Reversion to Word 2000?

[Martin]

A friend has Word 2003 (or maybe 2002) but does not possess the original
installation cd. She does however possess the Office 2000 cds.

Her Word had developed a snag whereby an error message pops up saying Word
has encountered a problem and needs to close. I've researched this on
Google without success. Clearly, I can't reinstall or repair her Word,
but I could possibly stick Word 2000 on for her instead.

Would I have to remove Word 2003 beforehand - if I install the Word 2000 and
left 2003 in place would I end up with a dog's breakfast?

Thanks

 

[Jay Freedman]

A friend has Word 2003 (or maybe 2002) but does not possess the original
installation cd. She does however possess the Office 2000 cds.

Her Word had developed a snag whereby an error message pops up saying Word
has encountered a problem and needs to close. I've researched this on
Google without success. Clearly, I can't reinstall or repair her Word,
but I could possibly stick Word 2000 on for her instead.

Would I have to remove Word 2003 beforehand - if I install the Word 2000 and
left 2003 in place would I end up with a dog's breakfast?

Thanks

Answering the literal question first, yes, you should uninstall 2003
before trying to install 2000.

Before you do that, though, there may not be a need to downgrade.
First try the troubleshooting steps at
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm.

 

[Martin]

Thanks Jay. I really should have mentioned that she has XP - I assume I
can put Word 2000 onto an XP system?

Thanks for the link - I had seen that link very early on in my Google search
of the archives but it doesn't cover her situation: she can type around 10
lines without any apparent problem before the "Word encountered a problem
and needs to shut down" box pops up.

The problem seems to date back her installing new HP printer software, and I
came across one archive posting that linked the Word error message with
printer drivers, so I uninstalled the printer software (using the HP
uninstall option - no registry/manual cleaning) and reinstalled having first
turned off antivirus and her visual impairment HAL speech synthesis program.
At first, things looked good - she managed 2 letters in Word and also,
strangely, the would-you-like-to-disconnect box on shutting down IE and OE,
which had disappeared with the new printer, came back.

Now however, it seems that the Word glitch is still in the system so I think
it's looking more and more likely that we'll give Word 2000 a shot. But I
would greatly appreciate confirmation that 2000 will work on XP.

Thanks again

Martin

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Yes, Word 2000 will run on Windows XP. You can probably run anything back to
Word 2.0 on XP if you really want to--it's the other direction where you
will have problems (Word 2003 will not run on Windows 98, for example).

Thanks Jay. I really should have mentioned that she has XP - I assume I
can put Word 2000 onto an XP system?

Thanks for the link - I had seen that link very early on in my Google search
of the archives but it doesn't cover her situation: she can type around 10
lines without any apparent problem before the "Word encountered a problem
and needs to shut down" box pops up.

The problem seems to date back her installing new HP printer software, and I
came across one archive posting that linked the Word error message with
printer drivers, so I uninstalled the printer software (using the HP
uninstall option - no registry/manual cleaning) and reinstalled having first
turned off antivirus and her visual impairment HAL speech synthesis program.
At first, things looked good - she managed 2 letters in Word and also,
strangely, the would-you-like-to-disconnect box on shutting down IE and OE,
which had disappeared with the new printer, came back.

Now however, it seems that the Word glitch is still in the system so I think
it's looking more and more likely that we'll give Word 2000 a shot. But I
would greatly appreciate confirmation that 2000 will work on XP.

Thanks again

Martin


2000

 

[Martin]

Many thanks for your kind help.

Martin

Yes, Word 2000 will run on Windows XP. You can probably run anything back to
Word 2.0 on XP if you really want to--it's the other direction where you
will have problems (Word 2003 will not run on Windows 98, for example).

Thanks Jay. I really should have mentioned that she has XP - I assume I
can put Word 2000 onto an XP system?

Thanks for the link - I had seen that link very early on in my Google search
of the archives but it doesn't cover her situation: she can type around 10
lines without any apparent problem before the "Word encountered a problem
and needs to shut down" box pops up.

The problem seems to date back her installing new HP printer software,

and

I
came across one archive posting that linked the Word error message with
printer drivers, so I uninstalled the printer software (using the HP
uninstall option - no registry/manual cleaning) and reinstalled having first
turned off antivirus and her visual impairment HAL speech synthesis program.
At first, things looked good - she managed 2 letters in Word and also,
strangely, the would-you-like-to-disconnect box on shutting down IE and OE,
which had disappeared with the new printer, came back.

Now however, it seems that the Word glitch is still in the system so I think
it's looking more and more likely that we'll give Word 2000 a shot.

But

 

[Margaret Aldis]

Hi Martin

Repeated crashes are sometimes just the result of corruptions in Normal.dot
or in files left over from previous crashes. If you haven't tried already, I
think it would be worth cleaning everything out in 2003. See

http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm

for a list of files that get left hanging around.

I would try the steps in
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm whether or not
the symptoms seem to match.

 

[Martin]

Much appreciated. Thanks indeed - it might be a while before I get to look
at the lady's machine but I'd much rather go there to do something
constructive rather than a defeatist replacement of Word.

I'll give it a try and report back.

Thanks very much.

Martin