Error opening Word

[cahuita]

I am running Microsoft Office 2000 Professional. Suddenly I cannot open
Word--when I try I get the message that Word has encountered a problem and
gives me the option to report but nothing else. I have found, from
suggestions in this community, that I can open Word using winword.exe /a.
From this I am guessing my problem is with the normal template. I would like
to follow the advice provided at
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm that suggests
renaming the normal file but I can't find that file to rename it!

In recent times I always get the request when shutting down Word that
changes have been made to the normal template and do I want to save them. I
had never seen this before but found that in order to shut down without
further effort I need to say 'yes'. Should I not be doing that? I don't
know what changes I am making or how I came to make them. If I say 'no' then
I have to save them elsewhere. I'm not looking for anything fancy--just
basic word processing, no special templates, etc.

I also de-activated my Norton Anti-virus as suggested but that did not solve
the problem.

 

[garfield-n-odie]

In Word, click on Tools | Options | File Locations, and note the
folder designated for User Templates. That is where your
normal.dot file is located, but it is a hidden folder in Windows
XP, and normal.dot is a hidden file in recent versions of Word.
To display hidden files, start Windows Explorer or My Computer,
and click on Tools | Folder Options | View tab | check the radio
button for "Show hidden files and folders".

I do not advise that you deactivate Norton Antivirus. Instead,
only disable the Office Plugin that comes with Norton Antivirus.
See http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329820 "How to use
Office programs with the Norton AntiVirus Office plug-in" for
more information.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

For tips on finding Normal.dot, see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/BlankDocNotBlank.htm