New Word Document freezes after typing 1 character

[Mat]

Every time I start word and type any character into any
NEW document, it freezes (not responding). If I open a
document or a template other than Normal.dot, it will
allow me to type. Any ideas?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Sounds like Normal.dot may be corrupt. Try renaming it (with Word closed),
then restart Word and see if this solves the problem. If so, you can
retrieve most of your customizations from the renamed copy using Organizer.

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

 

[A Ladas]

I am looking for a solution to a similar problem of which
this is just a part. For a friend who is running word2000
(for Works Suite) on WinME. Exiting Word, and trying to
virus scan the Normal.dot file the file is reported still
in use. Booting in safe mode allows Normal.dot to be
scanned (it was clean)and indeed deleted. The symptom
disappears for the next attempt, then returns. We were also
noting that when trying to insert page numbering we got the
Word item flashing in the taskbar. What seems to have been
happening is that the dialog windows are appearing behind
instead of in front of the Word window. You can get at it
by minimising the Word window, and responding to the
dialog, but I can't figure out how to stop it doing it. Oh,
and we did reinstall Word. Matt - maybe this will help
someone throw light on the problem.
--- In hope --

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The flashing title bars and hidden dialogs are caused by a conflict with the
Norton Office Plug-in, which can be disabled without compromising virus
protection provided Auto-Protect is enabled. The rest of the problems are
caused by the Microsoft Works Suite Add-in for Word, which can be
uninstalled (through Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs) without any
significant loss of functionality (the only time you would need it is if you
wanted to use a Works database or address book as a data source for a Word
mail merge).

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