Insert symbol selection dialogue broken in Word 2003

[Meridian]

When I try to insert a symbol in Word 2003, the dialogue opens and displays
the usual table of characters but clicking on them does nothing - I have to
use the cursor keys to navigate through them. This is NOT a printer driver
problem (yes I tried uninstalling all of the printer drivers, although why a
printer driver is needed to display a table of symbols is somewhat beyond
me). The same dialogue works perfectly in both Excel and PowerPoint. I've
tried 'detect and repair' with no success.

Any ideas?

 

[Meridian]

Addendum:

I just discovered that if I move the mouse completely out of the Word window
(not just the insert symbol dialogue) and back in it works...interesting.

 

[garfield-n-odie]

If you can click on Insert | Symbol, and see the symbols, but
cannot select one, it's usually because the x-mouse feature in
TweakUI is enabled.

 

[Meridian]

I was about to post to say that I'd figured out the problem and you're right
- it is a problem with x-mouse. Still, it's funny that it only affects Word
and not Excel or PowerPoint.

Thanks for replying.

 

[Alex K]

I have exactly the same problem. I am using word 2002, and interestingly
enough, if you do a basic installation, you can use the cursor-arrow keys to
navigate the symbol table, but if you install the latest service pak, you
cannot-it essentially kills this functional operation ! None of this occurs
using Word 2000. I think it is clearly a bug in the program. Can't find
anything on the MS site. Suggestion-don't install any service paks !

 

[Posco Grubb]

I am having the exact same problem as the original poster, except I'm using
Word 2007 in Windows XP SP3. The problem also occurs in Excel 2007 and
PowerPoint 2007.

When I turn off Teak UI's X-Mouse, the characters are all clickable in the
Symbol dialog. Very odd bug.

Windows XP's Character Map utility works just fine when X-Mouse is enabled.

So what's up with the Insert Symbol dialog??

wishing this would be fixed,
Posco

 

[Guest]

The question is really, 'What's up with X-mouse?' TweakUI is an unsupported
utility and thus you are stuck with the problem if you want to use X-mouse.
I suggest that you note down the keyboard shortcuts for any symbols you
need, then you can use X-mouse and not have to use the Symbol Dialog.

 

[Perry]

I am having exactly the same problem,using W7, Word 2007 and I don't use
Tweak. This has worked fine for months and has suddenly stopped working.
Any pointers much appreciated

 

[Terry Farrell]

Maybe another manifestation of this...

That's a symptom of a Word Data Key corruption - usually because Word has
been running when updates are installed.

Run Regedit and expand by double-clicking to the key below. With DATA
selected, press DELETE. Word will automatically recreate a new key when it
is restarted.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data

Symptoms of Data Key corruption include:

• The mouse does not work when you use Word.
• You cannot open a Word document from the Search window in Windows
Vista.
• You cannot open a Word document from Windows Desktop Search.
• Word crashes when you try to start or exit Word.
• Word crashes when you open the Open dialog box.
• Word crashes when you save a document.
• Word crashes when you close a document.

If you feel uncomfortable editing the registry yourself, Microsoft have a
fix that will do this for you.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940791 and press FixIt