I run Word 2007 on Vista. Today I hit a curious problem. Word opened, but something was badly wrong. I could not select text with the mouse. The document scroll bar did not work. Word crashed on exit. And going into Options – Addins, I could not navigate beyond the “Popular” section.
After several crashes an Office Diagnostics wizard popped up and offered to help. Kind of it. It chugged through numerous tests and finally told me it could not see anything wrong. Never mind.
Checking the newgroups, I found fellow-sufferers but no solution. I decided to be methodical. I started Word in safe mode. (winword /a). It worked. Probably an add-in. I went to the COM add-ins and tried to disable them. Message: “The connected state of Office add-ins registered in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE cannot be changed”. OK, registry then. Navigated to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins
Found three add-ins listed. I changed the value of the LoadBehavior key from 3 to 0 for each add-in.
Word now worked OK, but still crashed on closing. I found I could restore two of the add-ins without problems. The guilty party: OfficePrintAddIn, a component of Flash Paper.
I had a look at active templates. There was one called FlashPaperWordUITemplate.2302.dot. If I tried to unload it, Word crashed. Perhaps it needs the related COM add-in to be loaded. I closed Word, found the template file, and deleted it. Everything is fine now.
A quicker route might be to uninstall Macromedia Flash Paper, unless you use this of course.
I’m still puzzled about why this problem only showed up today. I’d not made any changes to Flash Paper or Word that I’m aware of. And I don’t blame Macromedia (now Adobe) for this; Word 2007 did not exist when this Flash add-in was released.
Posted in the hope that it saves someone else some time.
Flash Paper or Flash Player?
I’ve never heard of Flash Paper. Sounds fun. Except I’ve no idea why you’d want Flash in a word processor…
>>>After several crashes an Office Diagnostics wizard popped up and offered to help.
You make it sound like Mr Clippy offering to help you write a letter
.
It is really important to point out that when anything crashes in Windows and the “Send this error report to Microsoft” dialog is generated then we should be hitting the Send button. Microsoft takes the information from this tool and use it to fix problems.
Regards
John
Roundtrip Solutions
> Flash Paper
It’s Flash Paper. At the time we thought Macromedia wanted to compete with Acrobat…
Tim
It appears that many different types of add-ins are causing this. For me the culprit was a Laserfiche add-in. So the question becomes, is this a problem with Word or is it a problem with the add-ins?
This blog entry saved me from going insane. As soon as I disabled the LF plug in, Word worked as it should. Whether or not it’s Microsoft’s fault for not supporting the LF plugin, it’s definitely their fault for not failing gracefully.
I had 2 desktops running Office 2007 on Vista and both within a couple of days of other had word crashing on starting up. I could not rectify the problem with inbuilt MS office diagnostics help, neither would reinstalling Office help. On one I had to install Office 2003 to enable schoolkid to complete homework.On the other desktop I failed to uninstall Office and problem is unresolved. Meanwhile I had been building another windows vista desktop onto which I installed Office 12 as well. Word crashed on startup after about 72 hrs of use. I cannot locate normal.dot file to change it. It’s getting somewhat scary that a well established program is behaving in such a manner.
I was in the office beta program. In beta1 there was an issue when I started up word it was always zooming to 15%. Pretty annoying. Now I had both mouse and crash issues with word. Reinstall did not help. I also found that mouse and select problems were caused by plugins. Not the one mentioned here. Crash was still there, not being able to get rid off it.
I found this trick in my emails with the beta team.
It helped me:
. Close Word and Outlook
2. Start / Run and type regedit
3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data
4. Rename this key.
5. Restart Word
Well I’ve looked over the replies and tried to replicate it to my setup. But no luck.
I’m running Windows XP and office 2007. When I use word, it’s using just about 50% CPU ALL the time? It locks up every now and then, it’s impossible to save, unless I change the document name.
So basically I can work around 5 minutes and thats it??
I just hate the new office word…. why must it be so hard to make something work thats so old???
I’m going back to using notes…. LOL
I did what Bence suggested and it fixed my Word Crashes.
Thanks Tonnes..
Thank you, thank you, thank you! My identical problem in Vista and Word was with SnagIt7 as an add-in for Word. Once I followed your instructions I was able to get the mouse working once again. I’m still having the same problem with closing Word, of course. I am contacting the SnagIt people to let them know since they have been so responsive. The independent program SnagIt works perfectly, and I can still capture screens in Word, so nothing lost, and a lot gained – my mouse and my sanity (at least part of it).
I am having this same problem but I am WAAAYYY less avy than all of you…when your directions say ‘4. Rename this key.’ what should I remane it?
Thanks
A
> 4. Rename this key.’ what should I remane it?
The idea is to remove the key. Rename it to anything you like, say olddata. Alternatively you could delete it; people suggest renaming because it gives you an easy route back if something goes wrong.
Tim
I’ve been looking around at fixes online but I am using Vista…. I don’t have a ‘run’ option when I click the start menu. Any ideas?
A
On Vista just typing Regedit in the search box (bottom of Start menu) usually does it. Or press Windows key and R to bring up a Run box.
Tim
Yeah Thanks it worked!
A
I’ve been having this problem for the past couple weeks and have been searching everywhere for a solution. Just tried the regedit trick that Bence mentioned and it seems to have worked.
thanks for the info
Bence – Thank you! You solved a problem that the Microsoft Partner help desk could not!
thanks, the fixed worked after much frustration, but now my reference feature no longer works. I love that feature in 2007. Any idea on getting it back?
This was absolutely my problem. Changed the load option in registry for OfficePrintAddIn and I’m mousing again! Only wish I would have found your blog 6 hours ago. Many thanks as it kept me from resorting to a complete reinstall. Now to find that FlashPaperWordUITemplate.2302.dot culprit and get rid of that annoying message.
back again … Were you able to get the Word Options navigation beyond “Popular” to work? This is still in-op for me. Also, was unable to locate the flash template. Any ideas on location?
Yes, all the Word Options now show up here.
The template was in: c:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Macromedia\Macromedia FlashPaper\OfficeTemplates\FlashPaperWordUITemplate.2302.dot
Hi guys,
read this thread with interest. I have deleted the flashpaper template etc etc, and yet when I start Word the template still shows up in the word add-ins area. How can this be? There are no related add-ins listed in the registry either. I also have another add-in namely RoboHook.wll, which I also deleted and yet this too still shows up in the add-ins area in the Word 2007 Ooptions dialog.
Have you any idea as to why these two add-ins are still showing up even after I’ve deleted them andthey don’t show in the registry?
thanks
Thank you so much for posting this. I have been looking everywhere for the fix for this. It was the “Print to Laserfiche” plugin that was causing my problems.
Hey guys,
Found a solution from Microsoft:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B921541
Delete the word data registry key.
This was corrupted in my case. ONce I had followed these instructions and deleted the key Word 2007 worked perfectly.
The reg fix took care of my Laserfiche problem – Thanks Much!! After 2 re-installs of Office and an attempted system restore point, I was beginning to think the only fix would be a complete reload!
Incidentally, prior to finding this thread, I tried the MS fix mentioned in the previous post by Mark and it didn’t do anything to fix the issue.
Hi everyone!
I’ve been driving myself crazy over this problem for a couple weeks now. I finally decided to re-install Office completely. Of course that didn’t work.
But deleting the word data registry key fixed it perfectly (check out Mark’s comment – #24).
Take care,
Andrew
Note #7 solved the problem for me, I just renamed the ‘data’ folder ‘ data2.’ Everything seems to be working just fine now. Here are the instructions from Bence Arendas, #7:
Close Word and Outlook
2. Start / Run and type regedit
3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data
4. Rename this key.
5. Restart Word
THANK YOU SO MUCH! I have been everywhere looking for this fix. I managed to remove the SnagIt addin from Word and all my problems were over. I found this, which helped:
—
To disable SnagIt 8 (and some versions of 7), close out of all open programs and go to “Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs”, click once on SnagIt from the list of installed programs, and click on the Change button. In the SnagIt Setup box, click Modify, then choose Next. Click the down arrow next to the Word add-in and choose Entire feature will be unavailable. This should remove the SnagIt addin from Word.
—
Hope this helps someone.
