office documents won't "load"

[t]

Windows XP Pro, Office 2003 Pro... all updates, service packs applied...

When i click on an office document from a folder, e.g., My Documents, it
loads the application (word, excel, powerpoint, etc.) but NOT the document...
blank screen within the application...

If I leave the app running and click again in the folder, the document
loads... If I open the document from within the application using file open,
or the open icon on the toolbar, the documents load...

I've repaired, reinstalled... run registry cleaners before and after repair,
installation and repaired and reinstalled without registry cleaning... I've
checked the "file associations"... same problem...

I have an activated installation... I have macro security settings on low
(tried em all ways)... The problem occurrs on ALL XP users...

I'm at a loss as to how to fix it... Please and thanks !!!

 

[Gyorgy Moldova [MCSE+I, MVP]]

do you have any other office-like applications installed? StarOffice,
SpringOffice, etc?

thx
g

 

[t]

no... nothing at all like that installed...

do you have any other office-like applications installed? StarOffice,
SpringOffice, etc?

thx
g

 

[t]

also... I do have norton system works 2005 with NAV installed, but i have the
office plug in disabled... tried it both ways in fact... if that's any help...

thanks... t

 

[Peter Foldes]

Do you also have MS Works installed by any chance

 

[Beth Melton]

It sounds like you need to recreate the file associations for the
applications. Go to Start/Run and run these commands:

winword /r
excel /regserver
powerpnt /regserver
msaccess /regserver

Note the space before the forward slash.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[t]

Thanks Beth... it worked partially... powerpoint, access, and outlook work
alright... the problem persists in word and excel...

I'm wondering if there's not something in XP Pro that's a factor... some
registry setting...

I'm anxious to try anything...

Thanks,

 

[t]

Thanks Peter... no I don't have MS Works installed... I do have two
applications leftover from Office XP... Front Page and Photo Draw... but they
seem to working OK and haven't been an issue... also... please note my
response to Beth's post... I tried that and it worked so some extent...

Excel and Word seem to be the only applications that aren't working properly
now...

t

 

[Beth Melton]

Occasionally Word and especially Excel can be a little un-cooperative.
;-)

Try removing the file associations completely and then using the
/regserver switch again.

If you don't know how to do this:

1. Open an Exploring windows such as My Computer
2. Go to View/Folder Options
3. Select the File Types tab
4. Find the file type for Excel Worksheets (.xls) and Delete it
5. Do the same for Word Documents (.doc)
6. Go to Start/Run and run:

winword /r
excel /regserver

Note the space before the forward slash.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[t]

Thanks Beth...

Tried it... same result... word and excel can be alot un-cooperative it
seems <sighs>... what's next ?

and super thanks for sticking with this one !!!

t

 

[Echo S]

You don't happen to have any Office utilities/plug-ins/anything like that
installed, do you?

I'm thinking of when I had a similar issue, and I can't swear for sure, but
I think it was related to an Office utility from Pantone. Adobe Acrobat is a
common Office utility. Maybe you have something like that installed?

 

[t]

Echo...

Well this is TOOOOOOOOOOO peculiar... I do have the adobe plug-in... a full
acrobat installation in fact... i toggled the acrobat tool bar in word after
i had executed word from the quick launch tool bar... it opens the standard
document... normal.dot i presume...

and BINGO... word and excel are fixed.... TOOOOOOOOOO WEIRD...

Thanks so much... til next time... t

You don't happen to have any Office utilities/plug-ins/anything like that
installed, do you?

I'm thinking of when I had a similar issue, and I can't swear for sure, but
I think it was related to an Office utility from Pantone. Adobe Acrobat is a
common Office utility. Maybe you have something like that installed?

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

Thanks Beth...

Tried it... same result... word and excel can be alot un-cooperative
it seems <sighs>... what's next ?

and super thanks for sticking with this one !!!

t

 

[Echo S]

woohoo! bada-bing, bada-bing!

You might open Acrobat and check for updates on its Help menu. (Make sure
you have all your Office apps closed when you do this.) It's no guarantee
that an updated version will help, but I think Adobe's particularly bad
about releasing wonky ".0" versions and then fixing stuff in the first
update release. So I *always* install Adobe updates.

 

[t]

Well Guess What... I had the same idead... update adobe... I did... all
office apps closed...

The problem's back <groans>... so I uninstalled acrobat completely, rebuilt
the icon cache, deleted the .xls and .doc file associations and rebuilt
those...

and STILL the problem persists... Nothing's making sense here... I don't
have any other plug-ins or add-ons installed... any other thoughts ???

Thanks... t

woohoo! bada-bing, bada-bing!

You might open Acrobat and check for updates on its Help menu. (Make sure
you have all your Office apps closed when you do this.) It's no guarantee
that an updated version will help, but I think Adobe's particularly bad
about releasing wonky ".0" versions and then fixing stuff in the first
update release. So I *always* install Adobe updates.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

Echo...

Well this is TOOOOOOOOOOO peculiar... I do have the adobe plug-in... a full
acrobat installation in fact... i toggled the acrobat tool bar in word after
i had executed word from the quick launch tool bar... it opens the standard
document... normal.dot i presume...

and BINGO... word and excel are fixed.... TOOOOOOOOOO WEIRD...

Thanks so much... til next time... t

 

[Echo S]

Well Guess What... I had the same idead... update adobe... I did...
all office apps closed...

The problem's back <groans>... so I uninstalled acrobat completely,
rebuilt the icon cache, deleted the .xls and .doc file associations
and rebuilt those...

and STILL the problem persists... Nothing's making sense here... I
don't have any other plug-ins or add-ons installed... any other
thoughts ???

ahhhhhhh, crud.

