Word 2003 compatability issues

[lorizimm]

I have a project at work that is currently a WebHelp project and also I need to publish this as a printed documentation in order to create WORD files for selected topics. Well everytime that I try to publish, I get this error message:

Microsoft® Word has not been started on this computer.
Launch Word and click the 'Start using Microsoft® Word' option before generating Printed Documentation again.

Does anyone know how to fix this? I should mention that I have Robohelp X5.0.2 and Word 2003 and that I have already checked to see if I there are any available updates for Robohelp and I don't.

Can anyone help me???

Thanks!

[Peter Grainge]

Welcome to the forum.

Has Word 2003 been used on the PC? The message is one that can be genuine in which case you do as the dialog says and open Word.

If you have opened Word and are still getting the message, post back. I will be home shortly and can search on an other PC. This has cropped up recently.

[lorizimm]

Yes, Word 2003 has been opened quite frequently on my computer (pretty much everyday) which is leading to my confusion. I read somewhere about that Robohelp may not recognize Word 2003 without certain updates but I haven't really found a way to fix this.

Thanks for your reply!

[Peter Grainge]

Two possibilities here.

First go to RH's Help menu and click on Check for Updates.

If you are already updated it maybe that a Word patch has been installed since RH was installed. Driving home I recalled that the recent post on this problem was down to that I think. You will need to uninstall and reinstall.

[Peter Grainge]

I finally tracked down the previous post on this subject. http://tinyurl.com/jqu43

See Living Proof's response and whether the suggestion re your problem works for you. As you will see, the uninstall / reinstall did not work for the poster but that does not mean it will not work for you, just don't be too optimistic about it.

Unfortunately the poster did not come back with the solution which is always frustrating. As I could not steer the poster to the solution they must have resolved it somehow. Why not share that with us and we wouldn't have this problem now?

[lorizimm]

I don't have admin rights to my computer so I don't think that I can get them to uninstall WORD and then reinstall it. At best I believe that I can get them to allow me to do an update on my WORD application, I am available for four updates for WORD.

I have already done all of the updates that I can do for RH.

One thing of note however from your previous post on the subject, I think I am getting a different error message from what they were. From what I read, it seemed to me that it was opening their documentation in WORD however their templates were all wrong. For me, it won't even recognize WORD.

I am getting this error:

Microsoft® Word has not been started on this computer.
Launch Word and click the 'Start using Microsoft® Word' option before generating Printed Documentation again.

Which to me makes me think that its not even recognizing that WORD exists.

[Peter Grainge]

It's RH that may need to be uninstalled and reinstalled, not Word.

Also updating Word without subsequently uninstalling and reinstalling RH is the worst thing to do. RH has to be the last or it won't play nicely.

It's important that RH is installed with your login and it must have admin rights. That is not up for debate. There's a topic on my site that explains it and your IT guys will understand what they need to do if you show them that. Click here.

This is now sounding more like Word is no longer being recognised because it has been updated, and that is where I came in.

[lorizimm]

Word is the most recent application that has been updated on my computer so that might very well explain this. Also, since I don't have admin rights it sounds like you're really onto what may be the problem here.

Okay, stupid question here since I am not an IT expert... by uninstalling and then reinstalling RH, would my projects still be available if they are saved on the network drive or would I lose my projects by doing this? Sorry, I know I should know this but I am paranoid about losing my projects!

Thanks Peter!

[Peter Grainge]

You should not lose your projects as that should only happen if they have been saved within the RH application folder which is on your hard disk. However, if in doubt create copies somewhere else.

You have now mentioned something not in your previous posts, that is that your projects are on a network drive.

NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO,

That's something else known to make RH grumpy. Move the projects to your hard disk. They may even work just be doing that but I think the fact that Word was installed after RH makes that unlikely, worth a try though.