Hi Sam,
Thank you and everyone else in this thread, as this solution worked for me too. I’ve been hitting my head up against the wall (2nd time this has happened!) and couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t select text, etc. I re-installed, too, but the only fix is to rename the folder as you stated.
Glad it worked – but it makes me a dubious MSFT Office 2007 user.
Tim, thank you so much for posting your fix…you should be sent presents and run for your public office. This problem drove me crazy for the last 5 days.
The fix worked great!
Thanks,
It took me two days to find this blog – but deleting the data key in the registry fixed my word mouse problems and my crash when shutting down. Vista – Office 2007 – Adobe CS3
Thanks to Bence!!!! Renaming the data key worked.
Have a great weekend all.
Worked great for me too!! thank you!!
cheers to tim and to bence #7!!!
I had the same problem. Vista + word2007. By deleting the word data key I could solve the Problem. Thanks !
Wilfried aus Weingarten, Germany
Mark’s entry: #25 has the complete answer:
Hey guys,
Found a solution from Microsoft:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B921541
Brilliant – thanks very much indeed, perfect solution and my mouse now works in Word again.
I second all of you guys – absolutely brialliant. Just when I thought I was going crazy….you all found the solution. Kudos.
Word 2007 running on Vista was crashing upon exit and I was unable to highlight text. This occured after installing Adobe Acrobat 8.0 as part of the Adobe Creative Suite 3.
The highlighting text problem was resolved by disabling the plugins – HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins and the crashing upon exit by deleting the data file – HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data
Thank you so much…
My husband was having this problem on his machine at work and it was driving him nuts. I tried this solution and it worked! Thank you!!!
Here is what I did
1) Go to your control pannel
2) Uninstall or change a programe
3) view installed updates
4) Remove the last security update
Word should work after that that last security has the error
I had the same VERY annoying problem with Word 2007 navigation bars not functioning and select not working either. I found a working solution in the MS KB. The solution is here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/921541
The nature of the solution is to delete the MS Word “DATA” registry entry that apparently (too easily) gets corrupted.
Thank you for figuring out the fix for this problem, I was going nuts with it. I had to uninstall Flash Paper, which is fine cause I didn’t use it at all.
Very helpful
i had a problem with the live meeting template and would crash even on the removal, had to change the normal template to a temp one and save it and then re-do and then remove and put back to get it to work
Thanks Tim and Bence! #7 That surely kept my number one end user (my husband)happy when I applied the regedit solution. I didn’t need to uninstall any add-ins.
Tim and Bence,
Thanks! The regedit trick worked. It eliminated both the mouse problems and the crash on close problems.
I find it interesting that the KB article was not at the top of the Google search.
Thanks
Jim
Two comments (a) thanks to Tim for decent SEO – my “Word 2007 crashing” search yielded his site and (b) thanks to Bence for the solution.
My symtoms were very similar -except an additional one which was when opening a docuement by clicking on the doc, Word would load but the document wouldn’t load – then it would crash as described here.
thanks all,
Hi:
I just got a Vista laptop with Word 2007 … everytime I start Word, within 30 secs – 1 minute the program says it has encountered an error and the program needs to shut down.
Any suggestions? I read through this thread, but couldn’t figure out if any of the solutions presented applied specifically to my problem.
Sam
You are probably better off asking in a Word newsgroup or taking this up with your supplier.
That said, there are two things you should try. First, try running in safe mode. To do this, hold down the control key when starting Word, and accept the offer of safe mode. Is Word stable? If so, there is probably an add-in you need to disable.
Second, try renaming normal.dot. This resets a number of options and can fix problems. See here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822005
Tim
Thanks for this! If it helps anyone – I had to ‘Run winword.exe as Administrator’ in order to actually access the Trust Center tab of Word options.
Once I disabled plug-ins my mouse came back.
Thx!
Tim –
Thanks for your input.
Which Word forum would you suggest?
Try here (hope the link works).
Tim
A possibly related problem is driving me crazy. I’m running Word 2003 under Vista. Whenever I close the last instance of Word (either Word itself or Outlook, which is using Word as its e-mail editor) a WINWRD.EXE process immediately takes over about 50% of my CPU. I can fix this in Task Manager by ending the rogue process, but it would be great to find the root cause. Thanks.
Your a star!! Flashpaper was causing this for me as well.. Thanks
Thanks so much Bence, I have no idea why my plugin stopped working suddenly but. Now word is closing and I am able to select text again. the culprit program was abbyy pdf transformer. Once uninstalled no problem.
ref: Mouse does not respond properly in Word 2007
A combination of the inputs worked for me –
Part 1 – got my mouse working
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins
Found three add-ins listed. I changed the value of the LoadBehavior key from 3 to 0 for each add-in.
Part 2 – stopped word from crashing on exit
. Close Word and Outlook
2. Start / Run and type regedit
3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data
4. Rename this key.
5. Restart Word
Thanks to all of you. My mouse stopped working in Word for no reason – nothing new installed. All the steps in #7 worked for me. I renamed the folder Data2 instead of deleting it.
I also had the same problem as #47 – double clicking a document opened Word, but not the document, although then File/Open worked okay. Now I can use the mouse AND double-click a document to open it.
Thanks you sooooooo much. Couldn’t select the word options or use the mouse on documents and word crashed on close all the time. Registry key and removing the flashpaper add in and template cured all. Tim you’re up front description was great.
Thanks again all.
LaserFiche strikes again, had to start word in safe mode, remove the cursed add in, and all is good.
have had a serious problem like most users. i have been using microsoft office 2007 for over 2 weeks everthing had been working great. then suddently the mouse started freezing and stalling, cannot highlight, and scroll down on word or outlook note page.
i have tried all solutions posted on most websites. cant find an answer to my problem till now. please advise me if you have had a similar problem and have manage to solve it.
Vishal, delete the data key as described in comment 7 above.
Tim
Bence you fixed my crash problems as well. Thanks
Godsend. Bence’s instructions coupled with original post solved my problems.
removing the FlashPaperWordUITemplate.2302 did not resolve the crashing problem.
After playing with all option for 6 hours, the startegy that resolved all problems was:
Disable the file – OfficePrintAddIn which is listed in the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins
Dont change your DATA or OPTION registry.
Word came back to full life – and I went to sleep….
Hi,
the exact same problem here. Manifested this morning with no apparent reason. Tried Bence’s advice on comment #7, and all is peachy now.
A million thank yous!
Thank thank you Bence! I thought i was going mad!
Thanks – the regedit worked well . . . given the time involved on this it makes me wish the WSYP program actually does exist :O http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dF-POFE30E
I’d have gone for the chair smack on this bug.
Thank you all for helping us mere mortals from losing our sanity. All the best.
Hi! Thanks for this it helped alot. But instead of the file you mention caused your problem the same problem happend to me but was caused by a different addin.
The file that casued my problems was named Adobe.Contribute.OfficePlugin
I followed these steps:
A combination of the inputs worked for me -
Part 1 – got my mouse working
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins
Found three add-ins listed. I changed the value of the LoadBehavior key from 3 to 0 for each add-in.
Part 2 – stopped word from crashing on exit
. Close Word and Outlook
2. Start / Run and type regedit
3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data
4. Rename this key. (The files in my case that I had to rename was Settings and Toolbars)
5. Restart Word
This worked like a charm!
Thank you so much. I’m in class(University of Miami) and word had this error. It works now.
Just wanted to add Thanks!!! Same problem with word 2007 – was driving me insane. All soretd now after renaming the data key.
THANKS! I had the same issue (mouse not working in documents and Word crashing on closing). The fix was to disable the add-in associated with Adobe Contribute Plugin. Word now appears to work OK.
I just wanted to say thanks as well to those who put the effort to help everyone else suffering with the moodiness of MS Office. Tim’s article helped me start Word (2007 on Vista) normally (it was not opening files except from within word not by double clicking a file, and then text would not be selectable) and Bence’s contributon helped deal with the application crashing upon closing it. So thanks again. You saved me (and many others) loads of work and stress.
Thanks! My problem was Flash Paper. Uninstalled it and I’m a happy camper again. Thank you so much!
