Word 2007 mouse won't work in document; crash on exit

[FredC]

During the night, a Windows update was applied. Today, Word 2007 will not
work properly. One odd behavior: the mouse will not work within the document
(i.e., it cannot highlight text or move to a place in a document), but it
works in the menus. Also, Word crashes on exit. The first time it restarts,
then it stops working and the program must be closed. Any ideas?

 

[Terry Farrell]

Delete the Word DataKey as it sounds as though it has corrupted.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\version number\Word\Data

 

[Kathi Mc]

I can't seem to get it to delete. When I follow the staps and get to delete
the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\version number\Word\Data the
delete button is unhighlighted. ANy suggestions?? I am goin gcrazy!

 

[Terry Farrell]

Were all Office apps closed at the time? try a reboot and then run Regedit.
If you are using Vista, make sure you run it in Admin mode.

Terry

 

[MarioGian]

Thanks for your reply Terry; however, I have deleted the Word Data Key
alreday 3 times. It always happens when I'm away from the office and I am
rushed back to delete the Word Data Key as they get stuck in the middle of a
document.
I understand that the Word Data Key can become corrupt due to an automatic
update or something else, but why has it happened already 3 times in that
last two months?
I read somewhere else that I may need to update my mouse driver as Office
2007 has issues with some Mouse Drivers and Printer Drivers.
So far all I seen as a solution is deleting the Word Data key, but having to
do it over and over again is just not acceptable.
Is there any chance it could be my mouse? Windows Vista has alreday supplied
updates to the mouse and the display driver several times.
Do you think I should just change the mouse? I don't see how that would
affect Word 2007 but after 3 times of having the same problem, I am looking
for a permanent solution.
I also tried uninstalling and reisntalling Office 2007 but it reinstalled
with all the same settings it had before, almost as if left all kinds of
traces behind so it was a waste of time.

 

[Terry Farrell]

The only suspected reason that I know of is have automatic updates set to
install whilst leaving Word running when away from the computer. But having
never experienced the problem, I have been unable to diagnose it.

 

[MarioGian]

Yes; I beleive Word was running when Windows applied update.
Word is always running for most of the day. It is what the PC is used for.
Funny thing is, Automatic Updates had been set to only notify and not
download or install updates unless user chose to, but somehow Windows reset
itself to install automatic updates anyway.
Have seen same problem with XP, where even though is set to not download or
install updates until user decides to do so, it resets itself and it installs
and reboots PC anyway.
Even seen a lawsuit against Microsoft because of this autoupdate feature
taking over the PC and restarting PC and causing hours of lost work.
Even if Word wasn't running Outlook would be running all day just to monitor
e-mail coming in.
The PC should not be a slave to what these Auto Updates do.
I have experienced it myself while having extensive work on my PC and
falling asleep late at night and Auto Update restarting my machine and losing
all my work.
I am just wondering about what was shared by another user (below):

"If Word is asking you if you wish to load 'normal' then the chances are that
you have a duplicate of the normal template in the Word of Office startup
folder - http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProblemsStartingWord.htm. will
show you how to locate those folders and provides a list of problem solving
techniques..

If Word does not see a normal template in the user templates folder, it will
attempt to create one when it starts. If you don't allow it to save that
template when you close Word, then the created template is deleted until
next time.

Ensure that you delete all unwanted temporary files with Word and Outlook
closed and preferably after a reboot.
http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm

You *may* need to update your mouse driver and you *may* need to update your
printer driver as Word 2007 appears to have issues with some examples of
either."

 

[Terry Farrell]

Some of that information is badly flawed.

Word does not actually need a normal.dot. When normal.dot is deleted or
renamed, Word will start in its default install condition. Normal.dot is not
required or created until a change is made that needs to be saved to
normal.dot (such as default font, page setup, etc.). To suggest that Word
creates a new normal.dot when it cannot find one on opening is pure bunkum
and illustrates a lack of understanding of how Word operates.

It certainly has no relevance to your problems. The mouse mis-function is
usually the result of a bad add-in or a registry corruption. The crash on
exit is usually a bad add-in or the printer driver (and lately HP printer
drivers have been notorious for this bug).

Terry

 

[MarioGian]

Thanks Terry;
One less thing to worry about with the normal.dots
Mouse and Keyboard are HP wireless. One thing that was asked was if this is
happening to a lot of people with wireless mice.
There is also one add-in installed which I have been thinking about removing.
Classic menu 2003 from addintools.com which gives word 2007 a 2003 button
look.
I was also wondering if this program could be causing word data to get
corrupted when installing update.

 

[RoddyP]

The mouse mis-function is
usually the result of a bad add-in or a registry corruption. The crash on
exit is usually a bad add-in or the printer driver (and lately HP printer
drivers have been notorious for this bug).

Here's another data point for you that may contradict that. My Word 2007 had
exactly the same fault this morning (clicking in document not working,
appcrash on exit)

I had only one addin installed (Snagit) which hasn't changed for months.
But, Word could have been open when Windows updates were recently applied.

The first "fix" I found told me to set the LoadBehaviour registry for my
Addin to zero. This fixed the "click in document not working", but Word still
crashed on exit.

After more googling I renamed the "Data" key as described earlier. This DID
FIX the crash on exit.

Hope that's useful.
- Roddy

 

[Terry Farrell]

Roddy

I'll not argue against renaming (or deleting) the DataKey because that is a
common cause of mouse problems.

But in this instance, if you read the start of this thread you will see that
it was my first posted solution and it didn't work

Terry

 

[RoddyP]

But in this instance, if you read the start of this thread you will see that
it was my first posted solution and it didn't work

I think you do yourself a disservice ;-)

a: FredC never replied!
b: Kathi Mc said she couldn't delete the key (obviously permissions, I guess)
c: MarioGian said he was having to delete the key often - which, if it
wasn't resolving a problem he wouldn't be doing...
d: It worked for me!

My point was that it seems registry corruption can also cause the crash at
exit, and deleting the DATA key *may* fix that.

Regards,
Roddy

 

[Terry Farrell]

Thanks for pointing this out Roddy. I hadn't noted that so many different
users were 'borrowing' the thread!

Terry