Microsoft Office Word Support Team Blog

  • Form Controls stop working after December 2014 Updates

    For some users, Form Controls (FM20.dll) are no longer working as expected after installing MS14-082 Microsoft Office Security Updates for December 2014. Issues are experienced at times such as when they open files with existing VBA projects using forms controls, try to insert a forms control in to a new worksheet or run third party software that may use these components.

    You may received errors such as:

    "Cannot insert object"

    "Object library invalid or contains references to object definitions that could not be found"

    "The program used to create this object is Forms. That program is either not installed on your computer or it is not responding. To edit this object, install Forms or ensure that any dialog boxes in Forms are closed."   
           * Note In this last error message, the Forms text may also be replaced by the GUID of the control.

    Additionally, you may be unable to use or change properties of an ActiveX control on a worksheet or receive an error when trying to refer to an ActiveX control as a member of a worksheet via code. 

    Find the latest information about this issue click here.

  • New OneNote Support Blog

    We have transitioned the OneNote posts to a new blog.  Check it out here http://blogs.technet.com/b/onenotesupport/ 

  • Vulnerability in Microsoft Word Could Allow Remote Code Execution

     

    Updates are Now Available:

    Find these links located on the following Office Update Blog

    http://blogs.technet.com/b/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2014/04/08/april-2014-office-update-release.aspx


     

    As reported, Microsoft is working on a fix to address the recently reported Vulnerability with RTF files in Microsoft Word.

    The following Security blog contains some good information about the vulnerability.

     

    Date for Office Patch

    Microsoft Plans to address this issue with an update on April 8th 

    The update provided through MS14-017 fully addresses the Microsoft Word issue first described in Security Advisory 2953095. This advisory also included a Fix it to disable opening rich-text format (RTF) files within Microsoft Word. Once the security update is applied, you should disable the Fix it to ensure RTF files will again render normally. At this time, we are still only aware of limited, targeted attacks directed at Microsoft Word 2010. The update will fully address all affected versions.

     http://blogs.technet.com/b/msrc/archive/2014/04/03/advance-notification-service-for-the-april-2014-security-bulletin-release.aspx 

     

    Microsoft provides vulnerability information to major security software providers that can then use this information to provide updated protections to customers via their security software or devices, such as antivirus, network-based intrusion detection systems, or host-based intrusion prevention systems. To determine whether active protections are available from security software providers, please visit the active protections websites provided by program partners, listed in Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP) Partners.

     

    Mitigation using File Block

    One of the points of mitigation for the Windows versions of Word is to enable the File Block options for the Rich Text Format (RTF). This option is available in the Trust Center for Word 2010 and 2013.

     

    Figure 1: File Block Settings in the Trust Center.

     

    Registry keys for the RTF File Block

    The registry keys for 2013 and 2013 are a little different from those for 2003 / 2007. With the later versions, the key has changed to one key from a separate key for Open and Save as in 2003 / 2007.

    • Word 2013

    HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Word\Security\FileBlock\RtfFiles
     Dword value=2

    • Word 2010

    [HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Word\Security\FileBlock\]
    "RtfFiles"=dword:00000002

    • Word 2007

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Security\FileOpenBlock]
     "RtfFiles"=dword:00000001

    • Word 2003

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
     [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Security\FileOpenBlock]
     "RtfFiles"=dword:00000001

    Deploying using a Group Policy

    Here are some various articles around the Administrative templates for the various Office versions and deploying Office keys via a Group Policy.

    Available Policy Template Downloads (contains the File Block items)

    Group Policy Templates:

    More Information:

     Macintosh

    We do not have any means to mitigate this from the Macintosh environment as we have with the File Block for RTF options that the security advisory discusses.  The Macintosh versions do not have this infrastructure for blocking the various file types and instigating Protected View.

  • "Cannot open the file because the file format or extension is invalid" opening Office files

    UPDATE:

    Upon further analysis of the files that have been submitted to us for investigation, the analysts

    have determined that the files are encrypted with a private and public key.

    Unless the private key is available, the files will not be able to be recovered.

    The private key is more than likely held by the attacker.The premise of ransom ware such as this is

    that if a person pays the ransom, a key is provided to unlock the files.

    The best course of action is to clean up the malware and then restore files from a backup.

     

      We have identified the malware as a new family of ransomware

     

     

    Definition Information:

        Latest public Endpoint AM defs:  1.157.1542.0   (Expect several hours later for 1.157.1559.0 or higher)
         http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/definitions/whatsnew.aspx

        Latest Prerelease AM defs: 1.157.1542.0  (Expect several hours later for 1.157.1559.0 or higher)
         http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/shared/prereleasesignatures.aspx

     

    The signatures are now updated. You should be able to use Safety Scanner to detect and clean it. It does NOT clean your documents, so you will want to restore from a backup after cleaning the malware from your system.



     

    More Information:

     

    We are currently investigating an ongoing situation where users may encounter an error when trying to open Office documents.

    The error can happen opening any Office file type, not just Excel files as shown in the image below. The error says:

    "Cannot open the file ... because the file format or extension is not valid. Verify, that the file has not been corrupted and that the file extension matches the format of the file."

     

     

      

       

    It's recommended you update the definitions in your antivirus software and run a complete scan of the affected machine(s).

     

    When opening binary Word (.DOC) files that are attributed with this issue, Word does not know how to open, so you receive a dialog for File conversion as shown below.

     

    We've had reports of it affecting Word documents, Excel files, PowerPoint files and Access databases.

