Word cannot save anything

[David Trimboli]

I've got a computer running Word 2007 that cannot save anything. I see a
lot of people on the Internet have reported many of the same symptoms I
have, but none have received good answers.

This computer runs Windows XP Professional SP3 and Office 2007
Enterprise. Both Office and Windows are licensed and have been installed
for a long time. The computer is a member of a domain, and the users
have domain accounts and roaming profiles. The computer is up to date
with the latest Office and Windows updates.

When a standard user running Word tries to Save or Save As, whether
through toolbar buttons, keyboard shortcuts, or menus, nothing happens.
No errors, nada. When the user tries to close Word, it asks to save the
document, and after Yes, nothing happens. If you click No, the document
closes, but Word remains open. If you try to close Word again, you get a
warning: "Changes have been made that affect the global template,
Normal.dotm. Do you want to save those changes?" Again, if you click
Yes, nothing happens. If you click No, Word closes.

An administrator of the computer can run Word and save things normally.
Likewise, running winword.exe /a lets a standard user save normally.
This problem does not happen to other Office programs, just Word.

We renamed normal.dotm, but there has been no change, and Word is unable
to create a new normal.dotm. We have disabled the COM Add-Ins without
effect. We have repaired and uninstalled and reinstalled Office to no
avail. There is nothing in the Word startup folder. We have checked the
file paths in Word, and they are correct.

 

[Terry Farrell]

If it works in Safe Mode (the /a switch), there is nothing wrong with Word,
so it is almost certainly an incompatible third party add-in causing the
problem. Check for add-ins, particularly anything in the Word (or Office)
Startup folders.

 

[David Trimboli]

If it works in Safe Mode (the /a switch), there is nothing wrong with
Word, so it is almost certainly an incompatible third party add-in
causing the problem. Check for add-ins, particularly anything in the
Word (or Office) Startup folders.

As stated before, I did check for anything in the Word startup folder. I
can find no Office startup folder. I also said I disabled the COM
add-ins, but I don't see any other kind of add-in that can be disabled.

 

[Terry Farrell]

OK. Try this.

That's a symptom of a Word Data Key corruption - usually because Word has
been running when updates are installed.

Run Regedit and expand by double-clicking to the key below. With DATA
selected, press DELETE. Word will automatically recreate a new key when it
is restarted.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data

Symptoms of Data Key corruption include:

. The mouse does not work when you use Word.
. You cannot open a Word document from the Search window in Windows
Vista.
. You cannot open a Word document from Windows Desktop Search.
. Word crashes when you try to start or exit Word.
. Word crashes when you open the Open dialog box.
. Word crashes when you save a document.
. Word crashes when you close a document.

If you feel uncomfortable editing the registry yourself, Microsoft have a
fix that will do this for you.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940791 and press FixIt

 

[David Trimboli]

OK. Try this.

That's a symptom of a Word Data Key corruption - usually because Word has
been running when updates are installed.

Run Regedit and expand by double-clicking to the key below. With DATA
selected, press DELETE. Word will automatically recreate a new key when it
is restarted.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data

Symptoms of Data Key corruption include:

. The mouse does not work when you use Word.
. You cannot open a Word document from the Search window in Windows
Vista.
. You cannot open a Word document from Windows Desktop Search.
. Word crashes when you try to start or exit Word.
. Word crashes when you open the Open dialog box.
. Word crashes when you save a document.
. Word crashes when you close a document.

If you feel uncomfortable editing the registry yourself, Microsoft have a
fix that will do this for you.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940791 and press FixIt

Tried that too, even though that's a per-user fix and not a per-machine
fix.

 

[Terry Farrell]

I'm not sure what you should do next.

It works when an Admin logs in.
It works in Safe Mode when a User is logged in.

What is the difference between the Admin's profile and the Users' profiles
(other than permissions)? Are the admin's and users' settings such that they
are pointing to different default file location or different template
locations? Maybe they don't have permissions to use a particular network
folder: starting in Safe Mode bypasses the file location setting so they are
using the same default setting as the admin? It has to be something along
those lines. Or the users have an addin that the admins don't.

