Installing WORD97 on XP

[PopS]

Cross-posted to ... .web.authoring

Hi all,
Lurk-a-lot, don't post much, but good group here. This
isn't really a new-user question, but I can't find a
better location. If you think there is a better place,
feel free to point it out. Pretty sure I've seen the
answer here before, but cannot find it now.

Long story short, I am trying to install Word97 in
WinXP Pro SP2+ machine.

I have:
-- Removed Office 2002
-- Shut Down & Restarted
-- Installed Word97 from the original CD, with HTML
Authoring ticked.
-- Everything copies to the hard drive, but when it
goes to update the Registry, I get the message:

"htmlmarq.ocx is unable to register itself in the
system registry. "

I can run winword.exe and create/Save html files OK as
long as they are simple text files.
Functionally, I can use Insert, Picture OK, and the
picture inserts and behaves as expected.
But when I click Save, I get the message "Unable to
Load Graphics Conversion Filter" which correlates to
the htmlmarq.ocx registry error.

I'm sure the fix was simple, but darned if I can find
it now!
I hope someone can give me an assist?

Oh, I'm also adding "97" the the folder names at each
opportunity, just to make it easy to find after Office
2002 goes back on.

----------------------------
Why bother with word97? Well, I've tried to live with
2002's code bloat and xml long enough; no filter I've
ever found will actually get out all the xml and extra
crap.
I've tried Open Office, which isn't bad, but it
occasionally screws up the wysiwyg, expecially with
tables and Word 2k2's xml pages. They look OK in
Mozilla and IE, but the editor screen is so messed up
you can't tell for sure what you're going to end up
with. And doing revisions is a royal pain.
Tried Composer; too simple, not enough feature set.
And so on. So finally I decided tonight to go back
to Word97; it writes decent, clean code and if I need
the fancy stuff I have other means to do it. And then
I ran into the installation problem with htmlmarq. I
used to run 97 and 2000 together on win98, but this is
the first time I've tried to put 97 onto this XP
machine.
Something in the back of my head tells me there was
an SP2 fix that caused the install problem, but I
cannot find any data to get Word 97 to install
completely.

Any assistance / advice would be most appreciated.

TIA,

Pop

 

[garfield-n-odie]

You might try editing the Windows registry as follows:
1. Start regedit
2. Navigate to the
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mi­crosoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options" key
3. Modify the two .ocx files whose names start with HTMLm
from .ocx to .old
4. Exit and reboot

This fix is not endorsed by Microsoft, and works for some people
but not for others. Good luck!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I'm not sure your picture problem is related to the htmlmarq.ocx install
problem. I suspect that htmlmarq.ocx is the Marquee control, which is no
longer available; see “Application is not available” error messages when you
try to insert some Web Tools in Word 2002 and Word 2003 at
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=886299. These features were removed (by a
Windows patch) for security reasons.

Ah, wait, here's an even more relevant article: "INFO: ActiveX Controls That
Are Removed from Internet Explorer 5" at
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=190045

And this one suggests a relation to pictures: "WD97: Can't Run OCX Control
After Converting to Inline Object" at
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=167879

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[PopS]

f'ups set to ... word.newusers

g& o: That worked perfectly! In fact, as it turns
out, AFTER reading your email, I remembered something
and found a thread on a helper group about it; not only
did you post there, but I was one of the ones who came
back and said you could safely rename the .old's back
to .ocx. What I'd give for a photographic memory!
Thank you for your time.

Cheers,

PopS


"garfield-n-odie"
message

 

[PopS]

Hi Suzanne,

I'm a little embarassed to admit this, but there is one
workable answer at
http://forum.theispguide.com/isp-ftopic2753.html
which works quite well, and in fact which I even
responded to there, having forgotten I'd actually been
this route once before.
Richard Ford posts the workable response there, and
I even responded that it was fine to rename the files
back to .ocx's.

Don't know if you're interested or not, but I have a
couple of inline comments which are intended as FYI and
NOT confrontational in any way:

I'm not sure your picture problem is related to the
htmlmarq.ocx install
problem. I suspect that htmlmarq.ocx is the Marquee
control, which is no
longer available; see “Application is not available”
error messages when you

===> I was quite certain the problem was the html...
file since it was during the install that it was
failing to register itself. Perhaps I didn't make that
completely clear; sorry if that's so.
===> BTW, the marquee controls all -seem- to be named
"marquee(something)" so it was worth figuring that out.
I still have no idea what htmlMARQ stands for though;
whatever it is, without it, a user cannot insert
graphics into a WD97 document. That I can prove ;-{.

try to insert some Web Tools in Word 2002 and Word
2003 at
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=886299. These
features were removed (by a
Windows patch) for security reasons.