Must be something in the air… (or the updates) I ran into this same issue this week. We write addins for Word and have been testing one so I was not surprised when it broke. What surprised me was that I could not fix it. I removed all of the addins and still CRASH. I finally determined that one of the addins had been saved with changes to the Print, Save, and Open commands on the MENU toolbar in word 2003. If I opened Word using the /a switch (without addins or settings), I was ok. I tried Detect & Repair and finally gave up and deleted my [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data] key. This solved the problem (it was actually the Settings entry that was corrupt) and I was able to put my addins back into startup – once the offending addin was fixed of course!
I tried every suggestion to correct problems with words running in Vista home edition to no avail (manipulated the registry and folders). Word starts in 7 minutes or more and then is unstable. I can’t find normal.dotm anywhere. Word works fine under windows XP so far…
All other Office 2007 components work fine. I think I’ll un-install office 2007 and go back to office 2003 which I didn’t have any problems with it.
Hi, I’m running MS Office 2007 on Vista (32-bit), and whenever I open MS Word, the mouse icon pointer keeps switching between pointer, the typing symbol and the blue circle (that it shows when its busy with something).
any suggestions?
Thanks in advance, p.s. I went through the #24 link steps to see if it would help, but no luck….
Try starting word in safe mode, as described in my original post.
If it works OK, then you know it is some add-on that’s causing the problem.
Tim
Hi Tim,
I tried it in safemode, but I’m still having the same problem. I also uninstalled MS office 07 and reinstalled it, but same problem…
Tim and Bence,
I’m not religious man but bless both of you. JC, after researching this for a week I almost threw my laptop out the window. Thanks to all the posters. My issue was a combination of SnagIt 8 which I’m running with Vista Ultimate, Office 2007, AND the Data key issue. Between the two issues it appears to have resolved all of my issues as well. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. My Dragon Naturally speaking now also works as well as it did before this corruption occured.
Bless your hearts! You saved me from committing suicide. I have a presentation due tomorrow and I was going nuts trying to figure out what happened to my Word. Turns out it was the SnagIt addin.
I had the unusable mouse problem in Word 2007 on Windows XP Pro. Thanks to all the above posters – I tracked it down to the \HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins\LFOffice11.SaveToLF registry key. I changed the LoadBehavior Value to 0 and Word2007 now works fine. To test it, I set it back to 3 and the issue came back.
It seems that the LaserFiche addin for Office11(2003) doesn’t play nice with Office12(2007).
Hi Cursed people,
I just checked on the page again after a long time, and I am happy to see that we brought back so many people to life. My original issue started with an upgraded version of Office 2007 from a beta and having the Snagit addin
Thank you all so much. First to Tim for the detailed yet easy to follow directions, and also to all the others that have put their solutions up too. I had a mix of problems, but all the solutions were found here. Again thanks alot, I can finally work on my term papers again! Yahoo.
Thank you all so much! So much better than trying to deal with Microsoft!!!
Thank you thank you
Thank you – removing FlashPaper and editing the reg file worked as a quick fix! – I have office 07 and Vista – it fixed:
crashing when exiting word
no word options
no able to select text or images
Once again – Thank you!
I am a total novice when it comes to working with word, the solution Bence suggested solved my Vista Word 2007 problems, such as stalling and not being able to save documents after making changes,Now everything works great again. Why does’nt MS have an update to fix this? I am glad I Googled for a solution. Thank you you saved my senior Thesis and my life. Bill
I tried what you suggested long before I found your blog (just to make it clear that I’m not blaming you!); unfortunately, it didn’t solve my Word issues (which eventually extended to the rest of Office) and now my entire OS is corrupted after following the “solutions” of Dell and Microsoft Tech Support personnel.
My question is this: I use Word a lot to take notes in law school, and have an extensive collection of autocorrect options. Before I have to do a full OS reinstall, is there any way I can salvage my AutoCorrect Options through Knoppix?
Did everything (including MS document) – with no success.
I have word 2007 + server 2003. At startup word works fine. But when word looses focus (e.g. to copy sth. from excel), mouse won’t work any more… Any (new) suggestions?
Found the solution: it was the PowerDesigner 12.5 plugin – but it was not listed in the word 2007 registry.
I am using Laserfiche and Word 2007 on a Dell laptop running Windows XP. I do not have administrator priveleges. Suddenly my mouse quit functioning in the Word 2007 document screen, on the scrool bar, or anywhere in the Word Options screens. Additionally, I could not double click a Word document to open it–this opened word, but not the document. I had to open Word, and then open the document.
When my administrator logged in, there was no problem.
I used Tim’s instructions to set the Laserfiche add-in from 3 to 0. My system works fine now–no crashes, no problems with mouse.
I have contacted Laserfiche and they are working on a solution.
I had Word 2007 and Snag-it. I just could not get the template Snagit Add-in to delete. Everytime I deleted it, Word Crashed. Finally Bence had the solution to delete the [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data] key. And, voila, Word no longer crashes. The Add-in.dot file is gone.
My recommendation is not to do any add-ins in the word program. I have tried Snag-it and it doesn’t work. Further, Nuance’s Paperport and PDF Converter is poor. I am ale to get Adobe Professional Acrobat to work perfectly as a addin for word. Just make sure you get the latest version, otherwise, you will have errors.
Wow, this site is awesome. Thanks.
I used the following the method to fix the problem.
Uninstall Macromedia Flash Paper via the provided uninstaller on the
machine.
Deleted flash paper templates located at
c:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Macromedia\Macromedia
FlashPaper\OfficeTemplates\FlashPaperWordUITemplate.2302.dot
Deleted the data file located in the registry at;
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data
For those of many who use the Laserfiche product and run in to this problem…
I have found that if you delete the “send to laserfiche.dot” and “normal.dot” that MS Word will reset and resolve the issue.
Additional note. For whatever reason, in a windows domain environment (mainly with roaming profiles), if you migrate the user profiles to a different location on the network…MS Word will get “corrupted” again and not load properly. Delete the .dot files, word reset, all is good to go. Good luck! I have found many posted that date back over this year of people contacting LF about this and they are “working on it”.
I had a problem with word 2007, can’t select text, and navigate cursor by mouse in document after minimalize any window, mouse working good in menu but not in document…
solution:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins\WordToRQM12.Connect
key: LoadBehavior and change value from 3 to 0 and it nworks correct
Hi Tim and commenters, I was wondering as I have a similar problem that I can’t find a solution for, if you would think maybe it’s the same kind of thing.
Last week I discovered that on most web pages my mouse doesn’t have the usual pointer but the grabbing hand one instead and when I want to scroll move the mouse about the page, it doesn’t really do that, instead it will grab the page and move it. I would like to be able to highlight work that I’ve done to save it, put it on different blogs etc, but I can’t do that with the mouse.
I’m not aware of having downloaded anything new and have run virus checks, so I am puzzled and slightly frustrated by this. It’s a new comp (October), pre-installed with Vista, and I am not using a wireless mouse. The problem persists whether I use one of two mice or a pen, so it’s obviously something else – I’m just not as technically minded as some of you! Any help would be most appreciated.
@Lizzie
I don’t know. But here are a couple of random suggestions.
Presuming you are using Internet Explorer, you can reset its settings to default. Tools – Internet Options – Advanced – Restore Advanced Settings and Reset.
Another idea is to use System Restore to revert to a time just before it started going wrong. Press Windows Key + R, type rstrui.exe, follow the prompts. Use the most recent time that you are sure is before it went wrong.
A third idea is to try logging on as a different user. Create a new user if need be. If it works OK in the different profile, the problem is somewhere in your options.
Of course it would be better to know exactly what the issue is and how to fix it…
Tim
Thanks Tim. I have tried three times to do a system restore (I meant to say earlier, but with a houseful of kids off school and excited about the holidays I got distracted and forgot) but each time it has gone through the motions and then said no files have been changed, so it looks like I need to try one or both of the other options to fix this. I’ll let you know when I do try it – might not be yet as I am not on my pute (it’s in a different household) – hopefully to say thanks *crosses fingers*
Thanks and Seasons Greetings
)
Thanks for this! Word is not crashing on exit anymore. Now, if I could just get it to not keep “installing” itself everytime I run it would be great.
Happy Holidays,
Jose
Boston
Can’t really believe that even after release of SP for office 2007, this was still the only solution that saved me from formatting my computer. Thanks!
Hi Tim. Finally gotten home and tried your suggestions. Changing IE settings didn’t help so I tried doing a system retore and was again told nothing had been changed. I set up another account and the mouse appeared to work fine in that one so it looks as though you were right about my settings. I’d already looked at those before, but obviously I am missing something! I’ll have another look-see.
