Outlook 2003 and Word as Editor Crash (Office 2003 latest patches)

[tomntmj]

I have called MS support ("closed as unresolved"), befriended the tech and he tried to help (home email) after hours (going on 3 months now).

This happens ONLY whenever I have "Use Word for email editor" activated. If I'm forwarding an email, or initiating a new one, and have multiple receipients (3 or more), when I hit Send first Outlook either just "goes away" or freezes. I get the usual option to send the report to MS. After I accept or deny that opportunity then Word crashes, giving the chance to save my work before it totally dies. I usually have to reboot to get my system stable again.

I am on a Pentium 4@ 2.0g with 512m RAM. Run XP Pro SP1. Used to have Office XP and it ran just fine, (my 2003 is the Upgrade). I have done an intensive RAM test (over night), run the repair option on XP-Pro, run the "repair" Office option. Uninstaled Office entirely, defragged, and reinstalled using my XP Cd as the install proof of ownership. I have run the MS cleaner for the pst file, and weeded out obsolete addresses and save emails.

Nothing bad happens if I don't use Word as the editor, but I like the added features. At first I thought it had to do with a "complex" email (embeded photo's and the like), but it happens even on a text only email. My settings are for HTML and that doesn't seem to be the problem.

I am at a total loss... Any thoughts? Thanks,
Tom Nefeldt

[jscher2000]

In the Outlook editor, if you enter part of a name and press Ctrl+K it will be resolved immediately (otherwise, Outlook takes its time). I'm wondering how this works in Word. Do you select the 3 names from the address book or do you rely on Outlook to resolve partial name entries? If the latter, can you cause the crash by forcing name resolution (either with Ctrl+K or whatever you would use in Word)?

[tomntmj]

Actually I use Alt-K for the name resolution. It seems to happen in all 3 methods... select direct from address book, use Alt-K or let Outlook resolve the address... but I usually select from the address book.

Thanks,
TOm

[jscher2000]

Okay, well, that rules out address resolution being the problem. Do you usually save the message (so it appears in the Drafts folder)? The next couple of things that happen when you Send would be the actual sending process, moving the message to the Sent Items folder, possibly updating the Journal (if you use the Journal). Not sure if there is a way to separate those steps to figure out where the problem lies.

[tomntmj]

I rarely (intentionally) save to the Drafts folder, but after a crash my message is in the Drafts folder (minus the addressees). I don't have the Journal turned on. One thought keeps nagging at me... When I first installed Office 2003 Pro, I did install the Business Contact Manager. It kept nagging me to set it up every time I started Outlook, and I really didn't want to set it up yet, so I uninstalled it. Though I'm not positive, it seems as if the problem started at that point. Mind you I did a complete Uninstall of 2003, and reinstall. But the Uninstall left remnants of the software installed, as it remembered ALL of my settings from the previous install. I copied my PST file to another machine, so I wouldn't have to recreate my address book so after my reinstall I copied the PST back to it's proper location.

Tom

[rayg1]

I have similar issues tom. I haven't had time to fully digest your thread nor do I have time at moment to fully explain my issue, but in short, when Word as Editor is being used in conjunction with HTML format, and an attempt to reply is made to "certain" messages, the system freezes and the only way to restore is a reboot, then turn the "Word as Editor" off ......I've been scanning this forum and Slipstick.com to see if there is any reported error.....only seems to have started after latest patches a while back ......also, this happened a while ago, then i used it for a while, set it back to Word as Editor, it was fine for a while, then happened again this morning, which prompted me to come here and look if anyone else was having difficulties with "word as editor" hanging on replies. I will continue to monitor and advise as time permits.

[tomntmj]

Thanks for the reply. I thought I was the only person in the world having the problem. At least that's what MS has lead me to believe. Though I leave HTML formatting on without Word, I have noticed that the Reply problem goes away when not utlizing the HTML formatting. I'll keep looking too.

Tom