     

    Other Support Blog links

     

     

    _____________________________________________________________________________

    Security EssentialsMicrosoft Security Essentials  http://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/mse.aspx

     

  • Office 2013 VBA component stops functioning

    We are seeing a few cases where the VBA component of the Office 2013 apps stop functioning.  The applications are working properly when installed.  Then a few days later VBA buttons no longer work.  Here are the scenarios that we
    have seen:

    Word

    • The Macro button is not greyed out but when trying to run or record a macro they receive the following
      message, “The function you are attempting to run contains macros or content that requires macro language support"

    PowerPoint

    • The Visual Basic, and Macros options are disabled/greyed on the ribbon.
    • When opening presentations with VBA code, the user receives the following message:
      "The document contains macros. Macro language support for this application is disabled. Features requiring VBA are not available. Would you like to open this document read-only?"

    Access:

    • When running wizards the receive the following error,  “This feature isn't installed, or has been disabled"
    • When opening VBA editor the user receives “"Microsoft Access is unable to load the Visual Basic for
      Applications dynamic-link library (dll) Vbe7" when opening the Visual Basic Editor (VBE)”

    Excel

    • The Visual Basic, Macros and Record Macro options are disabled/greyed on the ribbon.
    • When opening workbooks with VBA code, the user receive the following message, “The Visual Basic for
      Applications (VBA) macros in this workbook are corrupted and have been deleted."

     

    In most cases repairing MS Office fixes the issue.  

    What we believe is happening is there is a registry cleaner or system maintenance type application removing some our registry keys that we
    need for VBA to run successfully.  In the above scenarios when the MS Office application was installed the VBA worked properly.

  • Word documents using Information Rights Management (IRM) may hang when opening

    We have seen reports of Word documents hanging whenever trying to open a document that uses Information Rights Management (IRM) after you apply MS12-057. Additionally, the reports go on to say that a new file may hang when you try to apply IRM protection after installing this security update.

    If you suspect you are running into this error, you should be able to resolve the problem by deleting all files in the following path:

    %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\DRM

    also, make sure to rename or delete the following registry key (if you choose to delete the key, be sure to back it up first):

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\DRM - delete the CachedCorpLicenseServer value


    and delete or rename all entries under (if you choose to delete the key, be sure to back it up first):


    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\DRM\ServiceLocations


    Microsoft has not confirmed whether the hanging behavior is actually a direct result of installing MS12-057, and the problem is still under investigation.

  • "Unspecified Automation Error" after applying MS12-060

    MS12-060 is a security update that was released Tuesday, August 14, 2012. This update replaced MS12-027. Some may be seeing "Unspecified Automation Error" when running your Microsoft Office VBA code after installing MS12-060.

    Update: We have redeployed the MS12-060 update that contains the fix for this issue automatically built in.  The update is now available from the Microsoft download center.

    These KB articles have been updated with mention of the workarounds, a fix it package and a link to download the new update.  You do not need to install the original update in order to install the new update:

    2007
    http://support.microsoft.com/KB/2687441

    2010
    http://support.microsoft.com/KB/2597986

    Office Sustained Engineering Blog has been updated with a resolution.
    http://blogs.technet.com/b/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2012/08/24/ms12-060-not-initiating-with-certain-controls.aspx

     

    For more information on MS12-060, review the complete security bulletin:

    Microsoft Security Bulletin MS12-060 - Critical
    Vulnerability in Windows Common Controls Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2720573)
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/MS12-060

  • Deleting orphaned list templates in a document.

    From time to time, we come across support cases where customers need to clean up the list templates in a document.  While working with a document, there are situations when you will want to know how many list tempates are currently in use and when you check that value, it is a much larger number than what you expect.  Before discussing how to get the correct number, I want to mention that I am assuming you have at least some type of understanding about list templates and the scenarios that will put a document into a state where it contains un-used list templates.  There are a few different articles on the internet that discuss list numbering and list templates.  A regular search for these terms should get you some of the background information related to this particular information.

    Note: This particular blog post is related to the Open Xml (.docx) file format and will not address the problem with binary (.doc) files.

    Having said that, we can now start discussing what needs to happen if you want to remove these un-used or orphaned list templates.  This is a manual process and I am also making further assumptions that you have some understanding of opening a Word document and modifying the underlying xml files.  I will use the following document for this example, which at first contains two list templates.  

     

    To achieve an orphaned list template, I will delete everything in List #2 so only the first list remains and then save the document.  It now looks like the following:

    If I query the object model for the number of list templates (ActiveDocument.ListTemplates.Count), I will get a value of 2 instead of 1.  To get the actual count of list templates currently in use, we first need to rename the file to ".zip" and have a look at its contents.  After zipping my document, I can navigate to the "word" folder and this is what I find:

    The two files of importance are "document.xml" and "numbering.xml".  We will not make any changes to "document.xml"; we just need to look through it to find out what list templates are currently in use.  As you can see in the following screenshot, this document has only one "numId" in use with a value of 1.  It does appear three times, one for each list item but I only need to know if the style is used at least once.  You also need to keep in mind that if you are using list numbering in other parts of the document (like headers, footers, etc...), you will need to repeat this check for each of those xml files.  The process will be the same in those files, so you still are just looking for "numId" values.

    Now that I know what "numId" values are used in the document, the next thing I will do is look through the file "numbering.xml" so I can see what orphaned list templates are still listed.  Here is what mine looks like:

    I collapsed the "abstractNum" tags to make it easier to show the relationship between the "numId" and "abstractNumId".  As you can see in the screenshot, the document is still listing both list templates in the document.  Since my search through "document.xml" only showed the numId = 1, any other numId can be deleted along with its related abstractNum tag. 

    After deleting the "num" tag with a numId = 2 and the "abstractNum" tag with an abstractNumId = 0, I can save the "numbering.xml" file and place it back into my Word document.  You should now have a document that has the correct number of list templates. 

    One thing to keep in mind is that, while this method does work it could be very time consuming on larger documents.  There might be other sites/blogs that have information about using VBA or some other approach to automate this type of clean up in a Word document.  There are even some approaches to manually modifying the document in Word to achieve the same results.  The goal of this post was to try and provide another option for users to choose from regarding this particular issue. 

