Microsoft Word won't open

[trastevere]

Daughter just phoned in blind panic. She's away at University.and must hand in essay Tues am. She has a new Sony Vaio laptop but cannot open 'Word'. Apparently the hourglass (where her cursor is) just runs and runs and although she has the 'Word' square in the centre of the screen, it just will not open. Is this a hardware or software problem? I suspect that she just needs to reload the Office 2000 disc - If she can find it together with the necessary security code, but really, I just don't know. Help urgently required.

[trastevere]

add-on to my question. Can anyone advise about downloadind free word processor from www.openoffice.org to use as an immediate standby until Word is sorted out.

[rojash]

One thing to try: Locate her "Normal.dot" file and delete it. This may allow MS Word to open.

Not clear what advice you're asking for about openoffice.org?
If you mean is it a good idea, the answer is yes, definitely. It will open all her existing Word documents. Personally, I uninstalled MS Office, because I preferred OpenOffice (by the way, it's not just a word processor, but a complete office Suite)

[wildwood]

I presume this is a document that has been saved beforehand and won't open in Word. Has the computer been re-started and does the same problem occur?

As an intermediate remedy you could rightclick the document and try to open it with Wordpad, or even notepad. You will probably loose some of the formatting but at least you'll be able to get the to text.

[Ethel]

I have been using OpenOffice for over 18 months - I wouldn't use anything else now.

[fo3nix]

1) try restarting the laptop, and trying again.
2) do what rojash says, and try deleting normal.dot (tell her to goto start -> find files and folders), and search for it there.
3) if it still won't work, download openoffice. as the above say, it's brilliant. it's all I use too. it has a replacement for word, excel, powerpoint and access, as well as other extra goodies that even microsoft office doesnt do.

[LeMarchand]

If she has the original Office 2000 disc, it may be worth downloading "Magical Jellybean Keyfinder" (http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.shtm l), which will show the security key that Office 200 was installed with.

[LeMarchand]

http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.shtm l

and Office 2000!

[bloaterbum]

just a thought .Has she unplugged any of the usb connections without telling the computer,I did this and had the same problem.In blind panic Ireinstalled Works .Ithen plugged in the offending usb and hey presto bakto normal.