minimize and maximize in Word

[Jools]

I cannot "restore down" a word doc from full screen to allow resizing.
I can maximize a word doc to full screen from the task bar, or minimize it,
when it seems to disappear off screen. Clicking on the taskbar icon does not
display the word screen, I must right click and maximise. The "restore down"
button in the middle of the 3 icons on top right corner mimimizes the doc
completely, as it it disappears off the screen. What have I done?
Ive tried opening another window and selecting Cascade, which cascades all
other windows, but not Word.
I've tried turning off Word as my Outlook editor.
I cant resize manually from full screen as the mouse won't trun into the
arrow to allow resizing.
i'm using Office 2003, dual monitors and going demented. it's been fine
until now, Excel is okay. Can anyone please help?

 

[hgnlordowen]

It could be that something in user memory space has become corrupt. Restart
the computer. Check for the problem afterward.

Failing that, close out of all open instances of Word, then instead of
opening Word regularly, try typing Windows key + R or going to your start
menu>Run to bring up the Run prompt and type in winword.exe, then click the
OK button. If you can resize the window, the problem was that the method
you're using to open Word has a start parameter associated with it. If you
open Word from your taskbar, the start menu, or a shortcut in a folder,
replace it with a new shortcut. The Word main application file is generally
in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OfficeXX\ where XX is your installed
version with 10 being XP, 11 is 2003 and 12 is 2007. Right click on winword
and choose send to>Desktop. Drag the new shortcut to where you want it, and
if you see a dialog asking you if you want to delete the existing shortcut,
click yes. If this solves your problem, you may need to replace all your
shortcuts to Word using this procedure. If you are having this problem with
double clicking a Word document, you'll need to change something with the
file association, which shouldn't be too hard to find instructions for.

If you are still having trouble, try restarting your computer and holding F8
while it starts. Select safe mode from the menu, then press enter. Once you
are logged in to Windows, and while holding the control key, open Word using
a shortcut to the program or the main program file. DO NOT USE A WORD
DOCUMENT FILE TO OPEN WORD WHILE HOLDING CONTROL AS IT WILL NOT WORK! Word
should start with a dialog box asking if you want to start Word in safe mode.
Select yes. If this solves the problem, either Windows or Word has an add on
or program enabled that is causing the problem. Troubleshooting problems like
that are a lengthy process, so let us know if this makes the problem go away
and we will tell you what to do from there.

If this does not work, restart your computer normally, go back to the run
prompt, and type winword.exe /r This will begin the repair process. You may
be asked to insert your Office install CD so it would be good to have it
handy.

The next thing to try would be to check that you have the latest drivers for
your video system and that the settings are correct. This process varies
greatly depending on who made your video card.

If this still doesn't work, you may need to reinstall Office or (hopefully
not) Windows to solve the problem.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Most likely your restored Word window is opening on the second monitor.
You'll have to find it there and move it back to the primary monitor.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Jools]

Thanks very much, the reboot did the trick, I suspect there was something
going on in the memory, as I had problms shutting down and had to clear some
files - so i realised the previous shut downs had not completed successfully.
Our huge company network loads things while we sleep, so we never quite know
what's going on on our pc.s

Many thanks for your comprehensive reply - much appreciated.

 

[Jools]

Thanks Suzanne, I thought that may have been the case, but it was not visible
on the other monitor, hence the problem of knowing how to access it and
"restore down" to a screen I could re-size.
Thanks for your response.

The reboot fixed the isse.

 

[hgnlordowen]

You're welcome.

Many Windows programs are written using a template for creating a window.
One of the options for this template is to disallow resizing. What probably
happened was the copy of the template Word recieved was still "dirty" from
the last program that used it, and one of the things that the other program
left on the template was instructions to use the disallow resizing option.
The last program to use a template is supposed to clean up the template
before giving it back to Windows and Windows doesn't always check to see if
the template is cleaned up properly, so if you can think of any program that
displays a window that doesn't allow resizing of the window that you had open
before Word started acting weird, you might want to try to get the next few
updates for that program. This kind of thing can also happen when you force a
program to quit using the task manager or other not asking nicely methods. If
you forced any programs to close before opening Word, you might want to
figure that if you have to force that program to close in the future, you may
have to restart the computer again sooner than you think so Windows has a
chance to start with a new set of templates.

 

[biddaviddle]

I am also having this problem. I was able to make it work correctly in Safe
Mode. You indicated that you would provide additional instructions under this
condition. These instructions would be most appreciated.

 

[biddaviddle]

Going into Safe Mode and then loading Word and then going back to normal mode
fixed the problem. Thanks very much. Your explanations are very clear.