    Lastly, I spent the weekend writing an automated version of this blog using the Open Xml SDK to see if that works and it does, so it would be possible to get this working on a larger scale programmatically. 

  • Deploy custom templates in Microsoft Office.

    When it comes to creating Word documents, everything starts with the template.  You cannot create a document without one and even though the Word application does provide users with many different templates to use by default, there are many scenarios where custom templates will need to be used. 

    Since many people create their own set of templates, they also like the idea of having these templates show up in the interface of Word so that it is easier for users to find and create documents.  It is possible to add your own set of custom templates to the interface of Word and the links below will provide you with the information necessary to create and deploy these templates.  The purpose of this blog post is to provide some supplemental information regarding that particular TechNet article to address a couple common questions that get asked while setting up this behavior.

    Note: These templates should look the same in all Office apps that take advantage of this functionality.   For the context of this blog post though, I am going to be specifically talking about the Microsoft Word application.

     

    Word 2007: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc178976(office.12).aspx

     

     

    Word 2010: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc178976.aspx

     

     

    At this point, assuming you have successfully deployed the custom templates per the TechNet article, you should now have something similar to the above screenshots.  You should also notice that the registry contains some changes that you did not make.  In the article, the only changes in the registry were to one of the following locations.

    • Word 2007 - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Spotlight\Providers
    • Word 2010 - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\Spotlight\Providers

    However, if you went through the article correctly and have opened Word to verify that templates do indeed display as expected, you will notice another registry key value that was created at the following location.

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Spotlight\Content

    This location in the registry is a cache of the information from the custom xml file you created.  Word will use these values and even though they are not technically required, they are necessary because if you delete the Provider (for this example it's Contoso) under the Content hive, Office will recreate the key the next time an Office application launches.

    One of the common questions we get regarding these custom template is about the "startdate" and "enddate" registry keys.  These values are from the xml file you created and are added to the cache.  When an Office application opens, it checks these registry values for each provider and depending on what the current day is, decides if it should display the templates.

    With the "startdate" key, Office will only display the templates if this value is in the past or equals the current day.  The "enddate" value is also checked and if the value is a date in the future, the application does nothing and displays the same information from the cache.  If the "enddate" is a value less than or equal to the current day however, it does not display the templates.

    Where this can cause concerns is when changes are made to the xml file that was initially created but the "enddate" is still in the future.  The problem is that these changes will not get updated in the display for Word, because it will only check for updates to the xml if the "enddate" value is a date in the past. 

    This brings us to the other common question we get about this feature.  How can the templates/display be updated?  As far as I can tell, there are only two possible workarounds for updating the content. 

    1. If you know you will be making continuous changes, you could set the "enddate" to a value that is not very far in the future.  Then each time you update your xml file, push the date out a little bit farther. 
    2. When you push out changes to the xml, you can also delete the cached provider key and Office should retrieve the new xml and update the cache the next time Word is launched.
  • How to disable the Save to SkyDrive functionality in OneNote 2010.

    We have been getting a few support cases lately dealing with finding a way to disable the Save to SkyDrive functionality for OneNote.  Since it seems like this is something other people might also find useful, we decided to create this blog post to explain how this can be accomplished.

    The first thing to mention before we get into how this will work is to explain the different entry points for SkyDrive functionality in OneNote.  First, after installing OneNote and running the application for the first time, you will be presented with the following dialog.

     

    Second, there is a section in the backstage where you can share your notebooks on SkyDrive.  This feature is found in the Share tab of the backstage under the heading "Web Location" and should look similar to the following screenshot.

    This feature allows you to login with your Windows Live credentials and you will have access to your SkyDrive folders out on the web.  Many companies feel the need to prevent this type of internet access in their environments, hence the need to disable this functionality. 

    Keep in mind, the following information is somewhat geared towards IT admins, so I will be making a few assumptions along the way. 

    Since most admins make use of group policies (GPO's) in their environment, this should be a simple task.  Assuming you have already installed the group policy templates for Office (http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=18968), you can open the group policy editor and navigate to:

    User Configuration | Policy | Administrative Templates | Classic Administrative Templates | Microsoft Office 2010 | Miscellaneous.

    In this section, you can "Enable" the item "Do not allow Save to Web integration".  Once this policy is in place, you should notice that the "Web Location:" section, in the above screenshot is no longer available and users will not be able to sign in to their SkyDrive account.

    If you would rather just set a registry key, you can use the following.

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\Common\WebIntegration

    DWORD = WebIntegrationEnabled

    Value = 0

    Note: It is important to mention that this will disable the functionality for OneNote and the rest of the Office applications.

    Now the next item to discuss is the dialog presented to users the first time they boot the OneNote application.  This dialog can be disabled with the following regkey:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\14.0\OneNote\WebServiceProvider

    DWORD = DisableSkydriveSetupOnFirstBoot

    Value = 1

    The last thing I want to mention is how to test if this key worked.  The first key, which disables the functionality in the backstage, should be an easy check and you can open the application to see if it worked.  The first boot check will be a little bit trickier, since the user has probably clicked on the dialog and it no longer prompts the user with the option about where to open the first notebook. 

    When a user makes a selection in that first boot dialog and they click on continue, the following registry key is added.

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\OneNote

    DWORD = FirstBootStatus

    The value is not important because simply deleting the key will cause OneNote to prompt with the first boot dialog the next time you open the application.  That is unless you have enabled the DisableSkydriveSetupOnFirstBoot key, in which case you should see the expected behavior and OneNote will open without the prompt. 

  • Error when opening a Word 2007 or 2010 document “The name in the end tag of the element must match the element type in the start tag”

    We've recently noticed an issue where documents are becoming corrupt after making edits and saving the file.  There have been multiple forum threads related to this particular issue and the purpose of this blog is to try and give you some ideas for how to correct the problem.

