MS Word Will Not Start

[jag1706]

MS Word will not start. Clicking on a MS Word doc object icon starts MS Word but then hangs at that initial MS Word screen with the hour glass.

I am using Word from MS Office 2000 installed locally with Admin rights on a Win2K client.

I CAN start MS Word - thanks to an post by MIZ - only when I use a modified "shortcut" I created. This shortcut has had it's properties modified to include the switch /A like such: C:\...\Office\WINWORD.EXE /A .

However, I can not figure out how to introduce this switch to the non shortcut EXE - the original Winword.EXE file located at C:\Program Files\Microsoft office\Office\Winword.Exe. Thus, the user must always launch Word using the modified shortcut on the desktop to view, edit or create a DOC.

Here's how I am trying to do it:

I go into Windows Explorer, tree walk through the Office 2000 directory till I find Winword.Exe. I right click on Winword.Exe, view it's properties and see in the General tab the field that includes WINWORD. It is here I am trying to add the switch /A, just like I modified the shortcut that works. I can insert the /A switch but all attempts to execute it after inserting the switch gets an error "A file name can not contain any of the following characters: /, \, :, *...."

I've put the /A switch inside the quotes, outside the quotes, removed the quotes, added spaces, no spaces...

Note: I did not get this error when i included the /A switch to the shortcut.

Q: How do I get that /A switch to be accepted? Where do I put it? I want Word to start whenever the user clicks on a Doc file.

jag1706

 

[jrbarnett]

I think that you have a corrupted NORMAL.DOT file. Normal.dot is the word template that defines the default page layout in your setup.

Try the following:
Ensure Word is closed
Go to start -> Search -> normal.dot on all hard drives.
Let search do its work
Rename every occurrence of NORMAL.DOT to ABNORMAL.DOT
Start word by double clicking a shortcut or document and see what happens.

Note: Starting word after renaming all the old files will create a new NORMAL.DOT file. If you have any custom macros, templates etc, use the macro organiser to copy them over from the old file to the new one.

John

 

[jag1706]

John, Looks like you are right.

I found a KB article at the MS web site that covers this. I also found a site called

http://WWW.TheOfficeExperts.Com

that says reinstalling MS word does not recreate a fresh new version of Normal.Dot. So each reinstall I did just left the same old hidden and corrupt Normal.Dot file to halt the MS Word start up. ("Why you little!&quot

I will unhide and rename Normal.Dot and update this thread later this week.

Thanks for the help, Jag1706