Hello,



I was given this laptop about 8 years ago. Please, I don't have money to buy another one, or even to buy a replacement MS office disk. (I wasn't given the O/S or Office disks, just the laptop)

When I start MS Word it says:

Windows installer dialog box opens up, with the "Cancel" button, then before anything else comes up another dialog box comes up in front of it that says: "Microsoft Office Word: The command cannot be performed because a dialog box is open. Click OK, then close open dialog boxes to continue"

I click OK, then this pops up:

"Microsoft Office Word 11.0: An error occurred and this feature is no longer functioning properly. Please run setup and select "Repair..." to restore this application."

I click "OK", and then MS word operates normally, perfectly.

It takes around 5 minutes to get through the dialog boxes. Years ago it used to work fine. I have no other computer and no access to any Microsoft disks. Please help me fix this.

Have you done what the message suggested and run a Repair (see under Help|Detect & Repair)?

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

I wish I could. But they did not give me the MS office disk when they gave me this laptop. Whatever I do I have to do it without the MS office disk.

You do not ordinarily need the office disk when you run a Repair (see under Help|Detect & Repair). You can also run a 'repair' installation via 'Add/remove programs' in the Windows Control Panel.

BTW, your lack of an Office disk raises the question of whether you actually have a valid license for the copy you've been using.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

I met the people when they were losing their house. I was getting out of a bad situation myself and they helped me out, rather, we helped each other out. They had a business that failed and were trying to get rid off all the paperwork they had, disks, etc before the house was foreclosed. I remember it well, i walked into their office, which was a horrendous disaster, they picked the laptop up out of a pile of papers and said "here". I was never given a disk for the computer, just a power supply and the laptop itself. Any disks were thrown away or left in the house when it was foreclosed a week or so later. I didn't have any issues with it until now, especially not then, (We were living on their rural 600 acres with no electricity so I had no occasion to really use the laptop until much later anyway!) and I never thought to ask them for the disks. It was a traumatic time for everyone. So yes, I do indeed have a valid "license" unless I have to fill out some Microsoft paperwork for transfer of license or some such arcane thing. I don't steal, if that is what you were implying.

I wasn't suggesting you were stealing, or anything of the kind. However, whoever might have bought the disks via a post-foreclosure sale now owns the license, not you. Of course, if the disks ended up in the dump, I guess the license is probably your's - on the basis of possession of the product key.

Given your situation, I strongly recommend retrieving your product keys and keeping them in a safe place. Programs like MagicJellyBean KeyFinder (http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/) can retrieve them for you.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thank you for that link. I tried repairing from within MS Word and it gives and unknown error. I tried fixing it from Add/Remove and it says "A Fatal error occurred" about 1/3 way through the status bar. is there any way to retrieve exactly what error occurred?

In that case, you're probably going to need access to the installation files for Office 2003 to resolve the issue. If you contact your local MS distributor and explain the situation, they may be willing to send you a replacement installation disk for a small fee.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]