===> Again, this isn't really about an instal of wd97l
issue. But, it's good you mentioned it, because it
reminded me there are updates to apply to WD97.
Groannnn, wonder which archive those are in? I didn't
do housekeeping very well back then :-[

Ah, wait, here's an even more relevant article:
"INFO: ActiveX Controls That
Are Removed from Internet Explorer 5" at
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=190045

===> I read thru this one because it was of interest to
me, but it's not really about WD97 installation on an
XP system.

And this one suggests a relation to pictures: "WD97:
Can't Run OCX Control
After Converting to Inline Object" at
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=167879

===> Again, that one's not an installation issue, but
certainly related. In fact, I grabbed it and added it
to my "maybe" files for future "borkenness" times.
===> I have no idea why the problem with htmlmarq.ocx
was pre-existing and refused to let wd97 load though.
I imagine it's an XP "protect us from ourselves"
feature but that's just a guess.
I'll be curious to see if they're reinstalled witn I
put WD2002 back on. I'm assuming they're something
left there from the wd2002 uninstall, that wd97 wanted
to replace. Right now it just gets a big "huh!".

===> So, although the direct answer came from g & o, I
do still sincerely thank you because the otherwise
value of your response is worth having.

Best Regards,

PopS

--
I fail to see why doing the same thing over and over
and getting the same
results every time is insanity: I've almost proved it
isn't; only a few more
tests now and I'm sure results will differ this time
....

....

 

[PopS]

PS - Did you ever figure out why this fix doesn't work
for some users? I'm tempted to try to figure it out,
but I'm not willing to take the time to try the various
install scenarios that occur to me as possibilities.
Plus you can never be sure exactly why something didn't
work; it may have been other problems contributing, who
knows? Or even sour grapes if it was only a few.

Regards,

Pop


"garfield-n-odie"
message

 

[garfield-n-odie]

Not a clue. I support a group of computers in a production
environment running a legacy custom application built around MS
Office 97 and MS FoxPro 2... they don't need the web authoring
stuff, so I always choose a custom installation and de-select the
web authoring tools, thereby avoiding the htmlmarq error message
altogether. I think I've only seen one or two users in these
newsgroups report that the registry fix didn't work for them.
I've seen one user report being unable to install SP2 for Office
97 when the web authoring tools are not installed, but I haven't
run into that problem myself on any of my computers... I think
that guy is full of hooey because it makes NO sense that not
installing what is essentially an optional feature would prevent
Off97 SP2 from installing, when many optional features are not
installed in a "typical" Off97 installation. But then, I also
haven't run into the "can't insert graphics when web tools not
installed" problem that you mention in your reply to Suzanne (I
tried it myself just now to make sure). Anyhow, I ain't fixin'
what ain't broke!

 

[PopS]

You got that right: If it aint' borke, don't fix it!

FWIW, neither 97 nor 2002 replaced the .OLD files I
renamed. I still have updates to apply, so they might
yet, but ... .

PopS

"garfield-n-odie"

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Pop,

The HTMLMARQ ActiveX controls were disabled as a
security precaution by Windows XP Service Pack 2.
My understanding is that the Windows folks made that
call and the Office folks aren't in a position to
reinstate the control. It affects Office 97, 2000,
XP/2002 and 2003.

The registry change is one we've suggested (not 'Microsoft
approved <g>') but it doesn't work for everyone it seems.

Not sure though why the control would prevent you from
inserting a graphic into a Word document.

==========
Hi Suzanne,

I'm a little embarassed to admit this, but there is one
workable answer at
http://forum.theispguide.com/isp-ftopic2753.html
which works quite well, and in fact which I even
responded to there, having forgotten I'd actually been
this route once before. ...[snip]>>
--
Let us know if this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

For Everyday MS Office tips to "use right away" -
http://microsoft.com/events/series/administrativetipsandtricks.mspx

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Pop,

The OCX controls weren't removed, just disabled by
Windows XP SP2 (i.e. it watches for them to be
called then intervenes)

As with many of the 'workarounds'
for security related issues (include the elimination
of 'show me' help in Office 2000) <g> they're use at
your own risk (just as if you hadn't installed the
security update that fixed them)

=========
Yeah, problem's solved and both are living nicely in
the same house now, different bedrooms. Interestingly,
if those ocx's were removed in SP2, something brought
them back, maybe one of the ensuing hot fixes?.
They weren't replaced by either WD97 OR WD2002, so I
guess they're truly not needed, at least in my machine,
but ... if they were removed by MS, where'd they come
from? My XP is a format/install so they weren't
leftovers. I have the CDs and a Gateway P4, 512, lotsa
drive space, 2.6GHz. First thing I did was remove the
OS and reformat/install with a retailed set of CDs.

Regards, >>
--
Let us know if this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

For Everyday MS Office tips to "use right away" -
http://microsoft.com/events/series/administrativetipsandtricks.mspx