When advance editing a signature it opens Notepad & I want Word

[JC]

I went to Control panel and Word is chosen as my editor. In Outlook I have
Word checked.

When I click on advanced edit - opens notepad.

Help Please

 

[Roady [MVP]]

The Advanced Editor for signatures has nothing to do with your email editor.
It opens your signature in your default HTML editor.
You can change your default HTML editor in Control Panel-> Internet
Options-> tab Programs

 

[Brian Tillman]

The Advanced Editor for signatures has nothing to do with your email
editor. It opens your signature in your default HTML editor.
You can change your default HTML editor in Control Panel-> Internet
Options-> tab Programs

I'm going to jump in on this. I have Word specified there and Notepad still
opens. Now, I don't mind that because I want to use Notepad for any HTML I
write, but I've wondered about it for some time.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Yes, there is a corruption somewhere and a duplicate registry key. I came
across this once a couple of years ago in an Outlook 2003/Windows XP
configuration. You can use this key to overrule the system's default HTML
editor for a single user or set it to an editor that doesn't register itself
as an HTML editor.

I'm not sure if I documented this key somewhere but I'll look into it.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Ok, found it.
Check the editor specified in this registry key;
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Shared\HTML\Default
Editor\shell\edit\command

I bet you have Notepad specified there and not Word.
Simply delete the entire "Default Editor" hive or if that is the only option
specified, you can delete the entire "Share" hive.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I bet you have Notepad specified there and not Word.
Simply delete the entire "Default Editor" hive or if that is the only
option specified, you can delete the entire "Share" hive.

This is the value defined in that key:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\WINWORD.EXE" /n /dde

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Just to be clear;
Notepad only opens when editing your signature via Advanced Editor and Word
opens when editing an htm-file?

Does the key I gave you also exist in;
-HKLM
-HK_U\.DEFAULT
-in the policy regkeys?

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Default HTML
Editor]
and
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Default HTML Editor]

Are these both set to winword.exe?

It's fun digging in the registry ;-)

 

[Brian Tillman]

Just to be clear;
Notepad only opens when editing your signature via Advanced Editor
and Word opens when editing an htm-file?
Correct.

Does the key I gave you also exist in;
-HKLM
-HK_U\.DEFAULT
-in the policy regkeys?

The HKLM equivalent contains

"C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org1.0.3\program\soffice.exe" -o "%1"

However, HLKM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared\HTML\Old Default
Editor\shell\Edit\command does contain a reference to Notepad, do perhaps
that's what's cauing it.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Default HTML
Editor]

"C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org1.0.3\program\soffice.exe" -o "%1"

and
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Default HTML
Editor]

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\WINWORD.EXE" /n /dde

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Interesting. Never came across the "Old Default Editor" key. I assume
OpenOffice is still installed?

The keys are quite conflicting with each other. You can spent quite some
time trying to find out in which order IE and Outlook look at those keys and
which one ultimately wins (the first or last one it looks at). From the look
of things; they both have a different algorithm. There must be other keys in
play as well because even when I delete all the keys I've found so far, it
still opens up an editor without spitting an error to me. In my case it
ultimately opens up Word while I would expect it to fall back to Notepad IF
it had a fallback option already. Time to fire up RegMon some time I think
;-)

Just to be clear;
Notepad only opens when editing your signature via Advanced Editor
and Word opens when editing an htm-file?
Correct.

Does the key I gave you also exist in;
-HKLM
-HK_U\.DEFAULT
-in the policy regkeys?

The HKLM equivalent contains

"C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org1.0.3\program\soffice.exe" -o "%1"

However, HLKM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared\HTML\Old Default
Editor\shell\Edit\command does contain a reference to Notepad, do perhaps
that's what's cauing it.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Default HTML
Editor]

"C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org1.0.3\program\soffice.exe" -o "%1"

and
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Default HTML
Editor]

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\WINWORD.EXE" /n /dde

 

[Brian Tillman]

Interesting. Never came across the "Old Default Editor" key. I assume
OpenOffice is still installed?
Yes.

The keys are quite conflicting with each other. You can spent quite
some time trying to find out in which order IE and Outlook look at
those keys and which one ultimately wins (the first or last one it
looks at). From the look of things; they both have a different
algorithm. There must be other keys in play as well because even when
I delete all the keys I've found so far, it still opens up an editor
without spitting an error to me. In my case it ultimately opens up
Word while I would expect it to fall back to Notepad IF it had a
fallback option already. Time to fire up RegMon some time I think ;-)

Just might do that the next time I'm looking for some entertainment.