Word 03 crashes before it opens

[Guest]

Hello

My word 03 which I am running on vista seems to be crashing before it even
opens. Then I read someone elses thread and got a link to a help site for
when word crashes. I tried to do this and other things and now it doesn't
crash, but it takes an awful long time to open.

I tried to change my normal.dot files to normal.old files as it said to on
the help page, but I could find any .dot files except one - email.dot which
is in the microsoft office file. It also said something about moving files
from the start-up folder, but I don't have any files in the start-up folder.

I am using a brand new laptop which I have had for four months, and so I
haven't even thought about creating a restore system check point and so I
can't do that either.

Does anyone know how to fix this without re-installing, it is an easy
solution, but it would be even better to know how to fix the problem.

Thankyou
Vicky

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

It sounds like renaming Normal.dot is crucial to solving your problem. Note
that removing/reinstalling Word will NOT solve the problem, since setup
leaves any existing Normal.dot in place when reinstalling.

The location of Normal.dot can be found in Tools - Options - File
Locations - User templates.

In order to see Normal.dot, close Word. In Windows Explorer, turn on the
display of hidden and system files. You should now be able to see it.