Thanks
Excellent discussion and solution! I had the Laserfiche issue and didn’t recognize it until I had searched all over creation. Could have saved a lot of cyber rage if I would have found this thread a long time ago. Incidentally, Laserfiche help is no help on this issue.
Brilliant blog entry — thank you. I was able to resolve this problem even though I am far from an expert on such things. For me, the name of the relevant template that I had to remove was slightly different:
FlashPaperWordUITemplate.2283.dot
I will join the chorus of praise for Tim Anderson and the other posters on this fabulous site – I am actually running Word97 in Vista (no apologies, can’t stand these ‘improved’ versions), and after two months, it suddenly became difficult to select text. The problem appear to have been solved by changing LoadBehavior from 3 to 0 as described above. Until the next problem, folks!
IF
I’ve had the exact same problem. I could not select text in a word doc.
My cure was to navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins
In there I changed the value of the LoadBehavior key from 3 to 0 for each add-in.
This was a similar fix to Tim’s first post at the top of this list but I had to change it slightly as I’m running Vista Business 64 bit and office 07….
Cheers mush, worked a treat!!
Like many, I had this problem but luckily I was able to restore my system to a point just before the last Microsoft update was installed.
In my case the problem can be traced to the Windows update installation restarting my computer when I was not in attendance and when I had left several apps running, including Word 2007 (running on Vista). Does this ring a bell with those affected?
My restored image already had the update in it waiting to be installed (my LAN had been disconnected continuously during the Ghost restoration and up until the restart message appeared again). This time, after checking that Word worked as expected, I closed all apps then let the update installation restart proceed. Word worked perfectly after this was complete so I deduce that the automatic restart when Word was running may have been the cause of the problem. Obviously, Tim’s solution is the way to go for those without backup, or even with backup, but I had a hunch that the restart with Word still running was the problem and wanted to see if I was right!
Editing registry data folder worked.
Many Thanks
Thank you – gave me the direction to look and fix the problem
Paul
This entry of Tim’s blog was a real helper when my version of Word started to behave uncontrolled. My issue was caused by Technsmit Snagit (my version 8.2.3), as it was for Delores. As i can work again, but still have crashes when closing Word, this issue will receive follow-up on my blog, and hope that the Technsmit people will come up with a solution real fast…
Anyway, thanks a lot for this post – it saved me a lot of time!
Thanks to poster # 82!!!!!
I tried deleting the data key, and like five other things here….but # 82 (Thundr) was the one thing that fixed my issue. Laserfiche add in was the problem!!!!!
I’ve got the issue on my laptop…curcer is delayed/pauses in Word 2007/Vista..also INS does not work.
Tried to delete the Data Key..but it keeps re-appearing.
Have 2 add ins….Loadbehavior on both are like 0×0000(8)..no “3″ tried changing the (8) to 0..nothing…
Cannot find snagit etc…
THis is driving me crazy…..Word worked fine for a month then suddenly this happened.
Thanks, Tim!
Changing the LoadBehavior on the plugins to “0″ worked for me.
My problem showed up about the same time as a new kitten who liked to chase the cursor, and I was afraid he’d hit some odd combination of keys to cause the problem.
Thanks for figuring this one out. This makes twice in one day that I’ve been able to find a (for me) very technical solution that’s been bugging me for a LONG TIME, at this blog…which I will now bookmark.
Many thanks for the solution. I deleted an Adobe PDF maker key in registry and it fixed the problem instantly…did not even have to close Word or reboot.
Thanks so much. It was Snag-It again.
Thanks a lot! I was just about to re-install office 2007 when I stumbled upon this blog.
It’s been a year since the first entry here and you’d think this problem should be solved by now.
Thank you guys so much! This has also been driving me crazy. I don’t believe mine was related to an add-in. At least I am not aware of installing any add-ins disabling them did not help. What DID help was renaming/deleting the registry entry Bence in response #7 about HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data.
This did the trick for me. Thank you so much!!!
CARTER
I myself have had too many problems with FlashPaper and Word 2007. I have spent hours trying to fix it.
Bence… you’re a life saver…. thanks for posting!!! It solved my problem and now my wife is happy again
Hi Sam,
Thank you and everyone else in this thread, as this solution worked for me too. I’ve been hitting my head up against the wall (2nd time this has happened!) and couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t select text, etc. I re-installed, too, but the only fix is to rename the folder as you stated.
Bence saved the day for me!
Holy Crap! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!! Bence’s solution worked like gangbusters. This post saved the day after days of frustration!
I too can no longer use the scroll or text selection options in Word only. None of the suggested fixes seem to be working. I have Word 2003, with Office 11.0 not 12.0. Would that affect why deleting the Data is not working? I deleted/uninstalled Macromedia. I deleted all updates back 3 months to no avail. Any suggestions? Help.
Greg,
Safe mode? winword /a
Tim
That one worked! So am I to understand that I have to run safemode every time now? Sorry I am not that technically proficient.
Your assistance and site have been so much appreciated!!! Thank you!
OK I just solved my problem…
per many visits to microsoft site found this fix for WORD:
go to Words: TOOLS/MACRO/SECURITY/TRUSTED PUBLISHERS/
delete any, and uncheck Trust All Installed Add Ins
You will annoyingly be prompted to enable or disable macros for each add in every time you open Word but hey it works.
Thanks again!
No, it is just diagnosis. It proves that it must be an add-in of some kind that is causing the problem.
The next step is to work out which one is the culprit. You could try adding them back one by one.
Tim
Thank you Tim!! I was kicking the furniture before I found your solution. Only 90 minutes of computer rage in the end.
Just wanted to say thanks for this regedit tip. Renaming the data key fixed a problem I had just begun experiencing. I could not update a table of contents in Word 2007 or insert a new table of contents. I had tried repairing and re-installing, but nothing worked. I was almost ready to ditch Vista entirely because Word 2007 seems to run much more smoothly XP. Thanks again so much!
Thank you for the info, however, anyone know how to remedy this same problem when using Office for Mac? Regedit doesn’t exist…
I have an identical problem with Outlook 2007 (12.0.6212.1000 SP1 12.0.6213.1000). The only plug-in I have is the one for Outlook from SalesForce.com
I’ll post again if removing it seems to fix the issue.
Removing the LaserFiche Add In solved my problems, however I have several users that NEED the LaserFiche Add In. What do I do for them ?
@Luke,
This problem isn’t universal; it seems to be to do with a corruption of the add-in data. Hence deleting the data key as above might fix the problem without removing the add-in.
Tim
Tim,
I looked at a bunch of different solutions to this issue with Word and the one you provided worked the best by far. It was elegant, easy to follow and worked perfectly. Great site and excellent resource. Keep up the great work.
I likewise found the Word Data Key regedit fix to work, BUT, every time Microsoft updates Vista, the same problem occurs (no text selection with the mouse in MS Word) and requires the same regedit fix again.
I haven’t seen this mentioned. Has it happened to anyone else?
Thank you Tim for initiating this forum, and thank you Bence for the quick fix suggestion. Works great!
Bence – you are great! I used the combination of removing the Snag-it addin and deleting the Word Data registry and my troubles are over. Thank you!!
Thank i had to use both options, deleteing data and change the value of the addin
Bottom line: After you disable the SnagIt add-in, you might try re-enabling it. Or not … I use SnagIt all the time but have never used the Word add-in.
I’ll join in the general applause for you, Tim! My experience also has a couple of points I haven’t seen mentioned in the replies so far:
1) The problem happened immediately after installing Photoshop Elements. Maybe a coincidence, as I don’t see that any Word add-in was installed.
2) After changing the SnagItOfficeAddin.Connect LoadBehavior to 0, the only thing I did was unselect “SnagIt Add-in.dot” from the Global Templates and Add-ins list in Word Options – Add-ins – Manage Word Add-ins menu. Now everything worked — no crash on close, and mouse selection works.
3) The surprise was that when I changed the registry value back to 3, everything still worked and the SnagIt add-in is running as well.
Another program add-in that causes this issue is Snagit. The registry key is in the same location.
A million thanks to you smart people who had the solution–wasn’t available on Microsoft help anywhere!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!
