Word 2003 won't exit

[rjoslin414]

Yeah, I know its 2019, but word 2003 has worked well for me for a long time. Just recently, when I click on the "x" on the current word document it will close (after a time), but when I click on the "x" in the window in which Word is running (red x top right) it does NOT quit, and I have to go to Task manager to close the program. Even then it goes through several spasms, telling me that it's looking for a solution to a problem, etc. But finally, sometimes after the second order to end task in task manager, it will close. This all started after a daily journal that I keep suddenly caused problems everytime I tried to load it. Finally Word would ask "(so and so filename) caused a major problem last time it was loaded--do you still want to try to load it." Eventually this behavior stopped (after I copied the file to WordPerfact and back again), but the problem closing the program has persisted. Typing into the file and saving it does not seem to cause any issues, but trying to exit word itself does.

I've tried a lot of things to remedy this, including a lot of Microsoft articles KBsuch and such, etc. but am wondering if others have had the same issue (perhaps with Word 07 or even word 10.

BTW, if it helps at all, I tried starting winword.exe with the /a switch and the problem disappears. I am told that this probably means a problem with the normal.dot file. Can anyone confirm that this is true?
Thanks for any help.

 

[macropod]

Your description suggests a fault in the Office installation, a 3rd-party addin, and/or a corrupt document. The /a switch prevents add-ins and global templates (including the Normal template) from being loaded automatically. Try each of the following steps, in sequence, until the problem is resolved.

1. Repair the Office installation (via Help|Detect & Repair) in any Office application.
2. Close Word then rename the Normal.dot file. It's usually found in:

C:\Users\%Username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\​

If the problem goes away, the cause was a corrupt Normal template.
3. Corrupt documents can often be 'repaired' by inserting a new, empty, paragraph at the very end, copying everything except that last new paragraph to a new document based on the same template (headers & footers may need to be copied separately), closing the old document and saving the new one over it.
4. Start Word in safe mode (i.e. depress the Ctrl key when starting Word). If the problem goes away, the cause is a faulty addin. Restart Word, then disable all addins. Then progressively, close & restart Word & re-enabling addins & opening your document, one at a time, till you find the culprit is found. Delete or replace that addin.

 

[rjoslin414]

Thanks so much for the quick reply. This is the most lucid and logical advice I've gotten anywhere. I'll try these things and get back to you. I'm pretty sure I already did the "repair" (#1) but will do it again.

 

[rjoslin414]

Wow! (this is a good wow, not a bad one) Before you balk at the length of my reply, I was trying to be a precise in my description as possible in case nothing worked. This is definitely more info than you need, so feel free to ignore everything down to the paragraph preceded by "->".

1. Detect and Repair done
2. same result when exiting msw after #1
3. searched for all normal.dot files
4. Only found one actual normal.dot template file in the location given in your step 2 instructions below
5. Tried to rename normal.dot but msw was still open and wouldn't let me <grin>, closed msw. (same result as in #2 above)
5. Renamed the normal.dot file
6. Started msw again
7. It started in a New York instant, much faster, but of course with none of my macros or customized toolbars, etc.
8. The program exited immediately on clicking on the red x top right of the window with none of the problems I described in the original post.
9. Started msw again and loaded my journal file
10. Loaded instantly and with no problems, exited msw without any editing of the document and it shut down perfectly.
11. Started msw yet again, added a line to the document, saved, and exited, same result, perfect exit.
12 Started msw, RE-loaded the edited journal file, again with no
problems. I noticed by accident that many, but oddly not all of my auto-corrects are still there. I read they are stored in an
.acl file instead of in the template. This is very good news for me in that I have what must be a thousand of them, all the way from misspelled words to phrases that I abbreviate.

->Thanks so much for a reply that was very helpful. So in essence, everything is great EXCEPT I have no macros. I know they are stored in the old normal template that I re-named. Is there some way to load them back into the newly minted normal.dot file now that everything is working again (without, of course corrupting the new normal.dot file)?



Rick J.

 

[macropod]

You can now open the renamed Normal.fot for editing, then transfer your macros across to the new one. Depending on how many modules there are, you might export them from the old one, then import them to the new one, or you might simply copy & paste the actual code.

 

[rjoslin414]

Macropod
I'm afraid I need a little closer instructions on what to do. I'm thinking: Start MSW and then "open" the renamed (old, defective) normal.dot (I assume .fot is a typo) WITHOUT another document loaded. At this point I'll just have a blank screen with the old template in place "for editing" (I'm not entirely sure how to "transfer my macros across to the the new one). ARe the "export" and "import" options obvious? How do I get to them once the old template is loaded for editing?

And I want to make sure that loading the old renamed normal doesn't contaminate things again with whatever was causing the problem in the first place? Things are working so well now that I'm gun-shy of making changes, but really don't want to re-create the hundreds of macros I've perfected over all these years.

Rick

 

[macropod]

To open your renamed template for editing, you need to choose the 'Word templates' option from File|Open, then select your renamed template. Having done that, pressing Alt-F11 will open the VBE. On the left you'll see both Word's (new) Normal template and your old one listed.

Under your old template's name there's be a number of entries, such as 'Microsoft Word Objects', 'Modules' and, perhaps, 'Forms'. Expanding each of those will reveal various code modules, such as 'ThisDocument', 'Module 1', and so on. You'll want to export any of those that contain code. You might, for example, simply copy & paste everything from the 'ThisDocument' module into your new Normal.dot's 'ThisDocument' module. You might do the same for other modules, or you might choose to export them, which you can do via File|Export File; any userforms will need to be exported. You can then activate your new Normal template and use File|Import File to import those modules & userforms.

As for your concerns about contaminating things again, the code to check out in that regard is likely to be in either the 'ThisDocument' module, with a Sub name like 'Document_Open' or 'Document_New' or in an ordinary module with a Sub name like AutoOpen or AutoNew. You can rename those till you figure out what they're doing and whether they might be compromising Word.

 

[rjoslin414]

I'm a little lost, Macropod. Right off the bat, I cannot find any "Word templates" option under File/open. Can I just go to the location of the old template and load it just as if it were a document (i.e., double-click on it)? And, by "select", do you mean click on (highlight) it and THEN press Alt-F11 while it's highlighted? Or double-click to load the renamed template and THEN press Alt-F11?

I'm starting to think this is beyond me, and I like to think I'm pretty savvy. So I couldn't even begin to implement the rest of your instructions, which contain a lot of terms that I've never heard of, such as "userforms" and "code modules". Not that it's in any way your fault, but it seems like it should be a lot easier to do this.
Rick

 

[rjoslin414]

STOP the PRESSES!! I found out how to load a template (the drop down "files of type" box). When I try load my renamed template, it warns me of some sort of "validation" issue and that the file may be "dangerous" to load. I went ahead a did so, but there didn't seem to be any code in the window. I think perhaps this file is so corrupt that even the VBE editor can't make heads or tails of it.

For kicks, I loaded an older renamed template and found a window with a lot of stuff that looked like what I know as "code" and were obviously macros. Maybe I'll try to copy these to my new normal.dot and see how that goes. This would cover a lot of macros, although obviously not the newest ones.

If I have to reconstruct some macros, it won't be the end of the world; I just hate to repeat work I've already done in the past. I guess it would be good to backup normal.dot occasionally in case corruption occurs? I noted that the renamed .dot file was at a least a hundred times larger than my new, lean normal.dot file.
Rick