Frustrating Word 2003 Error (Microsoft Office Word 11.0/2003 Professional)

Topic

New Reply

I use Office 2003 Pro, but the other day, I suspect after I installed FrontPage XP (to play with something…I was comparing features to Dreamweaver MX and I have since uninstalled FP XP, btw.) when I started Word, I got this error. First, Windows installer opens up, tries to do something then this window pops up:

Microsoft Office Word 11.0
An error occurred and this feature is no longer functioning properly. Please run Setup and select “Repair…” to restore this application.

Word will finally open, with missing features and all my .doc icons resemble Word XP icons (although I didn’t install Word XP). I can run detect and repair but it ends early with a general “Fatal error” message.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
-Stephen

Reply | Quote

Replies

If Detect and Repair doesn’t work, you are probably faced with an uninstall and reinstall of Office 2003. This type of problem will crop up when multipe versions of Office (or Office components such as FP) are installed on the same computer in the incorrect order and to an incorrect location. See this Knowledge Base search.

Reply | Quote

Ahhh…what a bummer.
Thank you for your help John!
-Stephen

Reply | Quote

John,
Would you know what I would find in the registry? I don’t know if you read the entire article, but it’s referring to the way to fix it without uninstalling and reinstalling the entire mess. I’m a bit cautious about uninstalling everything as I’m paranoid all my settings (especially Outlook!) will disappear (and I’ve worked so hard to set them up!). I’m currently here: 2. Locate and then click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionUnInstall.

Thanks!
-Stephen

Reply | Quote

I don’t have Office 2003 handy at the moment. For Office XP (2002) Developer Edition, opened that registry key and arrowed down through the various GUIDs watching the “Display Name” in the right window. These seemed most logical for my installation (first and last 6 places masked fro posting):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionUninstall{XXXXXX09-6000-11D3-8CFE-005004XXXXXX}
DisplayName = Microsoft Office XP Professional with FrontPage

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionUninstall{XXXXXXB2-B9A0-11D3-A528-00A0C9XXXXXX}
DisplayName = Microsoft Office XP Developer – English

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionUninstall{XXXXXXBB-ACFE-11D4-A543-009027XXXXXX}
DisplayName = MOD 10.0 Baseline (English-x86-CD)

(Lots of other fascinating stuff in there, but not very relevant to Office. )

Reply | Quote

Man, I searched every one of the entries in my registry and there isn’t a single one that’s named Office XP, FrontPage, both or anything of the sort. Could they be gone since I already uninstalled FP XP?

Reply | Quote

It does seem logical for the uninstaller to clean out its own “Uninstaller” registry entry. I’m not sure which article you were following, but it appears that whatever odd situation it addressed, you don’t have that one.

Reply | Quote

Yeah, it was this one: “Information about running multiple versions of Office with Office 2003”

Thanks for your help!
-S

Reply | Quote

John,
I got Word to work again (after uninstallning and reinstalling it) but now the icons are missing from my doc files and it now has a few weird setting under options that it didn’t have before. Japanese find and asian typography are now included (I’m attaching a small pic) for some reason.
Thanks in advance for any assistance you can lend!
-Stephen

Reply | Quote

I would suspect that somehow Japanese has been set as one of the languages that Word uses. To get rid of these extra tabs in the Options panel, close Word. Then, Start>All Programs>Microsoft Office>Microsoft Office Tools>Microsoft Ofice 2003 Language Settings, highlight the Japanese Language and Remove. The next time Word opens, these extra options should not be available. As for the missing icons, you may want to try some of the suggestions in Phil’s Systematic Approach to Behavioral Problems in Word.

Reply | Quote

You saved the day! (my hero!)

THANK YOU!
-Stephen

Reply | Quote

Sorry Stephen, I don’t know the answer . Perhaps someone else can shed some light.

Reply | Quote

Well thanks anyhoo!

Reply | Quote