You saved me from almost breaking my computer
I’m using Word on XP, and AFAIK, the only add-ins loaded have to do with WebEx and something called RCS. I tried to find the registry entry cited early on: (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins) but that doesn’t exist on my system.
But I did find (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data) and I renamed its Settings entry to Settings.renamed. Once I did that, I could then save files/close Word without getting crashes.
But when I went back into the registry, a *new* Settings entry had been created, and as best I can tell (it’s long, and it’s binary) it contains the same data as the old Settings settings. WTH? And yet I can still save files without the crash.
I guess I’ll plod along until it starts crashing again, and then go to Plan B. Anybody got a Plan B?
Excellent post. Solve lots of problems. Those who have trouble with Snag-It should try 5-clicks. Trouble-free and very, very handy. Not an Add-in. I don’t work for either, just like what I’ve seen and used.
Bence – Thank you, Thank You, thank You – you are a life saver – this was driving me nuts and you have saved the day!!
Bence – thanks very much. Cleared up the problem for me too.
Ah yes…as was the case for Snoop Dawg…an upgrade to Adobe Acrobat 8.0 caused it for me too.
Comment #24 left by Marc perfectly solved the problem.
So glad I found this page!!
Thanks Bence!
I was having the same problem with Word 2007 crashing even after deleting all add-ins. Finally found a solution on Microsoft.com.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940791/en-us
Hope this helps!
Same (Vista) Word crash problem, add-in called WordEEFonts. Turns out to be a Microsoft Word Font Repair Macro assisting “earlier Eastern European versions” of Word in displaying non-standard characters. Changed LoadBehaviour from 8 (!?) to 0, probably too early to say it helps. “Data” registry key, after deletion, immediately reappears as soon as Word is loaded. Always. I haven’t seen this latter effect in any earlier item in this thread. Anyone any suggestions?
I was having the same problem with no right click working or when I tried to close Word it would ALWAYS crash!! This solution works!!!!!
1. Exit all Office programs.
2. Click Start , type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
3. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data
4. On the Edit menu, click Delete, and then click Yes.
5. Exit Registry Editor.
6. Restart Word.
Thanks Mark! (post #24)
I was going nuts until I read that MS page you linked to.. extremely helpful! I had to rename normal.dot to stop a plug-in (Word wouldn’t say which one) from crashing Word every time I started it.
Great forum. Had the same problem and thanks to the detailed instructions it is fixed. I only changed the key name and this eliminated both problems. I can use my mouse again and I word does not give me a crashing message that the problem needs to find a solution. Thank you so much!!!
Great Posting. Helped restore my sanity after 2 re-installs and trying the delet data folder with futility..
Good to be able to restart using the Word 2007 mouse functions..
Actually now actively considering switching to OpenOffice suite considering what great complexity our folks at MS build into their bloatware.
Thanks again.
This is why the Internet is such a great tool. Folks like Tim and Bence make the world a much better place. Thanks for cutting short my hours of frustration. You ROCK!
thanks a lot man
That Word problem was a real pain…
Thanks again.
Thank you problem has been solved by renaming data folder.
It worked for me like a charm. It was Laserfiche addin.
Thanks a lot.
Neo
Thanks a lot. This forum helped me resolving my problem with Word 2007. I took the following help.
Microsoft Word 2007 Crashes
1. Word crashes upon exit with message “Word has stopped working”.
2. Unable to use mouse in Word.
To resolve the above problems do the following:
1. Close Word and Outlook
2. Start / Run and type regedit
3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data
4. Rename this key.
5. Restart Word
If above does not solve the problem completely, do the following:
1. Close Word and Outlook
2. Start / Run and type regedit
3. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins
4. Set the value of the Key LoadBehavior of all Addins to “0” from “3”
I found that renaming the “Data” entry in Registry, as described by several of you, including Lal in May 24, solved my problem and allowed me to restore all the add-ins, including the one that initially prevented my mouse from working. Initially I disabled SnagIt and found that the mouse returned to normal. But Word continued to crash, even after I removed the SnagIt template (.dot). After I renamed the “data” entry, the crashing stopped, and I was able to restore all the SnagIt items, including the template. Anyone interested might try restoring their Add-ins to see if they get the same result.
Many thanks Tim and Bence. Renaming the key worked. I am using Word everyday and for two days I couldn’t work. I am really glad it could be solved this easily.
Renamed the Data folder and it worked great.
Thanks for the help you guys rock.
This thread came up immediately on my first search. The SnagIt8 Add-In for Word was my problem. I disabled it and now I’m good to go. Thanks!!
Help. I am having the same problem, but do not understand about “add-ins” Can someone email me the step by step to get my mouse to work properly in word 07? Also in the upper right hand corner the Past, copy and Cut option are not lettin gme click on them either?/ HELP!
Thanks Kathi
Irishredhead1969@yahoo.com
I renamed this key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data
It worked. I renamed it olddata. I also have snagit 8 but I didnt touch the addin. Renaming the reg fixes this problem. Thank you!
@Kathi
Comment 160 has a step by step.
Tim
Thanks to all of you good people… I had got to the point of almost throwing my laptop out of the window, when I found this forum. Changed the value of an addin from 3 to 0 and it worked.. You saved my laptop, guys!
Now that I changed the key name I can stop pulling my damn hair out! This is one of the most detail posts ever and the comments are full of awesome tidbits too. I can’t wait to get a new version of word. This has been getting under my skin for the longest time and I’m a writer and use word constantly. Thank and keep up this awesome posting.
Invaluable! Thank you. A word to the less computer savvy… if you can remember what add-ins you have in word (if a program has an add-in for word, then it usually displays as a new icon in your word menu bar) and you can live without it, then just uninstall it!
I uninstalled SnagIt8 from my machine and didn’t need to mess around with the registry. Word worked perfectly the next time I opened it.
Great post and follow up comments. I have word 2007 and Vista, and I did the registry edit (see below) and restarted and word works now.
1. Close Word and Outlook
2. Start / Run and type regedit
3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data
4. Rename this key.
5. Restart Word
What a nightmare! Lost many hours. Thanks to all who contributed. Disabling an (unknown) add-in through the registry worked. Where is Microsoft’s response to this serious and debilitating issue? Happy Father’s Day to all dads.
Bence,
The solution you described in your March 15, 2007 post regarding the Word 2007 “can’t select text” problem worked fine for me. Many thanks!
Thanks for the post. Had very similar symptoms. I could not uninstall the offending templates as ever time I tried Word would crash. The steps below were the trick for finally getting rid of those add-in templates:
1. Close Word and Outlook
2. Start / Run and type regedit
3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data
4. Rename this key.
5. Restart Word
Thanks
Will
Excellent news and thanks for the procedure.
In my case, it was the Snag-IT addin for Word.
http://www.snagit.com
JamesNT
Thank you, thank you!
That just saved me days of pain and suffering.
In my case it is Word 2003 on Vista, and Flash was the culprit. I’m afraid Adobe products may be about to join the “don’t install” list next to the Quicktime virus…
THX a lot Bence!
This finally was a solution to my problem!
Thx Thx Thx!
Frank.
Thank you, thank you for the help you guys.
/Mattias
Bence’s fix worked for me. I was about to kill someone…
WOW! it worked! The four step method is magic
Thanks for the tip, my msword (2007 and Vista)returns to live!! (post #24)
Thank you for the great posts and helpful advice. Your solution of editing the Registry worked perfect.
Eric
I did what Bence said, too, and it worked. Cursor works and Word doesn’t crash on closing. Thanks, Bence!
Yep, worked great. to fix it on Vista. Probably related to recent Adobe install. Thank you all for walking me through this!
Thank thank you Bence! I thought i was going mad!
Thanks for all of this. I hope it works for me.
Am I old school to think that no one should have to do this much work on software they paid for and have owned for less than a year? 90 days of service and impossible to navigate forums are poor customer service in my opinion. Too bad this software is the standard everywhere.
hi people.
My problem arises in using Excel 2007, nome works scrooll mouse, apply a solution similar to my case. Thank you for your collaboration
Thanks to everyone. I have tried literally all the suggestions here, singly and in combination. It turns out I had the same mouse symptom you all had/have but the cause was a conflicting program, not a registry entry, template, or the like. The cure certainly wasn’t reinstalling Office (as most everyone here has discovered).
