Solution for WinZip Companion for Outlook 1.0 Unspecified Error

[vtflair]

I have been running into a maddening error with WinZip Companion for
Outlook 1.0. Online searches and diagnostic logging didn't reveal
anything, so I emailed WinZip tech support. Below is my initial email
and their response. The scenario (using Word as the Outlook 2003 email
editor while running Adobe 6.0 Standard) applies for my user, so I'm
going to try to upgrade to Adobe 7.0. Hope this post helps others.

Cheers,
Phil

================================
Frequently, when creating new emails, a user will get the following
error message:

WinZip Companion for Outlook Error 800004005 in Outlook interface
(2752:0000f003): 'Unspecified Error'

This is a brand new Windows XP Professional machine with a new
installation of Microsoft Office 2003 Professional and all critical
Microsoft updates applied. I have uninstalled and reinstalled WinZip
Companion for Outlook and still receive the same error.
---------------------------------
From: WinZip Computing [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 3:06 PM

This error message is an indication of a problem within Microsoft
Outlook itself. With Word as the e-mail editor, Outlook sometimes
does not provide the information necessary for add-in applications to
function properly.

We have found this issue to be especially evident if more than one add-
in to Outlook is in use. In our testing, Adobe 6.0 was one of the
applications that we found particularly problematic. However, the
latest version of Adobe, Adobe 7.0, eliminates the "unspecified error"
message.

Adobe has a general troubleshooting document at

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/317147.html

The document states "Before you begin troubleshooting, be sure that
the version of Acrobat you are running is compatible with the version
of Office you are running. Acrobat 6.0 Standard and Professional are
compatible with Office XP, 2000, and 97; Acrobat 7.0 Professional and
Standard are compatible with Office 2003, XP, and 2000."

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

WinZip Technical Support

 

[Brian Tillman]

I have been running into a maddening error with WinZip Companion for
Outlook 1.0. Online searches and diagnostic logging didn't reveal
anything, so I emailed WinZip tech support. Below is my initial email
and their response. The scenario (using Word as the Outlook 2003 email
editor while running Adobe 6.0 Standard) applies for my user, so I'm
going to try to upgrade to Adobe 7.0. Hope this post helps others.

Why are you asking a WinZip question in an Outlook newsgroup? Ask in a
forum that discusses WinZip.

As for "Adobe", that's a company. Which product from Adobe do you mean?
Some of Adobe's products are "Acrobat", "Acrobat Reader", "Shockwave",
"Acrobat Connect Pro", "Photoshop", "Illustrator", and "ColdFusion". There
are also others. To which are you referring? My crystal ball indicates you
really mean "Acrobat" or "Acrobat Reader". If that's the case, you want
V8.1.2 (the most recent) because of security vulnerabilities in the
products.

 

[vtflair]

Why are you asking a WinZip question in an Outlook newsgroup?  Ask in a
forum that discusses WinZip.

As for "Adobe", that's a company.  Which product from Adobe do you mean?
Some of Adobe's products are "Acrobat", "Acrobat Reader", "Shockwave",
"Acrobat Connect Pro", "Photoshop", "Illustrator", and "ColdFusion".  There
are also others.  To which are you referring?  My crystal ball indicates you
really mean "Acrobat" or "Acrobat Reader".  If that's the case, you want
V8.1.2 (the most recent) because of security vulnerabilities in the
products.

Brian, I appreciate your feedback - though the tone of your reply
comes across as a bit antagonistic and chiding. I was just trying to
be helpful and apologize if some things in my post were unclear.

My question wasn't a question to begin with. Just a solution I had
found while working on this issue. Since my earlier searches on this
specific error didn't produce any solutions, I wanted to post what I
had discovered in order to same others some time and frustration. So,
I wasn't asking for help, just sharing what I had learned.

I posted this in the Outlook group, because the error and issue only
occurred in Outlook. WinZip Companion for Outlook is a plug-in for
Outlook and not part of the full WinZip program. So, Outlook is the
only program in which you would see this error - hence my posting here
in the general Outlook forum instead of a WinZip forum. I guess I
could have posted in both, but tend to avoid cross posting.

And you are correct, I could have been more clear about the particular
product of Adobe, instead of just using "Standard". So, thanks for
asking for that clarification. The Adobe product I was referring to is
Adobe Acrobat Standard 6.0 - not the free product Adobe Reader.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Phil

 

[Brian Tillman]

Brian, I appreciate your feedback - though the tone of your reply
comes across as a bit antagonistic and chiding. I was just trying to
be helpful and apologize if some things in my post were unclear.

Nope, just seeking precision. But, to tell the truth, I didn't grasp at
first that you were providing an answer to a problem you had seen, so you do
deserve an apology for that.

I posted this in the Outlook group, because the error and issue only
occurred in Outlook. WinZip Companion for Outlook is a plug-in for
Outlook and not part of the full WinZip program. So, Outlook is the
only program in which you would see this error - hence my posting here
in the general Outlook forum instead of a WinZip forum. I guess I
could have posted in both, but tend to avoid cross posting.

