Tom--
I hope you also tried Help>Detect and Repair in Word and know eventially somone will give you a fix. I think any of us would wonder given your current information, what happens when you fire up Word itself? I'm going to guess that because when Word Mail (word as the email editor opens up in the distorted way you've described, and winword.exe is the process, that it's no different when you open Word. This has to be fixed, because then if that's the case you don't have access to Word.
You wrote:
"A split second after this Word opens in full screen mode over the top of Outlook. When it opens it does not do so in a normal fashion. There are no menu items. There is not "white" work place to start entering text. It is just a grey screen. The IS a Microsoft Word title on the top (with minimise, windows, and exit options on the right). I can also see the typical bar acros the bottom (inc. Page Sec At Ln Col REC TRK EXT OVer) but they are greyed out."
Good luck,
Chad Harris
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Hi Chad,
I reinstalled Office to no avail. I don''t have a restore point that goes close to when this started happening (groan). I've tied your others suggestions and have Office completely updated. The one thing I haven't done and will do now is post, as you suggest, my problem to a Word Newsgroup.
Thanks for you help thus far.
Tom
Tom--
This is good information. You can of course configure how Outlook opens (to what) from any shortcut but that's not the issue here. I can't pinpoint where Word is going wrong but perhaps one of many Outlook experts here can. I also suggest you post the last piece of information in one of the Word groups as well. Meantime you may be able to fix this. Unless someone jumps in and has a more specific thing to do, I'd go to the Office site at
http://office.microsoft.com and check to see that you have all the updates for Word and Office.
Word is opening when you open Outlook and it's opening in some abnormal way. Unchecking the Wordmail box keeps this from happening. What happens when you just try to open up Word? Does Word open normally then?
http://office.microsoft.com/officeupdate/default.aspx?CTT=98 They seem to have linked a cute little download/install wizard to updates lately until MSFT finally gets all their updates melded at some one stop shop as they have promised repeatedly to do soon.
Then:
1) Try system restore if you have a point before this happened.
2) Try running Detect and Repair from Help>Detect and Repair. You could accomplish the same at Add/Remove
http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/2003/five/ch19/MntB01.htm
3) System File Checker used to correct Office files back in Windows 98, but it still wouldn't hurt to run it. I don't think now though it's going to touch this problem.
4) You may want or need to uninstall MOS 2003--perhaps a file or files were damaged.
Chad Harris
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Hi Chad,
Thanks for your reply.
I think I misunderstood one of your earlier messages. I thought you had replicated my problem on your machine:
Quoting Chad:
I tested this and when opening from a shortcut to Outlook if I have a check at Tools>Options>Mail Format tab>Use MSFT Office Word as your email editor then WINWORD.EXE is going up as a process, but not a window as a word doc or a new message. No check and it's not going up. I don't see a word doc or an email message form up unless I open Word or specifically open a new message--so I guess one of those is popping up and that's what you mean by opening up *over the top?* If you open up Task Manager on the Process tab also, how many winword.exe entries do you see?
==== End quote
On closer inspection I see it is more of a question.
I will progress through your suggestions but for now I will endeavour to explain accurately what occurs.
Description:
I have three places where I can start Outlook 2003. When I right click and select properties they each offer different information:
1. The one that is on my Start Menu offers "Mail Setup - Outlook" window with options
2. The one my task bar offers "Launch Microsoft Office Outlook Properties" with typical short cut information including "Target: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\OUTLOOK.EXE" /recycle". This window has three tabs "General" "Shortcut" and "Compatibility"
3. The short cut in All Programs offers a short cut window with "Genera" and "Shortcut" tabs.
When I select any one of these Outlook seems to start as normal. A split second after this Word opens in full screen mode over the top of Outlook. When it opens it does not do so in a normal fashion. There are no menu items. There is not "white" work place to start entering text. It is just a grey screen. The IS a Microsoft Word title on the top (with minimise, windows, and exit options on the right). I can also see the typical bar acros the bottom (inc. Page Sec At Ln Col REC TRK EXT OVer) but they are greyed out.
Thank you for still addressing yourself to my problem.
I will repor back again when I have tried your suggestions.
Tom
Tom--
I understand you have a problem you want to fix. I understand you have used Outlook and Wordmail aka Word as your email editor for years. Obviously to do this you have to enable Word as your email editor at the place you know and people keep directing you: Tools>Options>Mail Format Tab. But something is popping up that's bugging you and Diane asked and I asked you to tell us what the something is, You haven't responded to this and I understand it doesn't matter how you fire up Outlook and that you don't have a Palm and I assume any of the other types of PDA's that might make Outlook start in the background or if it doesn't start in the background persist after it's deliberately opened and deliberately closed. You said when you uncheck Word as the email editor "the problem goes away." But what problem is it? What type of Window are you seeing--Wordmail or a Word Doc?
If this is recent why not try 1) some system restore points if your OS has SR or 2) Help>Detect and Repair in MOS 2003or 3) System File Checker by putting "sfc /scannow" in the run box and having the CD ready in case you're prompted to use it depending on how that registry key is configured all of which have no down side and could stop whatever this is?
Again--when you said "Everytime I open Microsoft Outlook (as part of Office 2003) Word also opens
over the top we're trying to understand exactly what it is that opens over the top that is "quite wierd."
1) Is it a Word New Document or document?
2) Is it a new message with Word as your email editor?
3) Is it some other kind of window?
So far you have elicited the response that gets Word configured as your email editor which of course you have done for a long time.
Chad Harris
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