godricgal: (Gethin)
godricgal ([personal profile] godricgal) wrote2007-12-16 05:36 pm

A solution, at last!

A couple of weeks ago I posted about a problem I was having with Word 2007, where I couldn't use the mouse to move the cursor or select text within the document, even thought the menus themselves worked.

After several hours of trawling various forums, it seemed likely that it was being caused by a Word add-in, most likely an Adobe one, most likely Flash. Unfortunately, I discovered that another symptom of this problem was an inability to navigate past the default tab in the Word Options menu, which of course, is where you can disable the add-ins!

I found lots of people who knew what the problem was, but very few who'd actually managed to fix it/had posted when they'd fixed it. Finally, after reinstalling Office four times between trying various things, including a registry cleaner that had worked for someone else, I happened upon a post by an individual known only as 'c-squared-co' to whom I owe a good deal of gratitude. His solution was to delete the Word Data registry key, which is safe to do because Word rebuilds it every time it start up, and if it's deleted, it rebuilds it with factory settings thus circumventing the issue.

There's no saying that it won't happen again, but at least I'll know the fix next time. I'm posting about it because it's apparently not limited to Word 2007 or even 2003, and there's no sign that Microsoft have an inclination to fix the problem because it's a result of third party software. It was one of the most baffling computer problems I've come across, so I thought if there's any chance I can stop others spending hours and hours of their time in an unpleasantly baffled state, I want to do that!

So here is the forum on which I found the solution.

[livejournal.com profile] patriotjackie, I saw mentions of your problem, too, while I was reading about this, and the same solution may work for you.

ETA: I should add that I bought the licence key yesterday, so this is unrelated to the problem from my last post!

[identity profile] patriot-jackie.livejournal.com 2007-12-17 06:50 am (UTC)(link)
Sweet! Thankies! Mine hasn't been so bad lately, and I actually wrote an entire fic within a couple hours today without a single problem! *pats Ace on the back* I'll definitely flag this post for future reference, though; I've still got the Trial Version for a little while longer, so I'm hoping the seemingly miniscule problem will correct itself whenever I buy the full version. :) I don't like that there are already problems with it (the 360 has them, as well, and odd, too), but I'm willing to compromise, I suppose.

Speaking of MS Office, do you love OneNote? I am in love with OneNote!! I told Scott that it was my dream computer program, and he laughed. But I got to use it at work, and now I've got a possible new job waiting for me in a year's time if I so choose to reach for it! =D Mouse problems vindicated! XD

Of course, I have a new problem, though this one is at least physical. The adapter plug in has always been loose for Ace since he was the display, but now it's... super, super loose. So I've gotta take him in and hope they can fix it; I can see that he's bent inside the actual jack, but I'm not about to do anything myself. I hope simply bending it back fixes him. =/

[identity profile] godricgal.livejournal.com 2007-12-20 03:54 am (UTC)(link)
I thought upgrading would fix my problems, too, but it seems there is a big problem with mice and Word and I'd lean towards saying that if it is a mouse/Word problem, it's not to do with the trial and you will have to fiddle around with the registry, but if you do, it's really not a complicated fix, and actually it probably wouldn't hurt to try it even before you get the upgrade.

I set up One Note for each of my lectures, but need to use it more to see if it can fit into my own system, and find out a bit more about it as regards exporting to Word, Excel, etc. It's a nice idea, I'm just not sure about the workflow.

Don't tell a Mac user about Ace's power problems, they'll be all smug about their patented magnetic power plugs. ;) But I hope you can get him fixed!