    The one disclaimer worth mentioning is that this is not a 100% fix for all corrupt documents, nor will it fix all documents that give you the specific error message noted below.  The idea is to try and give you some options for getting your document back to a state where you can make edits/changes.

    Problem Description:

    Opening a Word document gives you an error "The file <filename> cannot be opened because there are problems with the contents. 

    The name in the end tag of the element must match the element type in the start tag.  Location: Part: /word/document.xml, Line: 2, Column: 129414"

     

    If you came to this blog from the FixIt KB article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2528942, you can use the steps below to try and edit the document so that the issue does not keep re-occurring when you make more edits to the document and save the file.  After running the FixIt you should be able open the document in Word without getting an error message.   

    The problem however, still remains in the structure of the document. Typically it's somewhere in an equation or a textbox.  If you make any edit to the document that doesn't correct the behavior and you save the document, you will end up with the document still giving you the error message.  It's important to keep in mind that the FixIt solution won't prevent the problem from re-occurring. It can only put the document into a state where Word will be able to open the document. 

    Next, we get to the workarounds and if you didn't get to this blog post from the KB article, you can go to the article referenced above and run the FixIt solution to correct the document.  The KB article also has more information about this particular issue.  Once you have the document in a state where you can open it in Word, you can then proceed to the workarounds to try and correct the document.

    Possible Workarounds: 

    1. Grouping objects.  These steps are done with Word 2010 in mind because the Selection Pane was introduced making it easier to see all the objects on the page and if you are using Word 2007 or earlier, it will be a little bit more difficult to select and group each individual object. 
      1. To start with, after opening the fixed document you will want to turn on the Selection pane.  This can be found in the Home tab of the ribbon.  In the Editing group of the Home tab, click the Select dropdown and then click Selection Pane....
      2. This will open a task pane on the right side of the document and allow you to view the different objects on the currently active page.
      3. Hold CTRL and select each Text Box in the selection pane.
      4. Now we want to group all these objects together. Under Drawing Tools, on the Format tab, in the Arrange group, click Group, and then click Group.
      5. Once you have all objects grouped on each page, you can save the document with a new name.
    2. Save the document in the RTF file format.  This should work for Word 2007 and Word 2010.If the first workaround didn't work, you can try saving the document as an RTF file.  This method seems to consistently work in the example documents I've seen the exhibit the problem behavior.  It's not an ideal solution and the file sizes get quite large, but if you need to edit the file and can't find any other way of correcting the document, this might be your only option.
      1. After you open the document in Word, click  File  and then click Save (for Word 2007 click the Office Button  and then click Save As)
      2. In the Save As dialog, click on the Save as type: dropdown and select Rich Text Format (*.rtf), then click Save.
        1. You could also save the document in the binary (.doc) format, but I've seen that the shapes tend to get moved around and shifted so they don't line up quite right so it's up to you if you want to use .doc or .rtf.
        2. Both can work, but rtf seems to be more consistent and have the least visual changes in the document.
    3. If you are running into problems where the steps above do not work, you can upload the file to an online share and send me the link.  I'm working on adjusting the FixIt solution so that it will fix the document and these manual steps will not be necessary, but until then you will have to rely on the KB article, this blog or some of the online forums for help getting the document fixed.

     

    Lastly, there have been a lot of forum threads related to this particular problem and I would like to say a huge "Thank You!" to the MVP's and everyone else who has been helping people get their documents fixed. 

  • Office 2010 Web Application Workshops and experts coming soon to a city near you…

    Thinking about setting up Microsoft Office 2010 Web Applications in your environment? Curious about Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint and Word web applications?

    If the answer to any of the above questions is yes, you should consider attending one of the Office 2010 Web Application workshops that will be delivered in cities around the country in the coming months.

    The Office 2010 Web Applications workshop is designed to provide you with information regarding best practices on installation, manage, and usage of the Office web applications of PowerPoint, Word, Excel, and OneNote 2010.

    Key Focus Areas:

    ·         Setup of Office web applications

    ·         Server Architecture

    ·         The Companions

    ·         Introduction to Excel Word, PowerPoint, and OneNote  web applications


    IT Professionals responsible for the deployment, maintenance, and troubleshooting of Office installations. Application-specific and/or help desk-type issues are not included in the scope of this offering.

    Delivery Dates and Locations:
    April 5-6, 2011 – Irving, TX
    April 19-20, 2011 – Irvine, CA
    May 3-4, 2011 – Downers Grove, IL
    May 17-18, 2011 – New York, NY
    June 1-2, 2011 – Tampa, FL
    New dates and locations will be announced here as they become available.

    Pricing:
    $1000 USD per person

    To register or for more information:

    •    To register online, visit http://www.microsoft.com/events, click the Find Events and Webcasts link, and perform an advanced search using the following EventIDs or keywords "Office 2010 Deployment":

    o    Las Colinas:  1032479205
    o    Irvine, CA: :  1032479318
    o    Downers Grove, IL:  1032479319
    o    New York, NY:  1032479324
    o    Tampa, FL:  1032479329

    •    To register via email, send mail to ProfessionalServices@Microsoft.com and include the following information:

    o    Company Name
    o    Attendee Name
    o    Physical Address
    o    Phone Number
    o    Number of Attendees
    o    Desired Event Location/Date

    •    To register via phone, call 1-888-875-9071

    •    Email inquiries to ProfessionalServices@Microsoft.com

  • After Installing KB2251419, Microsoft Word 2007 application is crashing


    We recently released a security update KB2251419.

    MS10-056: Description of the security update for Word 2007: August 10, 2010

    After installing this security patch, our customers are complaining about Word 2007 application is crashing.

