained.

If you want to investigate let me know - I'm more than happy to help
you out.

--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[David]

Beth

Many thanks.

Since you seem intrested in this deviant behaviour I'll let you know if
anything similar happens.

(But not the everyday occurences like Word crashing every time I do a Search
in file open . . .)

Sorry about the multiple replies, but I did get back 2 messages telling me
that my mail could not be delivered because it was too big. Clearly it
spake not sooth!

Regards

David