Word hangs when pasting any copied HTML material.

[Robert]

Hello everyone, The title says it all. Any attempt at directly pasting
HTML (however short) from the Clipboard into Word causes the
Application to hang. It has to be closed down with Task Manager. I
can paste Word docs into Word and I can paste HTML into Wordpad or
Notepad and then reCopy and Paste into Word without problem - except
that I lose the formatting in Notepad. Annoyingly, I cannot add pieces
of text together by using the multiple copy/paste facilities of Word,
so the workarounds are tedious.
Could I do a Repair Install? I don't know how to do this. And would I
lose any data or settings, the Normal template or (especially) home-
made Macros? Any other suggestions would be gratefully received.
Thank in advance.
Robert.

 

[Robert]

Sorry, I should have added that I have WinXP Home edition and use Word
2002 as part of Works Suite 7.0 though it starts independently of
Works. I do not have Office.
Anybody interested??? Thanks,
Robert.

 

[Robert]

Hello Val, thanks for your kind response. If all else fails I'll try
Firefox, but there is still hope.
I've done further research on these newsgroups and discovered
"microsoft.public.word.application.errors" of which I had never
heard. There I found two posts by Beth Melton MVPS in 2002 and 2004
using a search on "Clipboard Problems." In case anyone else is having
these problems, I summarize Beth's detailed posts as follows:-

1) Check the Firewall is not stopping Word's access to the net. It
copies HTML direct from the website and needs access.
2) Delete all temporary files on the system, AND "Owner files" like "~
$filename.doc"
3) Turn off "Fast Saves" as these leave garbage behind.
4) Clean up using the maintenance procedure at this website:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/LockedFiles.htm

I'm still working through these but am confident of eventual success -
there are hundreds of *.tmp files for starters.
Thanks again for your interest. I'll bear Firefox in mind.
Robert.

 

[Robert]

In case anybody else is following this near-monologue, the problem was
instantly solved by attending to item (1) in the list above. I
examined the "program" settings of Zone Alarm and found that no access
to the Web had been granted to Word. On fixing this and testing, Hey
Presto!, I can paste HTML into Word documents again. (Incidentely,
Val, a pageful of HTML only takes about 3 seconds to paste.)
Having got the Paste facility back, I will examine the other possible
"causes" very carefully, set a System Restore Point, and see what
happens. Rejoice!
Thanks again, Val.
Robert.