Insert-symbol pop-up does not come up

[aardvark69]

I have just installed Office 2003 on Vista Home (original system on the
laptop, but no opportunity to get new Office yet). Some features don't appear
to work. Of particular importance to me is the availability of symbols and
special characters. The menu item is where it is supposed to be, but the
pop-up does not appear. Other Insert menu items appear to work (picture,
equation). Is this a Vista problem or is there a flag that can be set?

 

[Beth Melton]

I have just installed Office 2003 on Vista Home (original system on the
laptop, but no opportunity to get new Office yet). Some features don't
appear
to work. Of particular importance to me is the availability of symbols and
special characters. The menu item is where it is supposed to be, but the
pop-up does not appear. Other Insert menu items appear to work (picture,
equation). Is this a Vista problem or is there a flag that can be set?

Do you have a printer installed? Word uses the printer driver information
for various tasks, such as gathering the list of fonts the printer
recognizes when you access the Symbols dialog box. If you don't have a
printer installed at all then Word can operate with internal printer
information but I'm not sure if that extends to the Symbols dialog box since
the printer driver is queried the first time you access the dialog box in
your current Word session.

If you don’t have one installed, try installing one. Note you do not need a
physical printer attached to install a printer. I usually install an HP
Laser Jet printer for these situations. But if there's a printer you will be
using then install the driver for it instead.

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Melton
What is a Microsoft MVP? http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/gp/mvpfaqs

Guides for the Office 2007 Interface:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/HA102295841033.aspx

 

[aardvark69]

I have a Brother 7820N installed, along with the PDF driver. I can reinstall
them, but, I suspect, the printer is not the problem. After poking around in
Word, I discovered that there is an additional problem--after clicking on
Insert/Symbols, the Tools/Customize menu item becomes disabled. It's possible
other items become disabled as well, but I was struck by this one. So there
is a deep conflict within Word that's causing problems. The application is up
to date and has not shown any other signs of compatibility problems.

 

[Beth Melton]

If you have a printer installed and set as the default then that's probably
not the problem. Your additional details, that menu items are being
disabled, suggests the issue you are encountering could be caused by a
third-party add-in. To see if this is the case, exit Word and restart it
while holding the Ctrl key. Make sure you keep the Ctrl key held down until
you are prompted to start in Safe Mode. When you start Word in Safe Mode you
are using the factory defaults and add-ins/customizations are not loaded. If
you are now able to access the Symbols dialog box then take a look at these
articles for finding and disabling the add-in:

Start with this one and the Resolution section start with "To determine if
you are using global templates or add-ins". (Disregard the symptoms section,
the Resolution steps are applicable)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;555221

If you are still unable to find the add-in after following the Resolution in
the first article then in this article start with the steps provided in the
Resolution section starting with "Method 1" (Like the first, the resolution
steps are applicable):
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;555220

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Melton
What is a Microsoft MVP? http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/gp/mvpfaqs

Guides for the Office 2007 Interface:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/HA102295841033.aspx

 

[aardvark69]

Thanks for all your help. I've used different versions of Word on different
computers and systems in the past and have never encountered this problem.
Running in safe mode indeed allowed the pop-up to appear. However, nothing
showed up under templates and add-ins. I uninstalled all the Microsoft
add-ins that I have previously downloaded, including several compatibility
plug-ins, Cyrillic transliteration module and a couple of others. Still, only
running in safe mode allows for the symbols to work. I also checked for COM
add-ins. None are showing. The problem must be in one of the options that was
reset when I installed Office, but that does not match the safe mode settings.

I could solve the problem by simply installing 2007, but I don't have
installation disks ready and I am working on a deadline. I suppose, I could
just run it in safe mode until I can fix the problem in another way.

 

[Graham Mayor]

See http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm then
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProblemsStartingWord.htm. with
particular attention to the Data ley in the registry and the normal
template.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

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