Comments on: Can you help fix this problem in MS Word 2003?

Question: Can you help fix this problem in MS Word 2003?

stevejensen — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 11:54:23 -0800

Take a look at this screengrab This is annoying as hell, and here's how I tried to fix:
-Reinstall of Office 2003
-Reinstall of Acrobat 6.5
-Deleted all Adobe PDFMaker.dot files
Then went to the Adobe knowledgebase and found this. Nothing has worked yet. What do you think it is? fyi - This is a Dell PC running XP pro sp1

By: Jack Karaoke

Jack Karaoke — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 12:08:59 -0800

1) Try to keep your front page question brief, and use the "Extended explanation:" box for the details.
2) Explain what the screengrab is, I have to squint to even see that it's Word.
3) The last suggestion in the Adobe page seems like a foolproof solution. It's essentially removing the whole problem, and using a macro to access it when you need it. How does that not work?

Do you use PDFs from Word? Yes: Create macros or a custom toolbar for the commands you use. No: Remove the sucker.

By: SpecialK

SpecialK — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 12:09:01 -0800

Steve - First of all, it's somewhat rude to put that many linebreaks on the front page of AskMe. Please keep the first part to one or two lines and describe your problem as well as you can, and use the "More Inside" for the rest of the problem.

Now, if you just 're-installed', it didn't really fix the problem for a reason: Re-install only replaces SOME files. If you un-install Acrobat and MS Word and then reboot and then empty your trash and otherwise scrub your system, and THEN you install again... it might fix it. if not, wipe your hard drive and then start again from a base install of windows.

Welcome to windows. :-p

By: prostyle

prostyle — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 12:18:04 -0800

After uninstalling your apps search for pdfmaker.dot, usually residing in a few subdirs. Nuke all instances. Reinstall.

By: stevejensen

stevejensen — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 12:19:56 -0800

sorry for the layout, what, no way to edit after I post??

By: Specklet

Specklet — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 12:27:38 -0800

No. That's what the preview button is for.

By: FlamingBore

FlamingBore — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 13:17:26 -0800

And that's also why it's suggested you lurk a while and pay attention to everyone else.

By: Boobus Tuber

Boobus Tuber — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 13:28:20 -0800

I wouldnt completely reinstall windows, that seems like overkill. But if you can, do delete the Program Files\Office directory. When you uninstall or reinstall, it won't overwrite or change files in that directory that were put there by other programs, i.e. Acrobat.

Places to check before you do, though:

View->Toolbars->Customize

Tools-> Templates and Addins

see if there is anything unusual there..

By: SpecialK

SpecialK — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 13:44:39 -0800

Boobus - The reason that I suggested a complete reinstall of windows is that my best guess is that the problem is in one of the shared DLLs, which would be in the C:\Windows\ directory as part of the system.

By: grouse

grouse — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 13:57:03 -0800

What happens when you—

Right-click on the menu bar
Customize...
Right-click on the first Acrobat Comments menu
Delete

?

Also, the file you probably need to delete (but make a backup copy) is Normal.dot. For me, it's in C:\Documents and Settings\grouse\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates.

By: jasper411

jasper411 — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 14:13:24 -0800

Wow, that's strange! FWIW, I saw 2 postings about people having this problem here. No answers were posted, but maybe you could email them and see if they were able to fix it?

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 16:00:24 -0800

"Boobus - The reason that I suggested a complete reinstall of windows is that my best guess is that the problem is in one of the shared DLLs, which would be in the C:\Windows\ directory as part of the system."

Oh, good lord. Stop giving computer advice. Really. Just. stop.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 17:26:06 -0800

Um, this looks like a simple problem in the toolbar customization, which in Windows is either a .ini buried somewhere in Documents&Settings/YourID/blah or, more likely, is an archaic registry setting. There shouldn't be any reason to reinstall the program, let alone your entire operating system!

Right click on the toolbar and customize it. Try turning off all the options. Or better yet, click and hold down the utmost left part of the toolbar and DRAG it off the window. Your mouse should change from a pointer to a cross-pointer before you drag it, signalling that you CAN drag it. This will remove the toolbar and make it a floating window. See what happens and get back to us.

By: SparkyPine

SparkyPine — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 18:34:39 -0800

I would try starting word in "safe mode" by typing "winword /s" in the Start>Run box (without the quotations). This bypasses your "normal.dot" template file. If it works then find and delete that and start Word normally. It will recreate the template file and you'll live happily ever after. If it doesn't work then...see above posts.

By: grouse

grouse — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 01:41:43 -0800

SparkyPine: hmmm, normal.dot, that sounds familiar.