Forum Discussion

Copper Contributor

Jul 15, 2022

Documents won't open in word

When I try to open a document in Word it is instead pinned to the task bar but will not open for editing. It is possible to send it as an email attachment which can be opened by the recipient. I bel...

PatConner42

Copper Contributor

Jul 16, 2022

When I try to open Word it is pinned to the taskbar and does not provide access to the ribbon. Same result when I try to open an existing word document from "this PC". I tried the procedures from the Knowledge Base article without success. I next reinstalled Office, again, without success. Excel continues to work without a problem, so I suspect the issue has something to do with the interaction between Word and "pinning" which is far beyond my comprehension.

Doug_Robbins_Word_MVP

MVP

Jul 16, 2022

PatConner42 If you move the mouse cursor over the Word icon on the Task Bar, what do you see?

Does the problem still occur if you start Word in Safe Mode by holding down the CTRL key while starting it until asked to confirm that you want to start it in that mode?

If not, see the section dealing with Add-Ins in the KnowledgeBase article "How to troubleshoot problems that occur when you start or use Word" at:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/921541

PatConner42
Copper Contributor
Jul 17, 2022
Thanks, Starting in safe mode works. I will stick with that
- Doug_Robbins_Word_MVP
  MVP
  Jul 17, 2022
  PatConner42 Safe mode is really only intended to allow diagnosis of a problem and you should look at the section dealing with Add-Ins in the article for which I included a link.
  
  If you click on the the Word Add-ins or Document Template buttons on the Developer tab of the ribbon
  
  and there are no Add-Ins listed in the list with the text "Checked items are currently loaded", the problem is probably with the Normal.dotm template and you should go to the Templates folder and rename it to OldNormal.dotm (with Word not running), and then try starting Word in the normal manner.