Word 2003 crashes opening one rtf file for one user

[Philip Herlihy]

My friend is a technical editor for medical journals. She's running as
a member of the Administrators group on a Win2K SP4 machine, running
Word 2003 sp3.

Most rtf documents open without incident. This file (and a couple of
others from the same source) crash Word.

The example file on which I've been concentrating opens successfully
from within the Adminstrator account. It also opens from within the
user account if Word is run in Safe mode - Word reports there is an
error in the file: "Numbered Styles 1" (?).

I've tried renaming Normal.dot to Normal.dot.old. I've tried Detect &
Repair.

This user is nobody's fool but is disconcerted by the crash. Although
we have a workaround (safe mode) I'd rather leave her so that Word can
open these files without crashing, as it can when run in the
Administrator account.

Any ideas?

Phil, London

 

[macropod]

Hi Philip,

The fact all the problem files are from the same source suggests there's a problem with the way that source generates RTF files.

Similarly, the fact your Admin account opens up the file OK, but a member of the Administrators group can't suggests there's an
issue with that group's Word setup. Is that group's Word installation fully updated? For example, an update released in December
2008 addressed security issues with RTF files. See: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms08-072.mspx

 

[Philip Herlihy]

Hi Philip,

The fact all the problem files are from the same source suggests there's
a problem with the way that source generates RTF files.

Similarly, the fact your Admin account opens up the file OK, but a
member of the Administrators group can't suggests there's an issue with
that group's Word setup. Is that group's Word installation fully
updated? For example, an update released in December 2008 addressed
security issues with RTF files. See:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms08-072.mspx

Thanks, Macropod; the files come from an overseas group and there's
little chance of changing the way they do things, apparently.

I need to address the updating issue - for some reason IE6 (this is a
Win2K machine, otherwise working well) hangs when running Windows
Update, and I'm waiting for an opportunity to fix it (I connect remotely
using VNC). I'll see that the update you mention is applied, come
what may.

I can't fathom why one user (Administrator) on the machine can open the
file and another can't!

Phil

 

[Philip Herlihy]

Thanks, Macropod; the files come from an overseas group and there's
little chance of changing the way they do things, apparently.

I need to address the updating issue - for some reason IE6 (this is a
Win2K machine, otherwise working well) hangs when running Windows
Update, and I'm waiting for an opportunity to fix it (I connect remotely
using VNC). I'll see that the update you mention is applied, come what
may.

I can't fathom why one user (Administrator) on the machine can open the
file and another can't!

Phil

I did get Windows Update working and fully updated office, but the file
still crashes Word. Only happens with an occasional file, so we'll live
with it for now.

Phil