First, try starting Word without any add-ins or templates. To do this, click
Start > Run, and enter:
Winword.exe /a
If it still doesn't work, your copy of Word is probably corrupt. Reinstall
it.
If it does work, your problem is probably with normal.dot or with an add-in.
Find normal.dot and rename it to normal_old.dot. Now try starting Word in
the usual way. If it works, your normal.dot was corrupt, or had some bad
code (or a virus!). If you have settings, macros, etc in normal.dot you may
be able to retrieve them by using the organizer or by creating a document
based on normal_old and copying them; otherwise just delete normal_old.dot.
If the problem is not in normal.dot, look at any add-ins -- these are .dot
files in the Office\Startup folder (usually C:\Program Files\Microsoft
Office\Office\Startup). Take each in turn, change the extension from .dot to
..$$$ (so Word will ignore it). When you find the culprit, refer back to
wherever it came from (eg PDFMaker.dot is part of Acrobat).
If you still have a problem, then something else is interacting with Word.
Norton Antivirus and Outlook are possibilities. Check what else is running
on your machine.
jessica said:
I'm am recieving the message 'this program has performed an illegal
operation and will shut down' every time I start Word (I use Word 2000 and
windows 2000), I've tried restarting my computer, defragmenting,
uninstalling and reinstalling, and correcting the errors in installation.
HOw can I fix this!!! I obviously need to use this program??? PLease
help!