Word 2003 Help times out

[Steve Cohen]

If I use Help, and enter a search term, I get a list of topics. If I click
on a topic, the result never comes back but tells me there is an internet
site problem. This just started to happen and happens on all my Office 2003
programs. It does not happen every time. Sometimes it works and sometimes it
doesn't. No changes have been made to the system. I am running XP Pro SP1.

Steve

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Are you having problems with your internet access? Or, is your route to
Microsoft's online content not working perhaps? If the problem is
intermittent, then that would tend to suggest a connectivity problem.

You can tell Office to use "local" content, if you like, which should keep
the problem from occurring. At the bottom of the help pane, under See Also,
click Online Content Settings. There, remove the check next to "Show online
content and links...". (Practically speaking, if Help's local content comes
up empty, I seldom find the answer online.)

 

[Steve Cohen]

Herb,

I am having no other internet access problems. How would I fix the "route to
Microsoft's online content"?

In the meantime, I have taken your suggestion and unchecked that box.

Steve Cohen

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Since you said that "sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't", that
suggests to me that there must be an intermittent connectivity problem
reaching the site that Microsoft uses for online Help. It might be a problem
related to your internet provider (which I might suspect if you're using a
cable modem, but since you're not having other internet problem, I would
think this unlikely), or more likely it might simply be that at the time
you're trying it, Microsoft's servers are overloaded (this happens to me a
couple of times a day, usually during the afternoon, and I'm on the east
coast). So, I really don't think there's anything for *you* to fix.

You might try to observe if there are specific times of day that the problem
is at its worst, and other times of day that the problem goes away. Do
those times tend to be times you'd think might be high-internet-traffic
times?

 

[Steve Cohen]

Herb,

This happens all hours. I am on the West Coast and it was happening at
11:00pm as well as off and on during the afternoon.

From what you have told me, it looks like it could be overloading at
Microsoft's end.

I'll continue with "local content".

Thanks,


Steve Cohen