Startup Task Pane and Acrobat Exchange

[Kim2000]

Hello,

I use Office 2002 with SP-2. I recently installed Adobe Acrobat 5.0
(the whole pack not just the free PDF reader).

Acrobat inserted a new toolbar (PDFMaker 5.0) in Word and Excel. But
now the Startup Task Pane which used to appear on the right side of
the screen in Word and Excel no longer "sticks". It appears
momentarily and then, as the PDFMaker toolbar is loaded, it
disappears.

Even if I keep the PDFMaker toolbar unchecked in View/Toolbars in
Excel or Word, the Startup Task Pane no longer sticks.

Is there any way I can get Excel/Word to behave as they used to?

Alternatively, how can I get the startup task pane to reappear on
explicit command?

TIA,

Kim

 

[Don MI]

Hello,

I use Office 2002 with SP-2. I recently installed Adobe Acrobat 5.0
(the whole pack not just the free PDF reader).

Acrobat inserted a new toolbar (PDFMaker 5.0) in Word and Excel. But
now the Startup Task Pane which used to appear on the right side of
the screen in Word and Excel no longer "sticks". It appears
momentarily and then, as the PDFMaker toolbar is loaded, it
disappears.

Even if I keep the PDFMaker toolbar unchecked in View/Toolbars in
Excel or Word, the Startup Task Pane no longer sticks.

Is there any way I can get Excel/Word to behave as they used to?

Alternatively, how can I get the startup task pane to reappear on
explicit command?

TIA,

Kim

Three options.

When you start Word or Excel, select Task Pane from the View menu.

Do a RegEdit.

Under:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Common\General

Create the Dword key:

DoNotDismissFileNewTaskPane

and set its value to 1.

As always backup your registry or create a restore point prior to modifying
the registry.

Upgrade to Acrobat 6. Acrobat 6 installation does the above registry edit.

Don

 

[Beth Melton]

Hi Kim,

This issue was corrected in the Office to the SP-3 patch. However for
Word you need to add the following Reg hack:

In the Registry navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\microsoft\Office\10.0\Word\Options

Create a DWord value using the following:

Name: ShowWorkPaneAtStartup
Value: 1

Take a look at this article for if you need more information:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=810162

Note: Disregard the hotfix instructions since the fix was included in
SP-3.

Additionally, the Reg hack Don MI provided will also help rectify this
issue but the task pane will not be dismissed after creating a new
document or opening a document from the task pane.

That's my preferred setting but if you want it to behave as it did
before the PDF add-in then use the ShowWorkPaneAtStartup Reg hack.

If you do not want to manually modify the Registry then here's a
couple add-ins (one for Word and another for Excel): you can use to
make these modifications for you
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=325

Note it does not include the Reg hack for ShowWorkPaneAtStartup but
the code in the add-in works around this issue.
--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Kim2000]

Thanks to both of you.

I have taken the easy way out and installed the add-ins referred to by Beth:

If you do not want to manually modify the Registry then here's a
couple add-ins (one for Word and another for Excel): you can use to
make these modifications for you
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=325

The Task Pane now works exactly like it did earlier -- and as I want it to.

Thanks again,

Kim

 

[Beth Melton]

Hi Kim,

I'm glad you found my add-ins useful and they work as advertised.

--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Rudolph Miller]

Hi Kim,

I'm glad you found my add-ins useful and they work as advertised.

--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

I just tried the Reg Hack you suggested and I finally got my Task Pane to
act right. Thanks.

Rudy M