Hi J Bonner,
1. How many machines is this affecting?
2. Does this happen in all of the applications or just Word?
3. Does Word work in /a? To launch word in /a go to Start>Run> and type in Winword.exe and click on Ok, then launch
Word again. Are the options now availabe?
If it works correctly launching /a proceed with the following:
RENAME THE NORMAL TEMPLATE
To prevent formatting, AutoText, and macros that are stored in the Normal
template (Normal.dot) from affecting behavior of the program and documents that
are opened, rename Normal.dot. Renaming allows you to quickly determine whether
the Normal template is causing the problem or behavior.
NOTE: Renaming the Normal.dot template resets several options back to the default
settings, including custom styles, custom toolbars, macros, and AutoText
entries. For this reason, Microsoft strongly recommends that you rename the
Normal.dot file.
To rename the Normal.dot file, follow these steps:
- Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows NT, or Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows XP
1. Quit all instances of Word, including WordMail.
2. Click Start, point to Find or search, and then click "Files or Folders".
3. In the Named box, type "Normal.dot" (without the quotation marks).
4. In the Look in box, select your local hard disk drive (or an alternate
user template location if you are running Word from a network server).
5. Click Find Now to search for the file.
6. For each occurrence of Normal.dot that appears in the Find dialog box,
right-click the file. Click Rename on the shortcut menu. Give the file a
new name, such as OldNormal.dot or Normal-1.dot.
7. On the File menu, click Close to quit the Find program, and then restart
Word normally (without using the /a switch).
If Word starts correctly, you have resolved the problem. In this case, the
problem is a damaged Normal.dot template. You may need to change a few settings to restore your favorite options. If the
Normal.dot file that you renamed
contains customizations, such as styles, macros, or AutoText entries that cannot
be easily re-created, you may be able to copy those customizations from the old
Normal.dot file to the new Normal.dot file by using the Organizer.
For more information about using the Organizer, click Microsoft Word Help on the
Help menu, type "Organizer" (without the quotation marks) in the Office
Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topics
returned.
If Word still does not start correctly we will need to proceed with the following:
To Delete the Data Subkey
-------------------------
NOTE: Deleting the Data subkey resets several options back to the default
settings, including the most recently used file list on the File menu and many
settings you customize in the Options dialog boxes.
Most common options (click Options on the Tools menu) are stored in the Data
subkey. One troubleshooting step is to delete the Data key. Word rebuilds this
Data subkey by using the default settings the next time the program is started.
To delete the Data subkey:
1. Quit all instances of Word, including WordMail.
2. Click Start, and then click Run.
3. In the Open box, type "regedit" (without the quotation marks), and then click
OK.
4. Locate the following subkey by double-clicking the appropriate folders:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Word\Data
5. Select the Data folder on the left.
6. On the Registry menu, click Export Registry File, type a file name, and then
click Save.
7. Click Delete on the Edit menu to delete the subkey.
8. Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the deletion.
9. On the File menu, click Exit to quit the Registry Editor. Then restart Word
normally (without using the /a switch).
If Word starts correctly, you have resolved the problem. The problem is a damaged
Data subkey. You may need to change a few settings to restore your favorite
options.
Please let me know the results of these additional steps.
Sincerely,
Lisa Penshorn, MCSE
Microsoft Technical Support for Business Applications
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