Problems opening and closing Word 97 in XP Pro

[Terry Quinn]

I recently purchased a new computer with XP professional.
I've successfully migrated Office 97 to it, with only one
problem related to Microsoft Word.

When I start Word, I get a popup that say on the banner
bar, "Microsoft Visual Basic." The message in that pop-up
is:

"Unexpected Error (32811):

If I hit OKAY, another visual basic pop-up appears with
the message:

"Compile error in hidden module: Autoexec"

Hitting OKAY then allows Word to work normally during that
session. However, when I then exit, if I try to close only
the document by hitting the X in the corner, I get this
message again:

"Unexpected Error (32811)"

Hitting OKAY closes the dialog, but doesn't close the
document. If I retry to close just the document, the same
thing happens.

If I then close the entire program it gives this message
with "Microsoft Word" on the banner:

"Do you want to save the changes you made to msword8.dot"

Hitting anything will allow the program to close.

All of the above behavior is consistent, meaning that it
always occurs when opening and closing Word. Excel,
Access, and Powerpoint all seem to be working okay.




Here is what I've tried, unsuccessfully:

--Reinstall Word from installation CD

--Uninstall and then reinstall Word.

--Uninstall the entire Office 97 suite and reinstall it.

--Delete Normal.dot

None of these attempts changed the behavior.


I cannot find much on Microsoft's knowledgebase other than
error 32811 is a "missing element."

Any ideas?

 

[garfield-n-odie]

Hi, Terry. See item 4 in http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm.

 

[Terry Quinn]

Dear Garfield-n-odie

You got it. There were four files in that folder:

MSCREATE.DIR
PALMAPP.DOT
NavNC.dot
Dictation.dot

The first two do not cause a problem. Each of the second two do contribute
to part of the problem. I think NavNC.dot probably has to do with Norton
AntiVirus. Dictation.dot might have been from when I once used IBM
ViaVoice.

By pulling the latter two out of that startup directory, it works fine now.

Thank you,

Terry

 

[garfield-n-odie]

Hi, Terry. Glad to hear it. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Note that PALMAPP.DOT is another notorious troublemaker. If you're not using
it, you'd do well to lose it as well.