All Office apps closed, updated Acrobat, and the problem's back?

Uninstalling Acrobat didn't resolve it again? Hm. Wonder if there are some
stray registry entries causing probs.

Oh, maybe see if you have any stray "PDFM" files around. For example, I have
Acrobat 6 here, and there are a number of those files in C:\Program
Files\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat 6.0\

I have PDFMaker.PPA and PDFMakerA.PPA (powerpoint add-in), PDFMaker.DOT and
PDFMakerA.DOT (word), PDFMaker.XLA, PDFMExcel.DLL, PDFMPowerPoint.DLL,
PDFMWord.DLL, PDFMOutlook.dll, AdobePDFMakerX.dll and AdobePDFMakerX.tlb.

Try renaming those to <whatever file name>.PPX or .DXX, etc.

Oh, you know, scratch that. Following the manual removal instructions at
Adobe would be a better thing to do.
http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/[email protected]@.ef9c2cb

Also check the Adobe KB -- perhaps there's something relevant to your
version of Acrobat and Office there.
http://busca.adobe.com/search?site=...trict=Adobe_com_Train&as_epq=Acrobat&q=Office

 

[t]

well <sighs>...

I uninstalled adobe... acrobat... cleansed the registry... I unstalled
Office 2003... cleaned the registry and the My Programs folder... each users
folders, etc. of everything related to adobe, acrobat and office...

I reinstalled Office and the problem STILL persists... only with word and
excel... all the other office apps work fine...

I noticed that the "advanced" settings for edit and open for the file type
..doc after re-install is

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\WINWORD.EXE" /n /dde

the dde message is: [REM _DDE_Direct][FileOpen("%1")]

for .xls it's:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE" /e
[open("%1")]

these are slightly different for each function... open, edit, new, etc...

I'm really at a loss here... I don't think we've hit on it so far... other
ideas would be most welcome !!

Thanks... t

 

[Echo S]

I noticed that the "advanced" settings for edit and open for the file type

.doc after re-install is

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\WINWORD.EXE" /n /dde

the dde message is: [REM _DDE_Direct][FileOpen("%1")]

for .xls it's:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE" /e
[open("%1")]

these are slightly different for each function... open, edit, new, etc...

So what do those settings say for one of the applications that works?

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

well <sighs>...

I uninstalled adobe... acrobat... cleansed the registry... I unstalled
Office 2003... cleaned the registry and the My Programs folder... each users
folders, etc. of everything related to adobe, acrobat and office...

I reinstalled Office and the problem STILL persists... only with word and
excel... all the other office apps work fine...

I noticed that the "advanced" settings for edit and open for the file type
.doc after re-install is

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\WINWORD.EXE" /n /dde

the dde message is: [REM _DDE_Direct][FileOpen("%1")]

for .xls it's:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE" /e
[open("%1")]

these are slightly different for each function... open, edit, new, etc...

I'm really at a loss here... I don't think we've hit on it so far... other
ideas would be most welcome !!

 

[t]

powerpoint says...

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\POWERPNT.EXE" "%1"
no DDE message...

access says

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\MSACCESS.EXE" /NOSTARTUP "%1"
[SetForeground][ShellOpenDatabase "%1"]

All these switches seem to be different... note the following articles...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;291288

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;210565

Thanks for hanging in there with me on this... it's very frustrating... I've
tried some different settings... taking out the /n and /dde, turning off dde,
and they just make word or excel say they can't find the file...

t

I noticed that the "advanced" settings for edit and open for the file type
.doc after re-install is

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\WINWORD.EXE" /n /dde

the dde message is: [REM _DDE_Direct][FileOpen("%1")]

for .xls it's:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE" /e
[open("%1")]

these are slightly different for each function... open, edit, new, etc...

So what do those settings say for one of the applications that works?

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

well <sighs>...

I uninstalled adobe... acrobat... cleansed the registry... I unstalled
Office 2003... cleaned the registry and the My Programs folder... each users
folders, etc. of everything related to adobe, acrobat and office...

I reinstalled Office and the problem STILL persists... only with word and
excel... all the other office apps work fine...

I noticed that the "advanced" settings for edit and open for the file type
.doc after re-install is

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\WINWORD.EXE" /n /dde

the dde message is: [REM _DDE_Direct][FileOpen("%1")]

for .xls it's:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE" /e
[open("%1")]

these are slightly different for each function... open, edit, new, etc...

I'm really at a loss here... I don't think we've hit on it so far... other
ideas would be most welcome !!

 

[Echo S]

All these switches seem to be different... note the following articles...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;291288

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;210565

Yeah, you're right.

Hm. Re-reading...

How did you disable the NAV Office plug-in? Did you disable the actual DLL?

Use Windows Explorer to search for: officeav.dll


If you find it, click Start, click Run and type this:

regsvr32 /u "\officeav.dll"
then click OK

Thanks for hanging in there with me on this... it's very frustrating... I've
tried some different settings... taking out the /n and /dde, turning off dde,
and they just make word or excel say they can't find the file...

It *is* frustrating!

 

[t]

Thanks... I have the file... officeav.dll in a back up folder but i took NAV
OFF my computer thinking that might possibly be the problem... I'm using an
AV called "Freedom" for the time-being as supplied by my ISP... so I didn't
run the suggested command... with Norton gone, that wouldn't help or do
anything... the new AV has no office plug in...

Office and Excel alone are still behaving badly, though not entirely
non-functional... I really don't know what to try next... is there a
"service" that has to be running that I may have disabled ? All my DDE
services are set to "automatic"... Is there a switch ?

Other ideas... ?? THANKS !!!! t