Copy and Paste Issue

[JamesW]

We are having an issue with a number of users where copy and paste stops
working. They can be using it and then it just stops working. The only
solution we have found to get it working again is to close word and outlook,
as they use word as their email editor, and then restarting them. We tried
doing reinstalling office and that hasn't cured the issue. This appears to
have started happening about a month ago. We are using Windows XP and the
issue has happened with Office XP and Office 2007. Any help\assistance would
be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Stefan Blom]

If you start Word in Safe mode (hold Ctrl as you run the application), then
does copy and paste work? If it does, this indicates that poorly written code
in normal.dotm or in an add-in is causing the issue.

 

[JamesW]

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately if we close Word and then restart it
copy and paste starts working again, so are unable to test in safe mode. We
are not able to leave the user running in safe mode as they will not be able
to do their work. The issue ony started about a month ago and as far as I
know we have not had any new add-ins added.

 

[Stefan Blom]

Note that I didn't mean to suggest that you should be *running* Word in Safe
mode; this mode is intended for troubleshooting only.

If restarting Word fixes copy and paste (at least temporarily), what is
happening (or what is the user doing) when it stops working again? Does this
occur in Safe mode too?

 

[JamesW]

The user is just trying to copy and paste some text from one document to
another. The copy appears to work OK but when they try and paste it either
does nothing or pastes text that was copied previously. It is hard to see if
it fails in safe mode as it is periodic. It can happen a couple of times one
day but none the next. When it does fail then we have to restart Word and
sometime Outlook, as we use word as the email editor. It does not appear to
be happening to only one user but to multiple ones.

 

[Stefan Blom]

Obviously, intermittent errors are very difficult to troubleshoot. :-(

In an earlier message, you wrote that you have no new add-ins. Are you
running any add-ins at all?

 

[JamesW]

And very annoying :-(

Could you let me know where I would find what add-ins are running.

Thanks

 

[Stefan Blom]

In Word 2007, click Office button | Word Options. Look in the Add-Ins
category.

 

[JamesW]

Thanks Stefan. Could you also tell me where the info is in Office XP.

Thanks

 

[Stefan Blom]

See http://word.mvps.org/faqs/customization/CheckIfAddinsInstalled.htm.

 

[JamesW]

Thanks. We have looked and there are no add-ins running on the computer.

 

[Graham Mayor]

Hmmm. The fact that this occurs in Word 2007 (which doesn't use Word as
e-mail editor) and earlier versions (which have the option) is interesting.
Does the problem remain for earlier version users if you set their e-mail
editor to use Outlook's own perfectly adequate editor? The relationship
between Word and Outlook was never that great.

I suspect the problem may be related to the Office clipboard - check the
settings of the office clipboard (try switching it off altogether, or
conversely ensure that it is displayed).

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[JamesW]

We have noticed that in the event viewer we are getting report of an
exception occuring in mso.dll. What does this dll do?

The majority of our users that are having the issue are using Office XP.

 

[Graham Mayor]

There are several mso.dll errors listed for Office XP - start with
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/820367

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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