Word opens Reviewing toolbar when I open someone else's document

[Outlook User]

Problem: I normally like to have only the standard and formatting
toolbars open. If I open something written by someone else, the
reviewing toolbar shows up. I can't find a way to prevent this
behavior. Any ideas?

MS: if you are reading this, I tried to submit this issue on your
website, but to make a suggestion, I have to get a Microsoft Passport.
I have no desire to get one of these, since it is used almost
nowhere, and since it requires me to give data to MS that I would
rather MS not have. You should make it easy, and not a potential
invasion of our privacy, for us to give you feedback to improve your
products.

Thanks,
Michael

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

See http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=221. Also
note that you can submit suggestions to Microsoft at
http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp. A Passport is required
only to make suggestions that other users can read and vote on. Microsoft is
committed to a response on such suggestions that get sufficient reader
response. You will not get a response to a suggestion posted through the Web
form.

 

[Beth Melton]

Take a look at this article for the reason the Reviwing toolbar surfaces and
a workaround:
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=221


Note if you do not want to permanatly disable the Reviewing toolbar when
Word starts using the following AutoOpen macro instead:
Sub AutoOpen()
With CommandBars("Reviewing")
.Visible = False
End With
End Sub

Additionally, Microsoft doesn't review these newsgroups. The requirement to
provide authentication to access the newsgroups is really no different than
creating a user account for posting through Google. To use Passport all you
are required to provide is an email address and password. Heck, it doesn't
even have to be a vaid email address. Now, if you want to recieve
notifications on your posts you need to provide a valid email address.
--
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/

 

[Beth Melton]

And FWIW I posted my previous reply using the web interface on the
Microsoft site and created a new Passport with an email address of
(e-mail address removed). My post went through without any
complaints.

--
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/

 

[Outlook User]

Thanks, Beth. I noted that at the end of your article, you mention
that this problem should be disabled by default in Outlook 2003. I am
using Outlook 2003, but I am obviously experiencing the problem. Can
I change something in Outlook 2003 to avoid this problem without
having to resort to normal.dot macros?

Thanks,
Michael

 

[Beth Melton]

If you are the recipient of the attached documents then unfortunately
there is little you can do except use a macro to suppress the
Reviewing toolbar.

The document attachment contains Custom properties that trigger the
Reviewing toolbar. Open a document that exhibits the behavior and go
to File/Properties and take a look at the Custom properties. It's the
_AdHocReview properties added by Outlook before the document was
emailed.

Personally I don't disable the Reviewing toolbar. If I open a file
attachment and the Reviewing toolbar surfaces I check the File
properties, send an email to the originator of the document which can
be found in the Custom properties, and point them to these articles as
an effort to get the word out on this annoyance:

"Do you want to Merge Changes?"
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=107

"Review Toolbar Annoyance"
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=221

The only way to truly rid ourselves of this issue is to get every
Outlook 2002/2003 user to turn the "Add properties to attachments to
enable Reply with Changes" off.

It's this Outlook option that was turned off by default due to
Personally Identifiable Information (PII). (The 'it's annoying'
argument wasn't doing the trick. Finally the PII argument won them
over. ;-) )

--
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/