Tools options empty in Word 2003 1

[ocb]

Have a strange case.

Did a format disk and reinstall everything just before summer. Now, suddenly, when going in to "Tools - Options" in Word, everything is grey and empty. Nothing is there. Tried delete normal.dot without success.

Any idea why tools - options dialouge box is completely empty?

 

[ocb]

PS: Did an uninstall and reinstall on Office as well without success

 

[TonyJollans]

Right click on any toolbar and select Customize. Then (with the dialogue open) right click on Tools in the Menu, and click on Reset.

Enjoy,
Tony

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[ocb]

Nope. Did not do the trick. Still empty Options. Everything in the options dialouge is still empty(all grey, no text-boxes, nothing to show that it really is the options dialouge).

Strange thing, have never seen such an empty dialouge before. Sometimes, the optons are greyed out, to show the user that he/she has no rights to change the options, but here, there are no options, not even grey. Every page in the "Options" dialouge box are flat grey surface, nothing here..

 

[TonyJollans]

Sorry - I misread your post. You get the dialogue, but it's empty; I've never seen anything like that and can't imagine what might cause it.

Are you in a corporate environment where some things are controlled via policies? Does this happen just to you or to all users? Or what?

Enjoy,
Tony

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[ocb]

Yes I am in a corporate. I am the one that controls the policies. No policy overrides my computer.

 

[TonyJollans]

This sounds like corruption somewhere, then. If this has happened since a reinstall, it's presumably not caused by anything that gets installed (although trying a detect and repair is always worthwhile), so I would suggest deleting (or renaming) the Word Data key in the registry (HKCU\Software\Microsoft\11.0\Word\Data)

Enjoy,
Tony

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[HowsLife]

Have you fixed it yet, I have the same problem now as well.

 

[tf1]

Delete the DataKey as explained above.


Regards: tf1

 

[HowsLife]

I deleted the data key and did not solve the problem.

I did solve my problem by closing the Matrox2Go desktop manager.

 

[tf1]

That's a new one for me: so Matrox2Go is incompatible with Office! Thanks for the information.


Regards: tf1

 

[ocb]

Matrox Powerdesk SE did the thing for me as well.

Imagine - Matrox corrupts the Office's Tools Options dialouge box. How strange.

 

[TonyJollans]

Must say that's a new one on me, too.

On occasion I have seen this dialogue slow to load - it comes up grey and then fills in; it's as though Word is taking a long time to gather all the information (and there is quite a lot) needed to decide what tabs are wanted and what controls are put on them. I wonder if the Matrox adapter is grabbing the dialogue before it's completely presented and not recognising the change when it's fully 'displayed'.

Enjoy,
Tony

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[ocb]

In my case, the dialouge box was complete empty. Not a thing, not a text box was there, even after several minutes.

Now - I have upgraded the Matrox P650 display driver from version 2.05 to version 2.06, and that did it for me. Everything is back to normal in my Tools - Options.

Strange thing - have never seen a display driver corrupt Office files before..

 

[romk]

Hi,

I use Word 2003 and just went to Tools>Options and found all the tabs blank - nothing even after waiting 10 mins.

I have done an Office Detect & Repair, and Add/remove Programs>MS Office Pro Ed 2003>Change>Repair but no luck.

I have seen the reference to the Matrox driver issue, so letting you know my system has two Matrox Parhelias (AGP and PCI) video cards driving three screens. A few months back I (foolishly) allowed a Matrox driver update via Windows Update. Things seemed to go OK at the time, but maybe this issue was an unseen (at the time) consequence.

I note the solution offered by Tony above "suggest deleting (or renaming) the Word Data key in the registry (HKCU\Software\Microsoft\11.0\Word\Data)". Sorry guys, but never having messed with the registry I am obviously cautious before I try. I would like to know exactly what I have to do before I do it. Therefore I would greatly appreciate a more precise sxplanation of what is meant by deleting (or renaming) the Word Data Key. I should be able to find the key using regedit, but then what do I do?

Really hoping this can save me from having to do an Office delete/install.

Appreciate your help. Rom

 

[ocb]

Start - run...

regedt32

Enter

Browse in the tree, find current user\software\microsoft\office\11.0\word\data

You can rightclick on the datafolder on the left side of the registry program and choose export, and save a .reg file in case You want it back. Else, rightclick on the datafolder and choose delete. This should be done while Word is not started.

But, if You have the same problem, and have Matrox cards, it could be that causing the problem. If you are not a computer dude, or not knowing how to upgrade the drivers, let some dude from the it dept upgrade the driver..