My hint that the problem lay elsewhere was that Word 2007 had the same problem in safe mode as it did in regular mode. That did not seem to match others’ experiences here. So, I began a different approach. I systematically deleted startup programs, services, and processes.
The conflicting program turned out to be Synergy(http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/). This is a wonderful program that allows one to share a screen, mouse, and keyboard between multiple computers over a LAN.
Word and Synergy were cohabiting politely until about a month ago. That makes me suspect an update to Windows or DirectX. I have spent enough hours pulling my hair out that I will probably never discover what system change caused the conflict. My workaround is to turn off Synergy when I use Word. This is only a minor annoyance.
I hope my discovery of the Synergy/Word interaction helps at least one other person.
Thanks again for a systematic approach to solving this problem.
The Microsoft fix is located at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940791
Thanks guys, been trying to fix this flash paper prob for a while.
It also happens that the screen grabber software, SnagIt, has something in its office addin that makes for the same malfunction. Disabling it in the registry in the same way as above fixes word.
I’ve run into a similar problem, where a friend couldn’t select text using the mouse in Word.
This is a write up of how we fixed it, hope it’s useful:
http://blog.emson.co.uk/2008/08/cannot-select-text-with-mouse-in-microsoft-word-fix/
Ben…
Thank you!!!!!!
For me (also on Vista) . . . a client sent me several Word docs. Finally after reinstalling Word and troubleshooting everything I could think of etc etc etc etc I started with winword /a and that solved it. It appears that (when I opened this way) that the client’s Word docs contained macros that Vista in its infinite wisdom wanted to protect me from; hence my inability to make a single edit to the doc. I understand that the issue occurs on XP but I have had NOTHING but glitches with Vista since installing it.
Thank you for this information.
Judy
Thank you Tim and Bence! Bence’s fix worked for me also. As with most here, the built in diagnostics are utterly useless.
Thanks again!
add me to the chorus! Thank you Tim and Bence!
I disabled “Power Designer” Add-In.
Now my word2007 work properly
Thanks mate. I had given up on Word 2007 until I found this.
Why didn’t MS ever solve this issue?
Guess MS is turning into utility provider when it comes to Windows and Office.
Moving to Linux and OpenOffice soon.
Thanks so much! I never would have been able to figure that out by myself.
I had the same problem with the mouse not working on Word and fixed the way Bence suggested.
Thanks a lot!
I feel much better now
Wish I had found this webpage 2 hours ago…thanks so much for the info.
Vivian
thanks.
Thank you!!! I don’t know why this bug chose to bite me today, but I never would have figured it out without these posts. I unloaded add-ins via the registry, and still had to use winword /a to get a usable instance. You are heros.
Thanks Bence. Great solution, saved me from hours of searching for pointless registry sudo-hacks.
Did all of the above; the issue of selecting text in Word and selecting Word options was fixed, but Word still crashed upon exit.
I removed Contribute. Word still crashed on exit. Looked at list of loaded templates in Word under Word Options, and the Flash Paper file was still listed, even after I deleted it and removed Contribute.
So I had to do the following fix to make Word forget it had ever seen the Flash Paper template:
delete the following Registry subkey:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data
Found this fix at http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=1771
Hey Tim, thanks a million for this blog! And also thanks to Bence Arendas (#7) for his solution- that solved the very annoying/puzzling problem!!
=D
Truly thanks another million to Tim for the blog Bence (#7). This worked for me too – renamed to “OldData”. 2 comments :
1)For OpenSource problems I know I’m on my own so jump into forums and quickly find a fix. With Windows, Microsoft has so many tools I get lulled into thinking their diagnostics are the solution and stupidly follow their recommendations without thinking for myself. Silly me!
2)I’m amazed a problem like this remains after 18 months. Must be because Bill retired.
I went to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data
and renamed settings key to settings2. Then went opened word, and found that it worked, so i went back to my registry and it created another key called settings, so i deleted settings2, and everything worked fine. It must just need to recreate the key.
Hi,
Thanks!. I had the same problems and followed your steps to deactivate the add-ins. Snag-it 8 was the culprit on my Word 2007/Vista machine where it would not scroll or close properly and i could not access word options.
My selection not working issue was actually quite different. Well, the problemn was the same but the cause was not an addin, nor word at all. I use synergy for controlling all my computers from a single KB/Mouse. whenever I run synergy as admin on the host computer Word will not select anymore!
hrm i guess i should have read ALL the posts, another person posted regarding it. The solution is not to not run it with word, but to make sure it runs at the same user context and priviledges as word. So if you run synergy as admin, run word as admin too and it will work fine. If you run synergy as regular user, word works fine as regular user.
THANK YOU SO MUCH Bence Arendas!!!! THAT WAS SO EASY. I WOULD NEVER FIX IT MYSELF WITHOUT YOUR HELP.
I just wasted about 6 hours trying to rollback, reinstall, restore, uninstall, running Norton Anti-Virus…..all completely unsuccessful in fixing the mouse issue in Word. Why did it take me so long to Google this problem? Bence’s solution was practically instantaneous. Thank you!
PS. I generally NEVER post to these boards, but in this case my relief is so great I just had to.
Thank goodness there are tech savvy people out there willing to share their experiences. I too was going mad with the Vista/Word not able to select text problem. I resorted to using notepad to type up my doc cause I couldn’t deal with it. After being away from the computer for a few hours finally thought to Google it. Bingo here is my solution. I installed the flash component a few days ago .. so i uninstalled it as it wasn’t working anyway and now Word is fixed! Thanks again for everyone who shared their experiences and solutions.
1000 thank you’s!!!! U just saved my life, bence’s solution with amy’s Q and Tim’s answer
Good work!
Thanks, finding your solution on my first search attempt reinforces my love for both the internet and google.
Thanks to Bence
It worked!
Cal
THANKS BENCE & TIM, You saved me a lot of time!
this is the MOST irritating thing! I cant believe that microsoft hasnt put out a fix for this yet. I tried everything that they suggested and finally deleted all of my addins and now I can hilight again.
However, word continues to crash when I close it and it asks me every time that I open if I want to “load the template” what is up with that?
any ideas?
THANKS A TON for your help with this super annoying problem
On another site I found this- for thow of you who might be less technically inclined. After deleting my add-ins I went back and deleted the reg key and now voila, no crashing, everything is back to normal.
Perfect!
For you less technical folks, click Start, type in regedit and hit Enter. Click Continue on the User Account Control box (you need to be an administrator to dot his). Be *VERY* careful what you’re doing, one wrong move and you could destroy your Windows install. Under HKEY_CURRENT_USER, browse to Software, Microsoft, Office, 12.0, Word. There you will see the Data key (which looks like a folder in Windows Explorer). Highlight the Data “folder”, and hit the Delete key. Close Registry Editor, and you should be set! Worked great for me.
hey mcat,
i renamed the data folder instead of deleting it.
i just wanna ask it there are any repercussions to renaming/deleting this file.
Thanks
hey everybody, I also had some problems with word 2007. I opened Word, and I couldn’t click at anything, everything was blocked, and it was pretty anoying. I use Vista by the way. I think this migth come because of the fact that i didn’t pay for word 2007. I used it for, maby a month or omething…. any one ever had a problem like this? Please tell me what to do, just buy word 2007, or maby it is something else… when it really is the problem i suggested, can you get a free version of word 2007?? I am not really good with computers, so maby I am asking really dumb questions…
I had the exact same problem and I followed Bence Arendas
March 15th, 2007 at 12:01 am
1. Close Word and Outlook
2. Start / Run and type regedit
3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data
4. Rename this key.
5. Restart Word
And it works!!!!!!!!!!
I’m so happy now, thanks!!
Bence — THANK YOU!!!!!
THANK YOU!!!!
THANK YOU!!!!
and…..
THANK YOU!!!!
6 hours wasted, falling behind on a project…you rock my socks off.
Great help indeed. I renamed the data folder as well and now Word works perfectly. Thank you for the help.
We had a similar problem that popped up after we just accepted a Java update to Vista. I went to “uninstall or change” in my computer and uninstalled the Java update. Word works fine now.
I usually do not play around with Registry keys but did so following these step-by-step instructions. IT WORKED!! The annoying Word 07 problem is now gone… now I wait for the next MS-issue.