    This issue happens when you have an “ActiveX control” in Microsoft Word Template and you are creating new document based on that Word Template.

    Currently this issue is under investigation.

    The only workaround at this point we have for this issue is to remove ActiveX control from your Word Template.

    We do not recommend uninstalling security update KB2251419.

    UPDATE about this issue

    We have fix available for this issue now. This fix can be downloaded from following link

    2449499    Description of the Office Word 2007 hotfix package (Word-x-none.msp): October 26, 2010
    http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-US;2449499

    For Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policies, Click here

  • June 2010 Cumulative updates are shipped for Word 2010 and Word 2007

    June 2010 Cumulative updates are shipped. Following are the KBs for Word 2010 and Word 2007

     

    Description of the Word 2010 hotfix package (Word-x-none.msp): June 29, 2010

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2204026/

     

    Description of the Office Word 2007 hotfix package (Word-x-none.msp, Wordconv-x-none.msp): June 29, 2010

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/983313/

     

    Description of the Office Word 2007 hotfix package (Mso-x-none.msp, Word-x-none.msp): June 29, 2010

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2203971/

     

    Issue fixed for Word 2007

    • Consider the following scenario. A Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 user sends an email message to a Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 user who does not use Word as the email editor. The Office Outlook 2007 user uses a list format that cannot be represented in HTML other than with plain text. Then, the Outlook 2003 user replies to the email message and inserts a new paragraph at the beginning of one of the numbered paragraphs. In this scenario, the Office Outlook 2007 user cannot see the new paragraph.
    • When you send an HTML-based email message from Office Outlook 2007, the size of the email message grows when you reply or forward the email message.

    • Consider the following scenario:
      • You have an Office Word document that contains two or more punctuation marks in a row.
      • You change the punctuation marks in the document. 
      • You save the changed document as a new file.
      In this scenario, you find that the changes that Office Word 2007 marks are more than just the changed punctuation marks when you compare the two documents at the character level by using Office Word 2007.
    • Office Outlook 2007 stops responding when you receive a certain HTML email message.
    • In Office Word 2007, you find that the bullets and numbering are missing when you open an Office Word 2003 document that contains bullets and numbering.
    • Consider the following scenario:
      • You add the Update fields before printing object for Office Word 2007 in a Group Policy object (GPO).
      • In Office Outlook 2007, you print an email message that contains an image.
      • The email message that you print is in HTML format.
                 In this scenario, the printed image is scaled incorrectly.
    • After you apply the hotfix that is described in Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article 981045, the Edit Links to Files function requires a long time to open in Office Word 2007.
    • After you apply the update that is described in Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) 978398, the following issue still occurs in Office Word 2007:
      You open an Office Word 2007 document by using Windows Internet Explorer. When you click Enable Macros, you receive the following error message:
      Can't exit design mode because Control ' Name ' cannot be created.

      For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
      978398  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978398/ ) Description of the Office Word 2007 hotfix package (Word-x-none.msp, Wordconv-x-none.msp): February 23, 2010
    • In Office Word 2007, the numbered outline list item that contains a style separator or a hidden paragraph mark does not display in the Cross Reference dialog box.
    • When you apply a custom XSL Transformation (XSLT) template to an Office Word 2007 document by using the Document.TransformDocument method in the Word object model, the footnotes and the endnotes are not added to the document if the XSLT template contains a number level in the transform.
    • After you save a file in which you added a comment to a quick part that is inserted for a document property in Office Word 2007, you receive the following error message when you open the file again:
      The file filename cannot be opened because there are problems with the contents.
      Details: Unspecified error.
      Location: Part: /Word/document.xml, Line:#, Column:####.
    • When you print a document in Office Word 2007, the text that is in the drop-down form field is printed in a big font size and the letters of the text are squeezed together. This issue occurs if the following conditions are true:
      • The operating system that you use is Windows XP or Windows Server 2003.
      • The document is in a right-to-left format.
      • The drop-down form field contains some left-to-right text, such as Latin text.
      • This is the first time that you try to print in the current session of Office Word 2007.
    • Consider the following scenario:
      • You copy a shape in a Visio file that is stored on an Universal Naming Convention (UNC) share.
      • In Office Word 2007, you select Paste Special, you click Paste link in the Paste Special dialog box, you select Microsoft Visio Drawing Object under As, and then you click OK.

        Note At this point, the Linked Visio Object option appears when you right-click the pasted shape.
      • You save, and then you close the Office Word 2007 file.
      • You open the Office Word 2007 file again.
      In this scenario, the Linked Visio Object option disappears when you right-click the pasted shape.

     

    Issue Fixed for Word 2010

    • When you print from Word 2010 by using the scaling function of the print driver, you receive the following warning message:
      The margins of section 1 are set outside the printable area of the page. Do you want to continue?
      After you click Yes, the scaling is incorrect and some text is cut when the document is printed. This problem occurs when the document size differs from the default paper size

  • April 2010 Cumulative updates for Word 2007

    Happy Patch Tuesday !!!

     Today we released Cumulative Updates for Office. We fixed number of issues for Word in this cumulative update.

     Here is the link

     981045 Description of the Office Word 2007 hotfix package (Word-x-none.msp, Wordconv-x-none.msp): April 27, 2010
    http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;981045

    Issues Fixed

    ==========

  • When you use the Paste link feature in a Microsoft Office Word 2007 document, the pasted link is updated when you open the document. This problem occurs even if you configure the following settings inOffice Word 2007:
    • You click to clear the Update automatic links at open check box in the Word Options dialog box in Office Word 2007.
    • You set the Update method for selected link option to Manual update.
  • Consider the following scenario:
    • You have an Office Word 2007 document that contains XML tags. The XML tag contains a misspelled word.
    • You run the spelling and grammar check tool in Office Word 2007.
    • You manually correct the misspelled word in the Spelling and Grammar window.
    In this scenario, the first letter of the word is removed. Additionally, the word is moved outside the XML tag.

