reinstall word 2k - what up ?

I am encountering an obnoxiously aggravating problem with WORD 2000 SP1, a component of Office 2000, that I can fix via a tedious procedure for a short period of time, but always comes back and causes loss of data at the worst possible time.... So, I am leaning toward reinstalling it, or getting away from using it alltogether via upgrading or even migrating to an entirely different wp.

Any advice on the latter wild idea of migrating away from it? I am considering that new free open source psuedo-office package -- anyone tried it and if so how good or bad is it compared to WORD?

But, back to the reinstall option. Anyone done that? Problems? Lost data? Settings? Is it necessary to reinstall the entire office suite or can WORD be done all by itself?

 

I've reinstall Office 2000 a number of times...to remove components I discovered I don't want, to add components I want to try out and to try to fix a ******* up install. I've never lost any of the data files I created and the only time I've lost settings is when I've uninstalled a component and then reinstalled it. The custom settings have remained when I've done a "repair" or in-place reinstall.

To reinstall just Word, choose the Custom Install Option when you get to it in Office's installation wizard. Unlike every other Microsoft program, you RIGHT click on a feature in the custom install list to choose the option (install, not available, run from CD, etc.).

Oh yeah...you might want to try the "Repair" option you are offered when the Office CD first fires up before going through all of the above.

 

Thanks for the feedback Miz...

Based on your re-assurance, I am going to reinstall.

Doing that will (should?) undo the SP1 "upgrade ". Since I observed that this problem did not begin until after the SP1 upgrade, I am considering that it may have caused the problem. Have you ever applied the SP1 upgrade? If yes, and if the reinstall did back it out, did you re-apply it after the reinstall???

 

I'm running Office with SP3 and don't have any problems with it. I don't recall if using it with SP1 only created problems...that was a looong time ago.

I don't think that uninstalling components trashed any of the service packs.

 

Whoops! I miz-spoke that it was SP1, when actually it was SP3, sorry Miz..

Well, I re-installed the entire suite (that appeared to be the only option), and so far so good, altho it may take several days before the WORD monster surfaces again.

However, I have to note a curiousity, which would be that the "SP3" tag is still in place for the office products, however the associated build numbers for each product are now considerably lower than they were prior to the reinstall -- which to me signals that something is not quite right, as I had always suspected that a build number correlated directly to the level of the service pack that has been applied. Well, with M$ products, ya never know I guess, ya just run with what ya got...

 

Well, I am very to report that it only took a few minutes for the WORD MONSTER to resurface, so the reinstall had absolutely no affect.

After this frustrating scenario (a considerable amount of attempts at fixing the problem preceeded this little attempt), rather than fork over more good money to M$ just to have something like this to "deja-vu" all over again down the road, I am leaning toward a non M$ solution.

Soooo, anyone got any good suggestions for a painless substitue for WORD - a good full blown word processor, not a "lite" note pad like app. Freeware would be good, and something intuitively oriented would be great to avoid a big learning curve. And it does not have to be a suite, altho might consider that open source suite that I have stumbled across somewhere in the desert, cant remember what it was called, if anyone could assure me that might be a good direction to head...

 

You know, if you problem with Word is one of failing to start or crashing shortly after starting or missing toobars/buttons (and a few others that escape me at the moment), the cure may be just to find and delete a file called "normal.dot." Word will make a shiny, ucorrupted new one next time it's started up.

 

Miz:

Been there, done that, along with an abundant array of other potential fixes, to include such (to me) extreme measures as cleaning the registry. Tried em all, now to include reinstall, but even that does not remedy the ailment.

I had noted tho that deleting normal.dot SEEMED to alleviate the problem for a while, altho the impression is deceptive and likely coincidental, as the last few times I did that, a couple of times the problem re-appeared immediately.

It's a really baffling problem. But I do appreciate the suggestion.

I am going to try another uninstall of Office and doing a total cleanup with "eraser" before reinstalling, and also doing a defrag first. NO, I am not going to reformat - I will try another Office alternative rather than go to extremes, as this has been way too time consuming. Time to fix it or move on...

Oh, the other open source office suite is called "Open Office ". Anyone have any input on the advisability of going with that?