La solución de renombrar la entrada del registro:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data
me ha funcionado, pero me parece una verguenza que los de microsoft no hayan publicado una actulización que lo haga. Me acabo de comprar el ordenador y he perdido todo el fin de semada en arreglar esta mierda.
Same mouse problem on HP laptop running Vista SP1, though possibly not for all documents.
The problem seemed to appear after a partially successful Windows Update. I got the “updates are ready to be installed” indicator and chose to view the updates. I noticed an optional (not checked) update for Synaptics PS/2 Touchpad that seemed appropriate for my laptop. I checked the box not thinking about the fact that this optional update would not have been downloaded to my system. I was offline, so the two suggested Windows updates succeeded to install but the Synaptics update failed. These events seemed too occur just before I noticed the Word 2007 problem. Restoring the Synaptics driver (from control panel) did not resolve the mouse issue in Word.
The solution was, as above, to rename three items in the Data registry location specified above and re-start Word. (This seemed a quicker test than restarting and choosing to restore to a pre-update system state).
Can’t be sure the update was involved, but posted here just in case others experience this sequence of events.
THANKS!
Bence Arendas… THANK YOU
Post # 7… “Thank you sooooo much!!”
Hey I’m not sure if anyone has had this problem before but it is making me very frustrated. I have Vista and MS Office 2007 and whenever I get done writing anything or using Excell and I go to save it, if I click to save my document anywhere else like on a pin drive, my mouse will show the little loading icon and then about 5 seconds later a box will pop up and say Microsoft Office is not Responding. After about 1 minute it just closes out everything. I really need some help with this.
Hello
People of planet earth…
I uninstalled Macromedia Flash paper after finding the uninstall icon in the program files for flash paper.
all is back to normality.
i am so happy
its very difficult to hide my elation
wooopie
thank you all so very much indeed this was driving me absolutly potty……
Chuck, did you try all this:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/921541
???
Thank you … all fixed by changing that registry key name. (And I do have snagit).
Uninstalling version 8 of Snagit also worked, I had both 8 and 9 installed.
The error sucked, The fix for me was #7, do that, I just renamed it and its perfect now. Definitely some shitty programming.
Installed write-n-cite by Refworks, these problems came up. After deinstalling that, Word still wasn’t acting nicely. So, started looking for fixes. Bence’s tip: rename the data key from the registry worked for me.
Thanks a lot for putting this info up!
Hello
I was having the same problem and nothing was working.
And run Windows Task Manager, my idea was to close application one by one maybe one of them cause problem, and And I have noticed 2x taskmgr.exe
End process one of them and Word – mouse is working, everything fine!
Thank you so much!
Unfortunately, I uninstalled and installed Office at least three times. It was only after I found this thread that I was able to make my crashing woes go away. I had the Endnote add-in problem, inability to navigate past the “Popular” option in “Word Options”, in ability to use the scroll bar, and crash on exit.
Fixed the Endnote add-in problem by starting word in safe mode (winword /a), which gave me the ability to navigate to Add-ins so I could disable Endnote.
Followed instructions posted by another user to delete the registry key – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940791/en-us, which fixed all other problems.
Great help!!!
My problem was caused by SnagIt Addin.
It was solved deleting HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data registry key.
Thanks guys.!!
Guys same problem
I took sam kasle option and renamed
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data
to Data2
Thanks, this one was pissing me off
Thanks so much for the helpful tips. I follow Bence trick and after many frustrated hours trying to solve my crashing word 2007 (under vista) it is now working just fine.
Mark’s (#24) link to the Microsoft solution actually worked for me (happy days!). I believe I had a bad template in there somewhere “pdfm”? that Word kept wanting to save. Anyway, the Troubleshooter ran like a charm and now I can actually select text in Word and Outlook — hurray!!
Thank you all!! Renaming the Data Key has solved this annoying problem. I had already started using Google Docs. I had searched Microsoft Support forums before and could not find this solution to such a common problem.
Thanks for posting this, it has led me to almost fix a very similar problem.
The symptoms were different – Word 2007 wouldn’t open files when double clicking and then crash when closed (would open them fine if opened from the ‘Open’ option).
Initially options on the left of the ‘Word Options’ window didn’t respond. Edit registry for HD_LOCAL_MACHINE – Software – Microsoft – Word – Add-ins and set the `LoadBehaviour` key to 0 for each of the Add-ins.
Removed FlashPaper add-in from the current user profile.
Word now opens doc OK when double clicked, but crashes on exit. Can now access Word Options – manage add-ins and remove all – also set the ‘Disable all Application Add-ins’ in the Trust Centre bit. Word crashes after closing the Word Options window. FlashPaper template comes back next time Word is opened! It seems Word crashes when the template is removed and repairs itself next time it starts? Or possibly crashes before the template is actually removed. Also – how is it loading when the file is deleted?
Now fixed – I’d missed out the extra step of renaming the ‘Data’ key above.
Thanks everyone.
Thanks man! Facking word but work it now. Thank you!
Hay,
Thnx alot pal … it worked like charm
Reply #7 worked like a charm! Thanks soooooo much!
PTL that worked Awesome!
You are a LIFE SAVER!!!! I have been working on this for days. I have scanned for viruses, repaired office, reloaded office, I entered every help section on Microsoft, I downloaded every update… and then gave up and searched my problem on Google and this appeared. I can’t believe you figured this out!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU It was driving me nuts because I couldn’t format or move with my mouse in the text… Thank you!!!!
And for those who don’t understand how to do this, here are the steps in easy terms.
1. Under program search, press run
2. Double click run
3. Type Regedit
Then there is a tree and each of those items above are branches
So first you double click HKEY_Current User
Then click software
then click microsoft
then click office
then click 12.0
then click word (I think, I am doing this from my notes)
then click data
You can delete the file and it will reappear when you start word again and it will be corrected. Or you can rename it and it does the same thing.
On that blog, they also said you can change the load behavior for add ins and that might help and that is in the regedit too. It is hkey_local_machine
then click software
then click microsoft
then click office
then click word
then click addins
then click loadbehavior
and change the value to 3 for each add-in
Mine was at 3 so I changed it to 0, but when I restarted word, it put it back at 3. I think I had the other problem. In any case, it is now fixed…
Thanks for this, sorted out my problems by going into the reg and changing the load key to 0 for adobe pdf plugin and adobe contribute
And now it works fine
Maybe Adobe should be made aware of the problem?
The below post from Sam TOTALLY FIXED THE PROBLEM of the MOUSE THING! Thanks a ton Sam!
(FYI – “Rename the key” Means, right click on the folder “Data” and then click on “Rename.” I used “OldData.” When word fired back up, it initially had an error message and then worked fine.
Sam, you’re a rock star!
sam kasle says:
May 22nd, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Note #7 solved the problem for me, I just renamed the ‘data’ folder ‘ data2.’ Everything seems to be working just fine now. Here are the instructions from Bence Arendas, #7:
Close Word and Outlook
2. Start / Run and type regedit
3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data
4. Rename this key.
5. Restart Word
Yahoooooooooo!
THANKS!!!!!!
Thank you so much! I followed Mark’s advice from #24 and everything is all fixed!!!
The original post solved my issues, it was identical problem except caused by Contribute CS3
This seemed to happen when I installed IE8 RC1 Beta. Which as I remember did prompt me about some Contribute plugin.
Update: My machine did an automatic update this morning, and the mouse problem cropped up for me. the solution offered here is still effective. Thanks so much to everyone!
I had the same problem with the automatic update, but the solution fixed it easily. Thanks!
I have a persistent Word 2007 crash whose message comes up as follows. Perhaps someone can guide me to a solution? I cannot even find “StackHash” on the Web …
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: WINWORD.EXE
Application Version: 12.0.6331.5000
Application Timestamp: 48fa27b4
Fault Module Name: StackHash_7489
Fault Module Version: 6.0.6001.18000
Fault Module Timestamp: 4791a7a6
Exception Code: c0000374
Exception Offset: 000b015d
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.6
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 7489
Additional Information 2: 627f2e60ed206ed43e5dbafe8610b9d1
Additional Information 3: 694b
Additional Information 4: 1c36cf2080930d8b7353695fe9d3c49a
Thank you Tim & all thew others.
This problem with word was driving me insane also.
