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Delete key doesn't work with Word 2003

I upgraded to Office 2003 and now the delete key doesn't work in Word or in email composed with Word as the editor. The delete key does work with Excel and all other non Microsoft applications.

Thanks for your help.

amirinamdar

hi jholecek
open your program files folder and navigate to ...Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11.
right click on the file winword.exe.
click on properties
then select the security tab highlight your user group [you need to be and administrator/power user to do this]
then click on advanced, near the bottom of the window.
again highlight your user type and click on edit.
in permissions, check full control and click ok.
then apply your changes and you should be able to do what you want.
Cheers!
Amir

jholecek

ASKER

Hi Amir,

There is no security tab, only: General, Version, Compatability, Digital Signatures & Summary. I checked all the advanced options also. My account is as an administrator.

John Holecek

Joanne M. Orzech

Sorry if this sounds too simplistic but have to rule out everything else - you are not in overtype mode are you? If so, you will see OVR in black in the little status screen at the bottom. Try hitting the Insert key and see if you can delete things then.

Another thought - maybe track changes is turned on?

Another thought, under Tools, Options, Edit, make sure "use insert key for paste" is not checked.

If all else fails, try searching for and deleting or renaming all instances of normal.dot on your hard drive. Follow Dreamboat's suggestions here - they work almost always :) http://www.theofficeexperts.com/word.htm#TroubleshootingDocuments

If worse comes to worse, you can delete the Word data registry key.

jholecek

ASKER

Overtype mode is not on, track changes is not on, use insert key for paste is not checked, but here's the interesting thing I hadn't noticed before. When I highlight something and then hit the delete key, a message pops up down in the lower view bar (layout view, etc.) asking if I want to delete this block: no (yes). Hitting y for "yes" performs the delete.

What is going on here? Evidently it's some kind of new functionality for Word 2003, but I don't understand its use or how to get back to a one-step simple delete.

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Joanne M. Orzech

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jholecek

ASKER

You are a genius JOrzech! Thanks for the answer (I accepted it).

Joanne M. Orzech

So very glad to help jholecek! When you exit Word, and if it asks you if you want to save normal.dot - say yes. Otherwise, you'll run into the problem again. Just a head's up :) And thank you!

hander1

Had the same problem with the 'home' key. Nice one, Jorzech.

Joanne M. Orzech

Thanks hander1! Always makes me smile when I get it right :)