Window sizing buttons

[Msradell]

My wife and I both have Office 2007 install our laptop computers. Both
installations were done with the same disk (three installations allowed) but
the screens have a different look and operate differently.

The "Close", "Window Sizing" and "Minimize" buttons in the top right hand
corner of her installation look like a normal ones the small squares around
them. Mine are just the symbol. This isn't the problem in itself but they
also behave differently when I use voice recognition. On hers everything
works as expected on mine close works OK but when I try to minimize it goes
to the window sizing button. I've verified that the setup of both laptops is
the same.

Does anybody else have this problem or know a solution?

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

When the caption buttons differ, that usually suggests that the Windows in
Taskbar settings are different. Click the Office button (upper left corner),
Word Options, Advanced tab, Display section, and compare to see if both
computers have the same setting for "Show all windows in the Taskbar".

 

[Msradell]

Herb,
I tried what you suggested, both laptops were set up the same but for the
fun of it I tried changing the setting on mine to see if it changed anything
and it didn't. If you give me your e-mail address I can send you a screen
print showing what mine looks like. It's really a frustrating problem since
voice recognition does not work correctly and I'm handicapped to the extent
that I depend on it to run my computer.

Thanks,
Mark

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Sure. Send to herb at herbtyson dot com... suitably translated into an email
address.

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

I looked at the screen shot you sent. It looks like something is decidedly
amiss with your installation on that computer, almost as if one of the files
use to render the windows is corrupted or missing. OneNote 2007 (doesn't use
some of the new display features) and IE (not part of Office 2007) don't use
the new rendering features, and so wouldn't be affected by the problem.
Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, however, are affected.

I would try doing a repair from the Control Panel to see if the
missing/corrupted file gets replaced or fixed in the process. Click Start,
type "programs", click on Programs and Features, then click on Microsoft
Office 2007, Change, Repair, Continue. It will probably say you need to
reboot.

If that doesn't work, I would try applying Office 2007 SP1 to see if that
rocks the foundations sufficiently to fix it.

 

[Msradell]

As per your suggestion I tried repairing the installation with no success. I
then tried installing SP1 and again it didn't change anything. I would try
completely uninstalling the entire office installation but I'm afraid it
would use up another one of the allowable installs.

I'm open to any other ideas you have, I'm pretty savvy with computers so if
I need to check or edit the registry I can.

Thanks again for your help,
Mark

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Removing & reinstalling won't affect activation status (reformatting and
reinstalling Windows, however, would). Short of reformatting and aggressive
efforts to remove all traces, Office is extremely conservative in that
respect -- it is quite difficult, as it turns out, to induce amnesia about
activation.

Before trying that, however, I would try creating a new Windows user on that
computer, and see if the problem occurs for the new user. This will at least
establish whether the problem is a settings issue. If logging in as a new
user fixes the problem, you then have a fallback of being able to switch to
being that user.

Another thing I would try is updating Vista's display driver. I would go to
the web site for your display adapter and see if there is an updated video
driver. A good site to check if you don't succeed there is
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/.

 

[Msradell]

I updated the display driver and saw no change so I went ahead and created a
new user and the problem went away! What files other than favorites and
documents can I copy over to the new user without moving the problem? I want
to move the most I can so I don't have too redo too much of this setup I've
already done. I only keep one user on the machine with no password so it's
easier for me to boot (I cannot select the user nor enter a password using
voice recognition), so I need to move everything over to the new user and
then remove the old one.

Thanks,
Mark Radell

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

You might take a look at this article for ideas about which files to try
copying:

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/FilesToBackup.htm

I've tried copying various trees and branches, but invariably end up
recorrupting the working "user". So, except for known things that are okay
(.acl, .dic, general *.doc files, etc.), I tend to bite the bullet and
reinvent the wheel.

 

[Msradell]

Thanks for the help and insight, I'm going to be busy the next couple of days
so I won't get a chance to play around with it right away. Hopefully I won't
transfer the problem when moving stuff I want to save.

Mark Radell