However, the program is not Outlook, so questions about non-Outlook programs
do belong in forums about the third-party program.

And you are correct, I could have been more clear about the particular
product of Adobe, instead of just using "Standard". So, thanks for
asking for that clarification. The Adobe product I was referring to is
Adobe Acrobat Standard 6.0 - not the free product Adobe Reader.

I love the statement (not made by you, of course) that "This error message
is an indication of a problem within Microsoft Outlook itself. With Word as
the e-mail editor, Outlook sometimes
does not provide the information necessary for add-in applications to
function properly." What a crock.

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

WinZip 1 is obsolete, version 2 is the current version.

No matter what addin or version if there's a problem addin then Outlook will
have problems.

That's the case with many versions of the Adobe PDF addin for Outlook ,as
well as many other addins I've had to debug because they conflicted with
addins I wrote, including WinZip Companion 2.




<snip>
Brian, I appreciate your feedback - though the tone of your reply
comes across as a bit antagonistic and chiding. I was just trying to
be helpful and apologize if some things in my post were unclear.

My question wasn't a question to begin with. Just a solution I had
found while working on this issue. Since my earlier searches on this
specific error didn't produce any solutions, I wanted to post what I
had discovered in order to same others some time and frustration. So,
I wasn't asking for help, just sharing what I had learned.

I posted this in the Outlook group, because the error and issue only
occurred in Outlook. WinZip Companion for Outlook is a plug-in for
Outlook and not part of the full WinZip program. So, Outlook is the
only program in which you would see this error - hence my posting here
in the general Outlook forum instead of a WinZip forum. I guess I
could have posted in both, but tend to avoid cross posting.

And you are correct, I could have been more clear about the particular
product of Adobe, instead of just using "Standard". So, thanks for
asking for that clarification. The Adobe product I was referring to is
Adobe Acrobat Standard 6.0 - not the free product Adobe Reader.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Phil

 

[Fastmetrics Support]

Hello,

The original poster definitely had something to say when posting this question, and I believe the first two posters had something quite valid in their statements.

The issue was basically that there was an error message, coming from Microsoft Word when used as an editor through Outlook. This error seemed to happen only when there were additional add-in applications installed in Outlook and when that application was removed or upgraded, then the error messages disappeared.

So, I think the statements were quite valid to post in a Microsoft Outlook news group.

I am getting the same type of Unspecifed Error when using Microsoft Word as the editor/spell checker for all emails. My user opens Outlook, then creates a new message, and then types in a valid email address in the TO field and goes to send the message and he is getting an "UNSPECIFIED ERROR" when trying to send that message.

So through normal troubleshooting, and seeing another post on another forum stating that it may have something to do with HTML compatibility in the message, I went into Outlook in Tools, Options, and changed the HTML to PLAIN TEXT and created another new message in Outlook with Word as the editor and tried to send the message.

This time we got a completely different error message stating "Word Interface not registered."

Still trying to do more troubleshooting, but these simple error messages don't leave much to be desired, and definitely doesn't leave many tracks to follow.


Regards,

Chris Vandebrooke
Project Manager
FASTMETRICS, LLC
support_at_fastmetrics_dot_com

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Start->run, type "regsvr32.exe ole32.dll" and press okay. This should reregister the object and get rid of the error message.

And for future reference, please include the prior posts to which you are referring. No one has unlimited memory that I have yet to meet.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Fastmetrics Support asked:

| Hello,
|
| The original poster definitely had something to say when posting this
| question, and I believe the first two posters had something quite
| valid in their statements.
|
| The issue was basically that there was an error message, coming from
| Microsoft Word when used as an editor through Outlook. This error
| seemed to happen only when there were additional add-in applications
| installed in Outlook and when that application was removed or
| upgraded, then the error messages disappeared.
|
| So, I think the statements were quite valid to post in a Microsoft
| Outlook news group.
|
| I am getting the same type of Unspecifed Error when using Microsoft
| Word as the editor/spell checker for all emails. My user opens
| Outlook, then creates a new message, and then types in a valid email
| address in the TO field and goes to send the message and he is
| getting an "UNSPECIFIED ERROR" when trying to send that message.
|
| So through normal troubleshooting, and seeing another post on another
| forum stating that it may have something to do with HTML
| compatibility in the message, I went into Outlook in Tools, Options,
| and changed the HTML to PLAIN TEXT and created another new message in
| Outlook with Word as the editor and tried to send the message.
|
| This time we got a completely different error message stating "Word
| Interface not registered."
|
| Still trying to do more troubleshooting, but these simple error
| messages don't leave much to be desired, and definitely doesn't leave
| many tracks to follow.
|
|
| Regards,
|
| Chris Vandebrooke
| Project Manager
| FASTMETRICS, LLC
| support_at_fastmetrics_dot_com