Word documents won't open...

[jorcar]

I have tried to open numerous documents and word will not open them...word
will not open period. All I get is the message error report...send error
report. I don't know what to do...any suggestions?

 

[John John - MVP]

Maybe if you told us what the error message actually says we might be
able to help, without the contents of the error message we have no clue
as to what might be going on. Maybe you should try reinstalling Word
and see if it fixes things.

John

 

[jorcar]

It says: Microsoft Word For Windows has encountered a problem and needs to
close. We are sorry for the inconvenience. If you were in the middle of
something,the info you were working on might be lost. Please tell Microsoft
about the problem...etc.

 

[John John - MVP]

Have you tried reinstalling Word?

John

 

[Elmo]

It says: Microsoft Word For Windows has encountered a problem and needs to
close. We are sorry for the inconvenience. If you were in the middle of
something,the info you were working on might be lost. Please tell Microsoft
about the problem...etc.

Delete the file Normal.dot and try Word again. The file will be
recreated when you start Word.

Also try posting to a Word or Office NG where "Word" is spoken fluently.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have tried to open numerous documents and word will not open them...word
will not open period. All I get is the message error report...send error
report. I don't know what to do...any suggestions?

You've already gotten some good suggestions, but let me also suggest
that in the future you ask questions about Word in a Word newsgroup,
not here in a Windows XP newsgroup. You are far more likely to get the
help you need there, since that's where the Word experts hang out.

 

[jorcar]

Hi John,
Yes I have tried reinstalling word and it won't let me do it...it says not
enough space on disk etc. I am trying to clean the disk enough to
defrag...having problems with that too...

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hi John,
Yes I have tried reinstalling word and it won't let me do it...it says not
enough space on disk etc. I am trying to clean the disk enough to
defrag...having problems with that too...

So.... It may well be that most, if not all, of your problems are
being caused by an over-full hard disk. Try freeing up some space.

A primary space waster within each user profile would be IE's
penchant for storing copies (or significant portions thereof) of nearly
every web page you've ever visited. Try reducing the amount of
temporary Internet files cached, which is huge by default. I always
reduce it to a maximum of 50 Mb. In Internet Explorer, click Tools >
Internet Options > General, Temporary Files > Settings.

Same principle for the Java cache. Start > Control Panel > Java >
Temporary Internet Files > Settings.

You should also remove unneeded Temporary Internet Files.
Unfortunately, WinXP's built-in Disk Cleanup only cleans the files
stored within the profile of the user who invokes it. This means that,
even when logged in with an administrative account, the only temporary
files that get removed are one's own.

There is one product, Crap Cleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com/), that
is quite useful in this regard, as one can use it to specify which
folders are to be scanned and cleaned.

However, I must add one caveat: CCLeaner also contains a registry
"cleaner" that should be used only by the most experienced of
technicians. CCleaner seems relatively benign, as long as you step
through each detected "issue" one at a time, to determine if it really
is an "issue" or not, and then decide whether or not to let the
application "fix" it. In my experience, most of the reported "issues"
won't be issues, at all. I tried the latest version on a brand-new OS
installation with no additional applications installed, and certainly
none installed and then uninstalled, and CCleaner still managed to
"find" over a hundred allegedly orphaned registry entries and dozens of
purportedly "suspicious" files. (CCleaner's main strength lies in its
usefulness for cleaning up unused temporary files from the hard drive;
as a registry "cleaner," it's no better than any other snake oil remedy.)

The System Volume Information is the folder in which WinXP's System
Restore feature stores information used to recover from errors. By
default, WinXP sets aside 12% of the partition's size for storing System
Volume Information, but the amount of space set aside for this purpose
can be adjusted by the user. Start > All Programs > Accessories >
System Tools > System Restore > System Restore Settings, select the
pertinent partition and click Settings. If you don't want to use System
Restore at all, and have another back-up/recovery measure in place,
simply turn off the System Restore feature (Start > All Programs >
Accessories > System Tools > System Restore, System Restore Settings)
and reboot. This will delete all of your Restore Points, freeing up the
hard drive space.

Another great waster of space can be the Recycle Bin. By default,
this takes up to 10% of your hard drive capacity. On today's large hard
drives, this is tremendously wasteful. It can be set to a lower limit
by right-clicking the desktop Receycle Bin icon, selecting Properties,
and using the slider bar to lower the maximum size to something more
reasonable -- 1% to 2% should be more than enough space.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

[Gerry]

You can create more free space in C by
carrying any of the measures suggested below.

The default allocation to System Restore is 12% on your C partition
which is over generous. I would reduce it to 700 mb. Right click your My
Computer icon on the Desktop and select System Restore. Place the cursor
on your C drive select Settings but this time find the slider and drag
it to the left until it reads 700 mb and exit. When you get to the
Settings screen click on Apply and OK and exit.

A default setting which could be wasteful is that for temporary internet
files, especially if you do not store offline copies on disk. The
default allocation is 3% of drive. Depending on your attitude to offline
copies you could reduce this to 1% or 2%. In Internet Explorer select
Tools, Internet Options, General, Temporary Internet Files, Settings to
make the change. At the same time look at the number of days history is
held.

The default allocation for the Recycle Bin is 10 % of drive. Change to
5%, which should be sufficient. In Windows Explorer place the cursor
on your Recycle Bin, right click and select Properties, Global and
move the slider from 10% to 5%. However, try to avoid letting it get
too full as if it is full and you delete a file by mistake it will
bypass the Recycle Bin and be gone for ever.

If your drive is formatted as NTFS another potential gain arises with
your operating system on your C drive. In the Windows Directory of
your C partition you will have some Uninstall folders in your Windows
folder typically: $NtServicePackUninstall$ and $NtUninstallKB282010$
etc. These files may be compressed or not compressed. If compressed
the text of the folder name appears in blue characters. If not
compressed you can compress them. Right click on each folder and
select Properties, General, Advanced and check the box before Compress
contents to save Disk Space. On the General Tab you can see the amount
gained by deducting the size on disk from the size. Folder
compression is only an option on a NTFS formatted drive / partition.

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System
Information, Tools, Dr Watson and verify that the box before "Append to
existing log" is NOT checked. This means the next time the log is
written it will overwrite rather than add to the existing file.

The default maximum size setting for Event Viewer logs is too large.
Reset the maximum for each log from 512 kb to 128 kb and set it to
overwrite.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us


Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp to
Empty your Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet Files. Also
select Start, All Programs, accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp,
More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest System
Restore point. Run Disk Defragmenter.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[David B.]

A good thing to try, AFTER he takes care of the issue of the full hard drive
and sees if that takes care of the problem