Terry

 

[David Trimboli]

I'm not sure what you should do next.

It works when an Admin logs in.
It works in Safe Mode when a User is logged in.

What is the difference between the Admin's profile and the Users'
profiles (other than permissions)? Are the admin's and users' settings
such that they are pointing to different default file location or
different template locations?

Not necessarily. I can reproduce these symptoms with a new, local,
non-administrator account. There are no policies that affect this and
not the administrator, and no special files for one that do not appear
for the other.

Maybe they don't have permissions to use a
particular network folder: starting in Safe Mode bypasses the file
location setting so they are using the same default setting as the
admin? It has to be something along those lines. Or the users have an
addin that the admins don't.

All the same.

Here is the list of add-ins found for all users:


Active Application Add-ins
--------------------------
Acrobat PDFMaker Office COM Addin (COM Add-in)
Office Genuine Advantage Add-in (COM Add-in)
Person Name (Outlook e-mail recipients) (Smart Tag)

Inactive Application Add-ins
----------------------------
Custom XML Data (Document Inspector)
Date (Smart tag lists) (Smart Tag)
Financial Symbol (Smart tag lists) (Smart Tag)
Headers, Footers, and Watermarks (Document Inspector)
Hidden Text (Smart Tag)
Measurement Converter (Measurement Converter) (Smart Tag)
Telephone Number (Smart tag lists) (Smart Tag)
Time (Smart tag lists) (Smart Tag)


I have already eliminated the three active application add-ins as
causes, since I have disabled these and still seen the problem (and even
uninstalled Acrobat to test). The others don't seem to be things that
can be disabled, and they're all by Microsoft.

 

[Terry Farrell]

Try removing PDFMaker: it has been known to cause problems. I thought it
added a template to the Word Startup folder, but you said that folder is
empty. Maybe PDFMaker has started using some other method of screwing up
Word. Try them for some support.

Terry

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Recent versions of Acrobat use a COM add-in, I gather.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

Try removing PDFMaker: it has been known to cause problems. I thought it
added a template to the Word Startup folder, but you said that folder is
empty. Maybe PDFMaker has started using some other method of screwing up
Word. Try them for some support.

Terry

 

[David Trimboli]

Try removing PDFMaker: it has been known to cause problems. I thought it
added a template to the Word Startup folder, but you said that folder is
empty. Maybe PDFMaker has started using some other method of screwing up
Word. Try them for some support.

Yes, I tried completely uninstalling Acrobat. No good.

 

[Terry Farrell]

Make sure it has removed the addin from Word (Office). There is obviously
still something active.

Terry

 

[David Trimboli]

I've got a computer running Word 2007 that cannot save anything. I see a
lot of people on the Internet have reported many of the same symptoms I
have, but none have received good answers.

This computer runs Windows XP Professional SP3 and Office 2007
Enterprise. Both Office and Windows are licensed and have been installed
for a long time. The computer is a member of a domain, and the users
have domain accounts and roaming profiles. The computer is up to date
with the latest Office and Windows updates.

When a standard user running Word tries to Save or Save As, whether
through toolbar buttons, keyboard shortcuts, or menus, nothing happens.
No errors, nada. When the user tries to close Word, it asks to save the
document, and after Yes, nothing happens. If you click No, the document
closes, but Word remains open. If you try to close Word again, you get a
warning: "Changes have been made that affect the global template,
Normal.dotm. Do you want to save those changes?" Again, if you click
Yes, nothing happens. If you click No, Word closes.

An administrator of the computer can run Word and save things normally.
Likewise, running winword.exe /a lets a standard user save normally.
This problem does not happen to other Office programs, just Word.

We renamed normal.dotm, but there has been no change, and Word is unable
to create a new normal.dotm. We have disabled the COM Add-Ins without
effect. We have repaired and uninstalled and reinstalled Office to no
avail. There is nothing in the Word startup folder. We have checked the
file paths in Word, and they are correct.

It looks like the problem went away on its own, magically. I hate that.