Adobe contribution was the problem for me.
when I deleted the reg key, everything is working fine.
Thank you once again guys.
YES! I have an essay due tomorow and my word kept crapping out on me. Thanks to you and posted of comment #7 (that post was my issue rather than any addins)
Thanks guys
I cannot tell you how incredibly helpful this was for me. I’m on a deadline at work & couldn’t highlight & Word kept crashing. All better now
Can’t thank you all enough!!
thank you so much! my word would not show the mouse, i couldn’t left click or select text but after taking the advice in steps 7 and 12 the problem was regulated.
thank you very much!
Thanks dude.
My problem was the SnagIt Plugin (SnagItOfficeAddin)
Regarding annoying word problem, “can’t select”, “can’t scroll”, same problem. Tried repairing office, did nothing to fix problem. Finally, right clicked in bottom of Word Window, in the status bar, and a list of options popped up, and there was a check mark next Selection Mode. I took the check mark off, and everything is working properly again. Hope this helps folks. Terri
Thanks Tim! I was lucky enough to find this after 10 minutes of dealing with the problem. Also thanks to Vivian and Arendas for fixing the crash problem.
Now I can write my paper that is due in 8 hours 10 hours
thanks very much bence
Thanks Bence!
I’m back in business…
Thank you soo much. Comment 7 cleared it up. Danke!
Vienna, Austria
What a life saver, Where would we be with MS without guys like you.
Thanks,
Good on you guys! Thanks for the assist – 3 days of going nuts!!!! You saved the day – shame afet all this time MS cant sort it out! Lost productivity on this is massive!
Thanks again ppl – power to the community!
Cheers
Adam
THANK YOU THANK YOU! i can finally write my essay in peace.
Thank you so much Bence!!!!! This was really pissing me off, and your fix worked like a charm!! Yay #7!!! I don’t have Snagit, so I guess I’ll never know what was wrong…
Thanks, it worked for me!
I just talk a friend through Bence’s fix over IM. She had never been in the registry before & my husband was sitting behind me saying, what you’re doing is scary. But it went smoothly and worked. Yey!! Everyone is very happy. Thanks so much!!
OMG Thank you for posting this! I had the same issue as everyone else… Microsoft update and no mouse ability.
For me, I just searched for the FlashPaper and Uninstalled it and VOILA! Instant gratification!
Thank you again!!!
Thank you so much for your advice on renaming the key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data .
I was so unbelievably frustrated! Thanks again for posting this, you have really helped me out, I have a few important assignments to finish!
All the best!!
I have to say I ran into this problem a second time (one year later), and for the second time I found this post.
Took me a few minutes to find my bearings (and then I noticed that the RegEdit still opened to the right entries!), but once I did what Bence suggested again — success!
Thanks all.
Ray
Thanks, folks! I absolutely DEPEND on forums like this one to deal with my MS challenges as they come up (and they do come up, again and again!)
Just wanted to say that my scroll issue was resolved by following the good advice and recommendations given by you folk, and I just want you to know how grateful I am that you post this kind of stuff!
Have a lovely day!
Britt
Thanks!
worked perfectly. I tried to reinstall office 3 times, until found this post… 
Have a great day, everyone!
Super! Worked as soon as I restarted the program!
OMFG THANK YOU. IVE BEEN HAVING THIS PROBLEM FOR THE PAST FREAKING WEEK AND IT WAS SO ANNOYING-ESPECIALLY WEN I HAD TO WRITE A WHOLE ESSAY. THANK YOU THIS MADE MY DAY. yea this is awesome.
#7 saved my life too, thanks!
Bence Arendas’ solution worked for me immediately. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THAT ADVICE!
I pasted it here, so nobody has to look for it.
1. Close Word and Outlook
2. Start / Run and type regedit
3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data
4. Rename this key.
5. Restart Word
THANKS SO MUCK BEEN TRYING TO FIX THIS FOR AGES TRIED EVERYTHING THANK YOU SO MUCH
Thanks renaming the file in regedit worked for me.
Thank you so much!!! I have had the same issue and tried everything! Renaming the Data to Old Data worked!!!!!
Thank you, Thank you Thank you!
Good to see this is working well for so many people, but it hasn’t for me. I’m on Win7 RC1 and was able to disable the addins via regedit, but I’m still experiencing the crash upon closing.
What do you do if you don’t have anything called “Data” in “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\” ?? Thats my issue.
Nevermind my last post. I overlooked the HKEY_CURRENT_USER part and was still in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Whoops! Now my problem is solved like the rest of you guys.
you guys f@@king rock! this is the 2nd time the updates didi this! It happens everytime i try to write my novel! Maybe god is telling me something! hehehe…..
Thanks for the advice, had it fixed in 3 seconds flat.
Hi
I found this page when trying to track down a solution to a problem I’m having with Word7. I have it on two computers – one has XP, one has Vista. On the XP computer Word runs fine, but on Vista it will crash when I try to use the equations function on the insert tab. It opens the equations options but won’t actually show any of the functions and freezes up, so the programme has to be closed down. I have tried the solutions posted here for the other problems with word but they haven’t fixed my problem. Just wondered if anyone knows a solution to this? Hope I am not out of order asking this question on here and breaking any ’site’ protocol!
Thanks, Jo
PS/ I am not a very savvy computer person, so pidgin computerspeak would be appreciated.
@Jo
Unfortunately what you report doesn’t give enough information to identify the problem. Here’s general advice:
Try the latest service pack if not already installed:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B444BF18-79EA-46C6-8A81-9DB49B4AB6E5&displaylang=en
Try a repair install. Control Panel – Programs – Uninstall – select Microsoft Office – click Change – select Repair – click Continue.
If that fails, you could still try uninstall – reinstall but I doubt it will work.
Tim
Tim – thank you so much for posting this fix – you saved me! -j
Hi Tim
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. Well, I’ve done what you suggested and it does work now!….. Feel a bit of a twit now, like one of those time wasting folk that dial 999 because they can’t get the top off their cough mixture bottle. Thanks for taking the time to reply.
Jo
@Jo that’s good to know, thanks for reporting back.
The truth is that most of us have little chance of working out exactly what is wrong when these problems occur, hence the brute-force fixes.
Tim
Hey, was wondering, if this happened on my Word, which I got because my Computer teacher installed them for me, and she used the same installer. So heres the thing: Will this happen to her?
If it does all Computers at school will get this and i might just be the only one to solve it.(Hope so)
In other words, (LOL, words, jaja) IT WAORKED THE THING OF REMOVING DATA
Wow! 2 years later this MS Word problem still persists!!!! What would I do without you?!?!? Thanks so much #7/Bence for providing the answer!!! You rock!!!!
Just to give you additional info, this problem also prevented my ability to open MS Word 07 docs from Windows Explorer! It wasn’t just about the mouse/scroll/highlight not working in Word…but even prevented accessing docs through the file mgmt system!!!
Anyway…Thanks a bunch!!!!!
A simplier solution is to remove the add in Word Safe Mode.
If you have just installed an AddIn or the vendor of a software product installed an update with an AddIn this may be your problem.
In my situation:
It looks like Snagit (a screen capture program) sent out an update recently. I installed the update and Word would not allow the mouse to copy or paste text.
The problem was that Snagit automatically installed it’s Word Add In. (I had fixed this problem when I originally installed Snagit)
To fix this problem go into Word safe mode: Run > winword /safe (space after winword but not after forward slash) and when Word launches go to Window icon at the top left, select Word Options at the rectange button at the Bottom, select Add In and then remove the Add In’s.
Had same office 2007 mouse issue. Did not have the Flash Paper add in. found that Adobe contibute add in caused the problem. Once removed all good. hope this helps someone.
Cheers
Wayne
just a quick THANK YOU!!!!
I was going crazy, cause my mouse stopped working in Word 2007 (vista) the day before my final paper was due (and of course I left it till the last second)
Anyways, I renamed the data file and all is well!!!
Thanks!!!!!
Another thanks to add to the list…no mouse in word 2007….what a nightmare….. but then your thread popped up on google and hey presto followed post #24 and nightmare over! BIG THANKS.
Thanks, I have Power Designer 12 and it was the problem with my Word!!!
Cheers!!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH BENCE!
I had this annoying problem for a week, but your trick worked!
thanks a bunch!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Bence, you’re the magic man!