  • When you compare two Office Word 2007 documents that have tables, the result for the table section is incorrect. For example, several table rows are marked as they are heavily changed. However, only one row is inserted.

  • You turn on the Open Document Management API (ODMA) functionality in Office Word 2007. However, you cannot save an Office Word 2007 document in the format that you specified in the Save As dialog box. The document is saved in the default format.

  • Consider the following scenario:
    • You have an Office Word 2007 document that contains one of the following objects:
      • Picture
      • SmartArt
      • Shape
    • You add a comment to the object.
    • You save the document in the .htm, .html, .mht,or .mhtml format, and then close the document.
    • You reopen the document.
    In this scenario, the comment is not displayed.

  • You have an Office Word 2007 document that contains a pasted link. After you turn on track changes in the document, a copy of the pasted link is added to the document every time that you update the pasted link. Additionally, the links become broken.

  • You open an Office Outlook 2007 e-mail message that contains a specific pattern of disordered close tags in an HTML body. However, Office Outlook 2007 becomes unresponsive and then crashes.

  • Consider the following scenario:
    • You have an Office Word 2007 document that links to a sub document that is saved locally.
    • You move the sub document to a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) share.
    • You try to open the sub document in the master document.
    In this scenario, you receive the following error message: "Cannot open the specified file."

     

  • Consider the following scenario:
    • You have an Office Word 2007 document that links to a sub document.The sub document is saved in a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) share.
    • You move the sub document to the local computer.
    • You try to open the sub document in the master document.
    In this scenario, you receive the following error message: "Cannot open the specified file."
  • You have a .docm document that contains a custom tab in the ribbon. After you insert the .docm sub document to the document in Office Word 2007, the custom tab is removed.

  • When you open an HTML e-mail message that contains nested tables in Office Outlook 2007, Outlook may become unresponsive. This problem occurs when the e-mail message was previously forwarded multiple times.

  • In the Japanese version of Office Word 2007, you insert a full-pitch space into a document. However, characters in the document are displayed with gaps between the lines.

  • Consider the followingscenario:
    • You enable a right to left and a left to right language in the 2007 Microsoft Office Language Settings tool.
    • You create an e-mail message in Office Outlook 2007. In the body of the e-mail message, you use the right to left language. However, in the header fields, such as the To line, you use the left to right language.
    • You click the body of the e-mail message.
    In this scenario, the shape of the cursor still shows the right to left cursor although the current keyboard language is left to right.

  • Consider the following scenario:
    • You delete a paragraph of text in an Office Word 2007 document when Track Changes is turned on.
    • You select some other text in the document together with part of the deleted text.
    • You delete the selected text.
    In this scenario, a new paragraph is added. If you turn on the paragraph mark, you can see that a new paragraph mark is added.

  • Consider the following scenario:
    • You have an Office Word 2007 document that has some text that is inserted by another user.
    • You delete some parts of the text whileTrack Changes is turned on.
    • Then, you select some parts of the deleted text and then click Reject.
    In this scenario, the selected text is deleted.

  • You receive a “Run-time error '424':Object Required” exception in Office Word 2007, if the following methods are called multiple times:
    • Word.Document.TransformDocument
    • Word.Document.Shapes.Count
  • Consider the following scenario:
    • You have a picture at the top of a page in an Office Word 2007 document.
    • You customize the Spacing Before setting on the Page Layout tab in Office Word 2007.
    • You add a page break after the picture.
    • You copy and then you paste the picture to a newly created page.
    In this scenario, the bottom of the picture in the new page is clipped.

  • You edit an Office Word 2007 document that is in a UNC share. You click the Close button, and then click Cancel. In this case, the document can be edited by other users or edited from other computers.

  • You format text first by using a TrueType font, and then by using a PostScript font in Office Word 2007. In this case, the extended characters in the text are still displayed in the TrueType font.

  • After you enable the Save form data as delimited text fileoption in Office Word 2007, you cannot save an Office Word 2007 document to a UNC share. Additionally, you do not receive a notification about the failure.

  • You have an Office Word 2007 document that contains a broken link. You cannot fix the link by using code or by using the Edit Hyperlink dialog box to edit the link.

  • Custom code uses the Range.ShapeRange method in the SelectionChange event to determine the location of the cursor in an Office Word 2007 document. The document contains both a control and a text box that are located in different parts of the document. If the text box contains a graphic or a chart, and you click inside the text box, the cursor may shift to the control in the document when the Range.ShapeRange method in the SelectionChange event.

    Note The text box refers to the text box that you add from the Insert tab in Office Word 2007.
  • When trying to do email mail merge in Word on Windows 7, no email messages are sent

    In the past few days I have seen number of issues reported to us by our customers where they are unable to complete the email mail merge process on Windows 7 machines. As more an more users are going to upgrade to Windows 7, I thought I should put this blog post. This issue is a known issue and the solution for the issue is provided in the following KB. We have hotfix available for this issue. Please click the link below and from within the KB article you can request the hotfix.

    980681 Mail merge in Microsoft Word does not work on a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2
    http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;980681

    Hope this helps!!!
     

     

     

  • Update Center for Microsoft Office, Office Servers, and Related Products

    If you are interested in finding the updated information about Office updates, patches or security updates etc, following is the centralized location where you can get all the information.

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/ee748587.aspx 

  • Word 2007 When Saving Word Document Reviewer name is changing to "Author" or "A1" etc

    Recently I worked with few support issues where users had documents with Track Changes enabled. When user make the changes in the document, it shows "username" who made the change. But as soon as they hit SAVE button to save the document, username is replace by either "Author" or "A1" etc.

    Well the root cause of this issue is option "Remove Personal Information from File Properties on Saveis enabled.

