Word can't copy/paste (Word 2000 SR-1)

[artl52]

Using Win XP Pro SP1 and Office 2000 SR-1. Seems I can't copy and paste into Word unless Word has already first been opened. On other PCs I've had, using Office 2K and Win2000, or Office 2K and Win 98/ME, I could go to a web page, another program, etc., highlight what I want, copy it, then open Word, and paste it into Word. Now I can't.

Anybody know what gives?

thanks.

....Art

[Phil Rabichow]

Is it possible that you're opening Excel before you open Word? I notice that opening Excel (I haven't checked other apps) erases the Windows clipboard in Win98. i.e. whether or not Word is running, if you copy something to the clipboard & then open Excel, the clipboard is erased. However, I don't have Win XP so I don't know whether the behavior is the same.

[Andrew Lockton]

There are likely to be add-ins running on your version of Word that have insidious little side-effects such as changing your clipboard contents.

This topic came up on the lounge a couple of months ago and it appeared to be a problem with third-party addins which ensure that their little buttons are visible on a toolbar when Word opens. Adobe Acrobat is one which springs to mind but there may be others. Essentially these add-ins use the clipboard to copy their button faces into the toolbar when Word opens which has the effect of removing whatever it was that you just copied.

Unfortunately you can't do a search here at the moment so I can't point you directly to the threads but I think if you disable any of your add-ins by removing them from the startup directory then you might find you retain the clipboard contents.

[StuartR]

> there may be others
Microsoft MapPoint does this too.

StuartR

[Phil Rabichow]

If the problem is an add-in, there are instructions for checking that in <post#=197827>post 197827</post#>.
Hope this helps.

[artl52]

Well, I spent the last hour or so trying all of the suggestions so far. True enough, when I run WORD from the START|Run as winword.exe /a, I don't have the problem. So, I checked the 2 locations (in doc & settings and ProgramFiles) and found Acrobat, Winfax, and WOPR. I took them all out and still have problem. I went into the registry and deleted the two DATA keys that were there under WORD 9, and that didn't help.

I don't know what else to try. Thanks to all those that tried to help.
This is a mystery to me.

.....Art

[jscher2000]

I think there's a possibility that you just have to "accept" this rude behavior of different applications clearing the clipboard, and keep the original open and selected until Word has settled down. I often open a Notepad window and paste there first to avoid losing text (or MS Paint in the case of an image). Of course, you might be able to find a replacement clipboard out there that doesn't have this problem, but I've never gone looking for one.

[StuartR]

Have you checked for COM add ins?
The only way I know to do this is to add COM Add-ins... to the Tools menu using the Customise options, maybe someone else will know an easier way

StuartR

[carbonnb]

Art,

You didn't mention if you renamed normal.dot. Once you have moved all the templates out of the startup directories, find your normal.dot and rename it to something like normal.bak and then try restarting Word. Word will recreate it for you.

If Word works like this, it means that your normal template has some corruption in it that is causing your Copy and Paste woes.

[artl52]

Bryan:

I did rename the "normal.dot" file to "normal.old" as suggested above. It did not fix the "rude" behavior (great name for it btw).

.....Art

[artl52]

Oh MAN!
Now, every time I exit Word, it asks me if I want to save the changes I made to the global template. Of course, I have NOT made any changes.
What did I screw up now?

.....Art

[StuartR]

If there is no normal.dot when you start word then it creates one. You need to answer yes to "do you want to save Normal.dot" once so that Word can save it. After that you should be OK.

StuartR

[Phil Rabichow]

Hi Art:
If you don't get the behavior when you start Word from the command line, but do get it otherwise, then it has to be a COM, global add-in, or normal.dot that's causing it. Did you check for COMs as Stuart suggested in <post#=252418>post 252418</post#>? Also, when you took everything out of the startup folders, did you check under Tools/Templates & Add-ins & also with COM add-ins... to make sure nothing was loaded?

[artl52]

Stuart:

Apparently Word is loading a normal.dot since I see icons I added. And when I do say YES the first time Word exits, I still get the question "do you want to save changes..." each subsequent time Word exits.

.....Art

[StuartR]

In that case you definitely have an add-in that is "dirtying" normal.dot. Try the suggestions above for locating Global Templates and COM Add-Ins.

StuartR