Hi Jessica:
Jees - no need to be so senstive - here is what I replied to the other
person --
Ummm... You need to understand something: we "are" sensitive.
I see Elliott has already given you a good flaming. Maybe I should explain
why
We are normal human beings (OK, you could debate the "normal" bit...). But
this is our hobby. We do it because it is fun. We do it because we like
it. Now, here's the critical part: When we come across a post that doesn't
make us feel good, why we simply "don't" do it -- we don't answer it at all
If you think about it: We choose this as our recreation (nobody gets paid to
be here, not even the Microsoft employees...). I guess you wouldn't allow
people to make you feel bad during your private time? We insist on
reserving our right to do the same.
Amongst the people lurking here are the software developers who write
Microsoft Word, the software testers who test it, and the likes of the MVPs,
most of whom use Word professionally in their work. I am a long document
specialist, with 30 years at the coal-face
So: The expertise is here. You want to be a straight shooter? Your
privilege: We'll come out when the shooting stops
I also messed up and typed "dot" after Normal - I do know
where it resides - MS USer Data Folder
No: That was Elliott's point. It "can" be anywhere. When you're dealing
with a user who "fiddles" (and this one does...) one of the first things
they often do is move their templates around. Use Preferences>File
locations>User Templates>Modify from Word, to make Word tell you where the
copy it is actually using is. Make sure it is where you think it is. You
also need to know that: A template in the same folder as the document will
be used in preference to the one of the same name in the templates folder, a
Normal template in the same folder as the executable will be used in
preference to any other Normal, and a file named Normal.dot will NOT be used
by Mac Word (That's a bug, but Microsoft insists they won't change it...)
When you are CERTAIN you know which copy of Normal Template is involved,
quit Word, delete it, and empty the trash (otherwise the thing remains in
service from the trash). If you don't quit Word, the old one is written
back from memory when you quit Word.
However, this is extremely unlikely to be a Normal.dot problem. If Word
starts up OK, then Normal's OK (for this purpose).
Microsoft Word encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry
for the incoinvience.
Recover my work and restart is checked.
I send the report and Word restarts.
Then I get the following:
Word encountered file corruption while opening *.doc. Part of this
document may be recoverable. Attempt to recover now? I clicked yes.
Try "No". You need the full name of the file it is complaining about. Find
that, and re-name it. The problem may be an attached template. You may
indeed have been hit by a virus, and if you have, it may have jammed PC-only
code into an attached template. You won't find that out until you open a
document attached to that template. At that point, Word attempts to load
the bad template and crashes, not on the document, but on the template.
These are the things I tried:
Trashed preferences
trashed NORMAL
reinstall Office
repaired permissions
You don't mention "Remove Office". Re-installing has no effect at all
unless you first run the Remove Office tool, because existing files are not
overwritten by a re-install. The Remove Office tool removes them all,
including the hidden ones, so re-install then can fix the problem.
This is "likely" to be an incompatible load library or framework problem.
So a "Remove" and re-install "might" fix it.
Yesterday, the guy saved a PDF file as a DOC so he could fill in the
form (scary formatting when that happens) after that happened he was
having issues opening PDFs, but it some how fixed itself - that is all
he remembers. Do you think if he did and "Open With" on a PDF Word or
vice versa it may have done something to Word?
Yes. "Something" may have interfered with the registration of file types on
that computer. The new Adobe 7 reader seems to be producing issues for some
people. We only have sporadic reports and no clarity on it yet.
I suppose I should say I am posting this for a co-worker.
Let you off this time: we would much rather be talking to the administrator
or knowledgeable user than the one who caused the problem. However, it's up
to you to grill him: if a remove/replace doesn't fix it, we're going to
have to find out what REALLY happened on that box. All the
seemingly-inconsequential detail can be important.
Particularly: "A user will tell you ONLY what you ask about, nothing more."
You need to SPECIFICALLY ask about installs of
haxies/fonts/helpers/"utilities", or you won't be told about them. Word is
incompatible with a number of haxies such as StickyBrain.
Cheers
--
Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.
John McGhie <
[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410