    To have your document save the username, uncheck this option. You can find this option under

    Office Button|Word Options|Trust Center|Trust Center Settings|Privacy Option|Document Specific Settings

    If you have mutiple documents where you want to uncheck this option, you can use following macro sample.

    Note:- This Macro is an example to handle specific scenario. You probably need to modify this macro to meet your needs.  

    WARNING: ANY USE BY YOU OF THE CODE PROVIDED IN THIS EXAMPLE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. Microsoft provides this macro code "as is" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose.

    Sub RemoveInfo()
    If ActiveDocument.RemovePersonalInformation = True Then
    ActiveDocument.RemovePersonalInformation = False
    ActiveDocument.Save
    End If

    End Sub
     

  • Update released for Microsoft Word 2007: December 15, 2009

    Today we released update for Microsoft Word 2007. Following are the issues fixed for Word 2007

  • When an Office Word 2007 document that is located on a network share uses the Application.OrganizerCopy method, you receive the following error message:
                 File not found
  •  
  • When you try to save a compare result document in Office Word 2007, Office Word 2007 crashes. This problem occurs when the version of Office Word 2007 is later than 12.0.6510.5000.

  • When you try to compare two Office Word 2007 documents that have content controls, you receive the following error message:

                 Word was unable to compare the documents.
  • You create an Office Word 2007 document that is based on another document or a template that has a document property control. When you change the value of the document property control, the changes are not reflected in the property panel.

  • When you use the Mail Merge feature in Office Word 2007 to print a document on a computer that has 2007 Microsoft Office suite Service Pack 2 installed, distinct records are printed on the same physical page. This problem occurs when you try to print that document on a duplex printer.

  • In Office Outlook 2007, when you open an e-mail message from a .pst file that is created in Office Outlook 2003, the body of the e-mail message is not displayed.

  • You have custom word add-in templates (.dot files) that are created in Office Word 2003. When you load these templates or the add-ins, you receive a compile error.

  • When you reply to or forward e-mail messages in Office Outlook 2007, some formatting is missing, or some fonts are automatically changed to other fonts.

  • In Office Word 2007, you cannot insert bullet points or numbers into the first or into the last paragraph in a grouped Rich Text content control 
  • Following is the article with complete detail 

    977029 Description of the Office Word 2007 hotfix package (Word-x-none.msp, Wordconv-x-none.msp): December 15, 2009
    http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;977029

     You can request the hotfix from following location

    http://support.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=977029&kbln=en-us

     

     

  • Office 2003: Error "Unexpected error occurred. Please try again later or contact your system administrator"

    On Friday Dec 11 2009, Office 2003 started displaying following error message when trying to open files which are protected using Rights Management System(RMS)

    "Unexpected error occurred. Please try again later or contact your system administrator"

    Microsoft have released patches to resolve this issue. You can get the hotfix from following locations

    Office 2003 Client

    Description of the Office 2003 documents protected with AD RMS/RMS Hotfix package: December 11, 2009

    http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=978551 

    Word Viewer

    Description of the Word Viewer documents protected with AD RMS/RMS Hotfix package: December 11, 2009

    http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=978558

    Excel Viewer

    Description of the Excel Viewer documents protected with AD RMS/RMS Hotfix package: December 11, 2009

    http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=978557

     

  • When opening the Word document users are getting error “Word cannot start the converter mswrd632.wpc” or “Cannot load Word for Windows 6.0 files”

    Problem: - When attempting to open a Word document, users are getting one of following error

    1)      Word cannot start the converter mswrd632.wpc

    2)      Cannot load Word for Windows 6.0 files

    Cause: - This issue may be started happening after you applied following security update. You may be trying to open a file has the ".doc" file name extension, but the content is a plain text file or another kind of file that is not a Microsoft Word binary file.

    Check follow KB for detail and updated information.

    973904 MS09-073: Description of the security update for Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003: December 8, 2009

     

    Resolution: - The registry fix for this issue is already provided in the KB 973904. Following solution is the updated solution which is provided by Microsoft Word Team. You can use the following steps for the resolution.

    Update:- Fix-IT solution for this registry changes is released. Check KB973904

    WARNING : If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

    To resolve this issue, an affected user can unregister the mswrd632 converter by editing the registry as follows:

      1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
      2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
    1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools

      \Text Converters\Import\MSWord6.wpc

      1. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
      2. Click Yes.
      3. Exit Registry Editor.

    This change will effectively unregister the converter and disable it for third-party applications and for Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office will use its own text converters to open these kinds of files.

    ==============================================================================================

    In case you want to re-enable the converter, you can add an AllowConversion registry entry with a DWORD value of 1. After you set this registry key value to 1, third-party applications can load the Word 6.0/95 for Windows and Macintosh to RTF converter. Please be aware that setting this registry key removes the protection that was added by this security update. Therefore, it should be done only when you trust the source of the files that are loaded by this converter. You can also disable this converter by setting the registry key value to 0. 

    To do this, follow these steps:

      1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
      2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey. Or, create it if it is not present.

        For 32-bit versions of Windows
    1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows

      \CurrentVersion\Applets\Wordpad

      1. For Microsoft Windows on Windows 64 (WOW) mode

      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\microsoft

      \Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Wordpad

      1. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
      2. Type AllowConversion for the name of the DWORD, and then press ENTER.
      3. Right-click AllowConversion, and then click Modify.
      4. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
      5. Exit Registry Editor.

     

     

     

  • Office 2007: When accessing the client machine remotely using Dameware, clicking on Office Button does not display the drop down

    Problem

    ===========

    When you access a client machine remotely using Dameware, clicking the Microsoft Office Button does not display the drop down.

