Word crashes when accessing Help

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[CWBillow]

All the Office apps work fine — until I need to use “Help”.  Then it hangs during the loading of the Help file(s) and this is for all the apps.

How to fix this?  I know I can reinstall, but as I don’t know the cause, what’s to prevent a recurrence?

Info:  I just ran the Office 365 install program.  All the modules work, except for the accessing of Help.  None of the modules can load Help without crashing.

Chuck Billow

• This topic was modified 1 month ago by CWBillow.

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Office Help function requires an internet connection and a couple settings to load when clicked.
If you click Help without an internet connection it will “hang” trying to open because it is waiting on an internet connection to be made.

If you click Help and get a message: “This command isn’t available: Your organization’s administrator turned off the service required to use this feature”
then you have one or both of the following Privacy Settings (File>Options>General tab>Privacy Settings) unchecked:

All connected experiences
Experiences that download online content

Both must be checked for Help to work.

If Help hangs with an Internet connection and the above settings are checked, then I would look for other software (firewall or AV) preventing the Internet connection.

HTH, Dana:))

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CWBillow

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And it won’t load if I start in Safe Mode, either, Dana.  I’ll keep looking…

Chuck Billow

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In situations like this, I would:

Make sure all office apps are closed.
Turn off your AV software.
Open Word and launch Help.
No matter the results turn your AV software back on.

This tests to see if the AV software is blocking the Help connection.

I would repeat the process with momentarily disabling the Firewall to see if it is blocking the Help internet connection.

I would do these tests only if you know how to turn your security software off and on and if you feel comfortable doing so.

HTH, Dana:))

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Have you restricted access to MS servers, maybe via the HOSTS file?
Does your AV restrict web access?

cheers, Paul

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Paul, no restrictions.

Chuck Billow

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I just went over the settings again and made sure they were set as Dana instructed.  No go as yet.
“Application error: a client-side exception has occurred (see the browser console for more information).

And I tried restarting with all startup progs turned off…still the same error.

Chuck Billow

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CWBillow wrote:

Application error: a client-side exception has occurred (see the browser console for

That’s a web browser error. Try disabling extensions, e.g. ad-blockers:

Fix Application error A client-side exception has occurred on Chrome

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I get/got the error on both Edge and Chrome with all extensions disabled.  Harrumph!

Chuck Billow

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That didn’t help.  Disabled, rebooted.  Same error.  And I’ve seen several on the same error Ib various groups.

[Moderator edit] removed short link. Please use the full link so forum users can see exactly where you are sending them.

Chuck Billow

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I suppose what I need to do is go back before my Office install and restore, then reinstall Office.

But that certainly is a pain!

Edit:

Isn’t there some way to test the Office Help aside form just accessing it?  It would {possibly) save me a ton of time to know!

Edit 2:

I changed my browser from Chrome to Edge, but that didn’t do it either.  Sigh…

Chuck Billow

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