Word won't open

[Bench87]

Hi,

 

I'm having trouble getting Word to open.

I originally had Office 2003 installed and out of nowhere Word stopped opening my documents. I tried repairing it with no success so eventually installed Office 2007. Still, every other programme will open except Word!

I've updated my Works Suite, tried repairing the programme several times with no success, checked Windows update to see if anything linked to Word was out of date and looked everywhere on the Microsoft Support site for a solution.

Word's the only programme I use so it's starting to cause some problems not being able to get onto it!

 

Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!

[PseFrank]

This may or may not help you but I'm assuming that your copy of Word 2007 is a legitimate copy with a paid for licence.

 

Has Word 2007 ever worked on your computer? Or have you only just installed it?

 

A couple of things you could try (If you haven't already) are Microsoft's Office 2007 own diagnostic tool or failing that, a System Restore.

 

Microsoft Office Diagnostics

Go...Start > All Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Tools > Microsoft Office Diagnostics

 

Follow the prompts given and see how that goes.

 

 

And if Word 2007 has recently worked for you you could try a system restore.

 

 

System Restore

Go...Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore

 

Sorry I cannot be of more help.....

[Bench87]

My word is legit yeah. Office 2007 wasn't originally installed on this computer, 2003 was. I installed it when Word 2003 wouldn't open, thinking it might fix the problem, but it didn't!

 

I've tried Office diagnostics several times with no luck. Also tried system restore and haven't got anywhere with that either!

 

I'm totally clueless about what else I can try.

[RandyL]

Does Word open with a blank page? If so then it may be a normal.dot file problem.

[PseFrank]

I've been having a look round and found this....

 

Troubleshooting Microsoft Word

 

I can't be responsible for the accuracy of the information I've linked to as I've not tried it myself. But the section near the beginning headed "If word is not launching for you at all" etc, etc. made for interesting reading. I'd suggest you try that.

 

Have you tried reinstalling Office 2007. And also is Office 2003 still on your computer?

[Dalo Harkin]

Are you trying to launch word from start>all programs>MS Office 2007>Word

 

or are you trying to open a document you know is in word format?

if you are doing the latter then you can right click on the document and select OPEN WITH, then select WORD. If this does not work then you have a problem with either the document itself (unlikely as Office 2007 has a compatibility built in to open 2003 docs, 2003 however cannot open documents created by 2007.

[Bench87]

Still no luck!

 

I've gone through everything on that troubleshooting page with no success - moved everything in the startup folder and it still wouldn't open. Searched for ~*.doc/dot documents and not found any to delete, tried opening it through run.

 

I've tried open Word through all programmes and by trying to open a file - neither work. I'm assuming it's not a problem with the files being 2003 and trying to open in 2007 as I was having the same problem when I still had 2003 - that's why I installed 2007!

 

It won't even open with a blank page...the word start up picture comes up then the error message straight away. It won't even open in safe mode.

 

I wonder if there are any additional installation files that might be corrupt but I have no idea where/what they might be!

[RandyL]

If you are looking for the normal.dot file you will have to show hidden files and systems files first.

 

Control Panel>Folder Options>View

 

Uncheck hide>Apply>OK

 

Do a SEARCH for normal.dot

 

It should be in Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates

 

Since 2007 didn't solve the problem you might want to backstep and uninstall that or System Restore to before you installed it. One step at a time.

[Synapse]

Do you use Outlook?

 

If not you can uninstall all of your Office products.. Even after uninstall some junk is left over. Restart after each uninstall.

 

Then navigate to the Program Files folder and delete any Office folders, do the same in the folder RandyL posted.

 

Also, at that point I would do a single registry clean with CCleaner and make sure you do the backup before removing the entries. Reason being that the uninstall does leave junk behind that may affect your Office functionality.

 

I know the forum says don't use reg cleaners, and I agree and at this point I think it a clean is worth the 'very' minimal risk.

 

Then, do a restart again and create a new user account, an admin one at that, log on to that account, restart, then install just Office 2007 on from that new account, restart and try Word.

 

If it still does not work, have a look in the Event Log, Applications log, that should reference the attempt to start Word and give you a description of the reason why it wouldn't start.