Word 2007 Hangs on Insert Object

[Junkmail Victim]

I recently got upgraded to Word 2007 Enterprise Ed. at work, and when I
insert a text document (even the smallest size) as an object it hangs.

I thought it might be specific to my installation at work, but I tried it at
home too, and had the same result.

Objects like PDF files are no problem however.

Any ideas?

 

[Robert M. Franz [RMF]]

I recently got upgraded to Word 2007 Enterprise Ed. at work, and when I
insert a text document (even the smallest size) as an object it hangs.

I thought it might be specific to my installation at work, but I tried it at
home too, and had the same result.

certainly not a universal problem: I can insert TXT files as an object
here nicely (both through the Ribbon as well as by drag and drop).

I've seen the problem before in a corporate environment, though, and it
was later attributed to problems with the file server. I'd try
investigating this, or problems with OLE.

However, I've never seen a good reason to insert a TXT file as an object
to begin with.

0.2¢
Robert

 

[Junkmail Victim]

Thanks Robert. I used the .txt file as an example. If I said I inserted a
Word doc or and Excel doc, one might sidetrack into the type of file I was
trying to insert, and its nature. A .txt file has no baggeage so the issue
is the application it's being inserted into.

Whether you've seen a reason for inserting any type of file or not isn't the
issue. The application should have the capability, and there is a reason.
Justifying the reason is not something that needs to be done. That might
sound like I don't value your opinion, but it's quite the contrary. I just
don't want to spend several exchanges justifying why I need Word to do
something it should be able to do.

I'm not dealing with a file server in this instance. Everything is local.
This happens for me, and others in my office. As I mentioned, I also have
this installed at home from a separately purchased set of installation disks,
and experience the same effect. The most interesting thing is that there is
no issue with PDFs. Somehow they fall in under the radar and insert without
issue.

I really do appreciate the response.

Thanks.

 

[Robert M. Franz [RMF]]

Thanks Robert. I used the .txt file as an example. If I said I inserted a
Word doc or and Excel doc, one might sidetrack into the type of file I was
trying to insert, and its nature. A .txt file has no baggeage so the issue
is the application it's being inserted into.

[..]

fair enough.

Do you insert the file as a symbol? Same behavior?

2cents
Robert

 

[Junkmail Victim]

Thanks for continuing the thread.

When I do the insert I always insert the object as an icon. Playing around
with it this morning I am noticing that it is having trouble with files that
it cannot associate an icon with. Files with a .txt or .msg extension don't
raise the expected icon prior to insertion. There must be an association
issue in the aaplication. I had thought that the associations are determined
through the OS, but I'm thinking that may not be the case.

Thanks Robert. I used the .txt file as an example. If I said I inserted a
Word doc or and Excel doc, one might sidetrack into the type of file I was
trying to insert, and its nature. A .txt file has no baggeage so the issue
is the application it's being inserted into.

[..]

fair enough.

Do you insert the file as a symbol? Same behavior?

2cents
Robert
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[Robert M. Franz [RMF]]

When I do the insert I always insert the object as an icon. Playing around
with it this morning I am noticing that it is having trouble with files that
it cannot associate an icon with. Files with a .txt or .msg extension don't
raise the expected icon prior to insertion. There must be an association
issue in the aaplication. I had thought that the associations are determined
through the OS, but I'm thinking that may not be the case.

I'm pretty sure it's the OS, not Word or Office, that is responsible for
assigning applications to file extensions. When inserting an object, I
guess Word needs to talk to some OLE instance with the OS.

I've seen a couple of errors in conjunction with OLE over the years, and
often the ultimate resolution was to fix something or other with the
file system (insufficient authorization, read/write access), behavior of
usually transparent content management systems on a file server, or ...

I'd make sure both OS and Office is fully up to date (SP), and if the
error is still there, try to raise the issue with MSFT directly.

Good luck!
Robert

 

[Junkmail Victim]

Thanks. I keep my systems up to date so that's not the problem. When I have
an issue, the first thing I do is run Windows Update. If it only occurred on
my machine I would make similar conclusions. On the OS side, my file
associations are fine. The OS knows what a .txt file is, displays the right
icon, and lauches the right app when I click on it. Word for some reason
doesn't seem to know what it is, while it knows what some others are. It is
perplexing.