    This issue is also discussed on Dameware forum

    Cannot see Office 2007 menu

    http://forums.dameware.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=154&p   

    Workaround / Resolution

    ==================================

    1) This issue does not occur when viewing via Windows Remote Desktop RDP.You can use Windows RDP to remote into your client machine.

    2) As per Dameware forum link mentioned above, enable "Show Transparent Windows" (toggle "View/Show Transparent Windows" button)

     

  • "Get Started with Office Live" (add-in) window keeps popping up after first startup of Word/Excel/PowerPoint (2007)

     There was a new update 'Office Live Add-in' that we started offering through Microsoft Update recently for Office 2007. We've discovered that if you're not the user on the machine that installed it (e.g. install add-in, another user logs on), have 'Do not show me this message again' checked, click close, then close the application, you still get the popup each time you start Word, Excel, or PowerPoint in Office 2007. No other applications use that add-in so you shouldn't see the problem in other add-ins. I've only confirmed this myself on Windows Vista but in theory this would affect any OS version that has Office 2007 installed with the Office Live Add-in. I have since reported this to the Office Live team.

    Screenshot of popup

    Keeps popping up every time you launch either Word, Excel, or PowerPoint (2007) even though you check ‘Do not show me this message again’

    MESSAGE TEXT

    [Title] Office Live Workspace

    [Body]
    Get Started With Office Live


    Thanks for installing Office live add-in via Microsoft Update. You can now get started using Office Live Workspace.

    This Office Live Workspace lets you:

    -Access and view documents from almost any computer with a Web browser
    -Open and save online documents directly from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

    [checkbox] Do not show me this message again       [buttons] Continue | Close

     

    Registry FIX:

    We found the issue can be resolved by adding a base registry key named OfficeLive under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft subkey, once that key has been created the next time you start Word it should create two new DWORD entries (FirstRunCredsDeleted and FirstRunDontShow), both set to 1.

    Steps:

    WARNING : If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

    1. Logged in as the user that has the problem, click on Start, clcik Run, type regedit, click OK.

    2. On the left pane expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER, expand Software, select Microsoft.

    3. From the Edit menu point to New and select Key.

    4. Type OfficeLive and press the Enter key.

    5. Close Registry Editor.

    6. Start Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, you'll get the prompt, make sure 'Do not show me this message again' is checked, click Continue.

    7. Close the application (Word, Excel, or PowerPoint), the registry DWORD values should be created under OfficeLive for that user.

     

    Update

    ========

    "Fix-It for me" KB article is released for this issue. Please review the following KB

    969144 The "Get Started With Office Live" add-in window appears every time that you start certain 2007 Microsoft Office system applications
    http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;969144
     

     

  • Sharing OneNote notebooks between multiple computers.

    Requirements:

    1. OneNote 2007 installed on each computer
    2. One shared folder location where the notebooks will replicate to (The idea of this type of sharing is a 1 user to Many computers relationship) so that each computer will sync to a common location.

    Setup:

    The following article should walk you through setting up the notebooks on the computers.

    Use a notebook on multiple computers

    After setting up notebooks on multiple computers, there is a fairly common question that gets asked.  What happens once the connection is lost (which can happen for various reasons)?

    The article briefly describes what happens "OneNote creates an offline copy on that computer. Thereafter, whenever OneNote is open on that computer and the computer is connected to the shared location, OneNote continuously synchronizes and merges the changes to the notebook from each computer."

    How this works is that on each machine that OneNote is installed, a cache location is created.  Everything you type, insert or create in OneNote will automatically get saved to this location first.  This happens behind the scenes and is the reason that from the UI (User Interface) perspective, you don't need to ever click on Save.  Where this comes in useful is that if (more likely when) you lose your connection to the shared location, you will still be able to work in OneNote.  Once the connection is restored OneNote will sync those changes back to the shared location, all without you knowing or having to worry about it.

    Author for the post: - Brandon Desjarlais

  • Word 2007 file save errors - an error is displayed when attempting to save a Word document

    Some Microsoft Office Word 2007 customers have reported problems using Word to save files. Most often the problem is related to saving files to shared network locations.
     
    Following is a list of errors and common resolutions.

    • There has been a network or file permission error. The network connection may be lost.
    • Word cannot complete the save due to a file permission error

    You might see the aforementioned errors if Word 2007 is having a conflict with a program that can be used to encrypt documents. You might not be using the encryption program, but the conflict occurs if a component of the program starts when you start Windows. See the software manufacturer's web site for possible updates.

    • "<path and file name>" cannot be found. Check your spelling, or try a different path.
    • <path and file name> is currently in use. Try again later.
    • Word cannot complete the save to due to a file permissions error.

    You might see the aforementioned errors if Word 2007 is having a conflict with antivirus software. Most of these conflicts have been addressed by the antivirus software manufacturers, but you must download and install updates or patches for the antivirus software (not just new virus definitions) to resolve the issue. See the software manufacturer's web site for possible updates and for knowledge base articles concerning configuration issues.

    • Word could not create the work file. Check the Temp environment variable.

    You might see the aforementioned error if the Temporary Internet Files location for Internet Explorer has been set to be a location where the user does not have permission to create new temporary files. The solution is to modify the location for temporary Internet files for Internet Explorer.

    1. In Internet Explorer, choose Internet Options from the Tools menu to display the Internet Options dialog.
    2. In the Internet Options dialog, click the General tab. In the Browsing history section click Settings to open the Temporary Internet Files and History Settings dialog.
    3. In the Temporary Internet Files and History Settings dialog, click Move Folder to open the Browse for Folder dialog.
    4. In the Browse for Folder dialog, select the following location.
      C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files
    5. Click OK to close the Browse for Folder dialog. Click OK to close the Temporary Internet Files and History Settings dialog. Click OK to close the Internet Options dialog.
    6. Reboot the computer.

    Author for the Post: - Ryan Christiansen