Question

Word Hangs Opening Particular Files

Asked by: mrwolf

Hi,

I have a user which is having trouble opening particular Word documents from a file server. Most documents will open fine but for some reason Word will simply hang when trying to open some files. It sits there trying to open it for about 5 minutes and Word is not usable. Sometimes it will eventually open.

The documents in question will open correctly on other machines.

Things i have tried to resolve this issue but have made no difference:
- copying the documents to the local machine
- running detect and repair
- Recreating the Normal.dot template
- Re-installing Office 2003 (note that i did restore Office settings after this...)
- Patching Office and Windows
- Uninstalling printer drivers and scanner drivers.
- Talking with Level 1 Microsoft support who said it was a hardware fault before i finished my first sentence... I hung up

OS: XP Pro SP3
App: Office 2003 Pro SP3

Any other ideas as to what it could be?

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Asked On
2009-04-15 at 18:02:34ID24326537
Tags

Word

,

Office 2003

,

XP

,

Windows

Topics

Microsoft Word

,

Windows XP Operating System

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
10

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Answers

 

by: NahThenLadPosted on 2009-04-15 at 19:27:59ID: 24154111

Sounds like you have done everything you can on the local machine. I have only questions for you atm!

Are the files that won't open all in the same directory?
Is it the same files all of the time that won't open or is it seemingly random?
Could it be a permission issue for this user, can another user access the files logged into the same machine?


Tony


 

by: mrwolfPosted on 2009-04-15 at 19:35:13ID: 24154131

- Well some are in the same directory but some are in others
- It is the same files from what i can see
- It is not a permission issue. The same user is able to access the files using a different machine.

Thanks for your reply.

 

by: NahThenLadPosted on 2009-04-16 at 01:51:59ID: 24155577

Have you tried working through the following MS article?

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;830561

 

by: dlc110161Posted on 2009-04-16 at 07:46:00ID: 24158304

I agree with NahThenLad, the attached template is no longer where the document thinks it is. To check, click on Tools, Templates and Add-ins and review the attached template. You can re-attach the document to the current Normal template from there.

Dawn Bleuel
Word MVP

 

by: mrwolfPosted on 2009-04-17 at 01:04:33ID: 24165680

That seems very plausible! I have been very busy today so i will have to try them out on Monday afternoon Australia time  :(

Thank you for your input. Fingers crossed!

 

by: mrwolfPosted on 2009-04-20 at 00:43:01ID: 24182532

Hi,

You are correct. The documents are pointing to a template which resides in a share which no longer exists. If i change the attached template to the local Normal.dot then it opens fine!

Noe the problem is that it happens to quite a lot of files and i do not want to have to go through and change each one. Method 4 in the Microsoft KB article looks like a good solution but i do not know how to implement it. As a band-aid solution i am going to make the share it is looking for and simply rename a Normal.dot to the template it is looking for so that it will find the template.

Is there a way to make Word always use Normal.dot if it does not find the attached template? Or could i get some help with implementing Method 4

Thank you very much

 

by: dlc110161Posted on 2009-04-20 at 14:31:22ID: 24188940

Here is a slightly revised version of Method 4. You will be prompted for your server name as well as the path to your New template.

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/CreateAMacro.htm for how to use this code.

Dawn Bleuel
Word MVP

Sub AttachToNewTemplate()
Dim strFilePath As String
Dim strPath As String
Dim intCounter As Integer
Dim strFileName As String
Dim OldServer As String
Dim objDoc As Document
Dim objTemplate As Template
Dim dlgTemplate As Dialog
Dim nServer As Integer
 
'Capture the Old Server Name
OldServer = InputBox("Enter the name of the old Server", "Server Name and Path", "Server Name")
nServer = Len(OldServer)
'Capture where the New Template is located
strFilePath = InputBox("What is the folder location that you want to use?")
'Adjust captured information for proper syntax
If Right(strFilePath, 1) <> "\" Then strFilePath = strFilePath & "\"
    strFileName = Dir(strFilePath & "*.doc")
        'Open Files
        Do While strFileName <> ""
            Set objDoc = Documents.Open(strFilePath & strFileName)
            Set objTemplate = objDoc.AttachedTemplate
            Set dlgTemplate = Dialogs(wdDialogToolsTemplates)
            strPath = dlgTemplate.Template
                'Test if file is attached to Old Server
                'If it is, replace with new template location
                If LCase(Left(strPath, nServer)) = LCase(OldServer) Then
                    objDoc.AttachedTemplate = NormalTemplate
                End If
            strFileName = Dir()
            objDoc.Save
            objDoc.Close
        Loop
'Release Memory
Set objDoc = Nothing
Set objTemplate = Nothing
Set dlgTemplate = Nothing
 
End Sub
                                              
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by: mrwolfPosted on 2009-04-21 at 00:04:42ID: 24191554

Thank you very much to you both. This issue is now resolved!

You are considerably better than Microsoft tech support who told me it was hardware and to take the computer to my local technician. I am my local technician and i knew it wasn't hardware!

 

by: mrwolfPosted on 2009-04-21 at 00:07:34ID: 31570791

Thank you so much guys! I had spent a long time on this issue. I split the points because the initial solution was posted by Nath and dc helped me to implement the VB macro.

 

by: dlc110161Posted on 2009-04-21 at 06:38:48ID: 24194129

I'm very glad that you got it working.

Dawn Bleuel
Word MVP

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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