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• Up to Word Application Errors
• Errors affecting entire application
  • Problems opening Word
  • Re-registering Word
  • Resetting menus and toolbars
  • Insufficient memory errors
  • Why is my “Blank Document” not blank?
  • My drop-down menus crawl down very slowly
  • Files opened for editing are read-only
  • Delete (or Backspace) doesn't work
  • Equation Editor error messages
  • Word insists on asking “Open as read-only?”
  • Switching view hides the currently selected heading
  • Frequently encountered problems with fonts
  • Word shows only one or two fonts in its font list
  • Forcing the Task Pane visible
  • Table borders won’t print
  • AutoCorrect Options missing when right-clicking
  • Toolbar missing on add-ins tab in the Ribbon
• Individual document errors
  • “Page X of Y” displays or prints as “Page 1 of 1
  • Cross-references show incorrect content or wrong numbers
  • Formatting applied to one paragraph affects the entire document
  • Whenever I open a document all my formatting is gone
  • Text at the top of the page is unaccountably indented
  • GoBack (Shift+F5) doesn't work in some newly-opened documents
  • Mirror margins don't work in a multisection document
  • Recovering a corrupt document or template
  • Recovering a Master Document
  • Word is always making changes I don't expect
  • Graphics have turned into red X's
  • Captions don't update and don't appear in Table of Figures
  • Graphics don't appear or won't print
  • Table cells with shading show white areas
  • Positioning floating objects
  • Floating objects in tables are wrongly aligned vertically
  • Linked floating graphics don't show up in Edit Links
  • Layout changes on a different computer
  • { =SUM(ABOVE) } answer was obviously incorrect
  • Mail merge field names have an underscore appended to them [Lene Fredborg, 10-Jan-2020: Removed outdated link to http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/]
  • Problems with StyleRef fields and language-specific style names
• Macros/VBA/VB errors
  • “Invalid Page Fault” when running a macro
  • “Microsoft Forms: Could not load an object”
  • “Undefined Variable” – Mid, Left, Right not working
  • Problem running a UserForm from an Autoexec macro
  • Word 2000 can't be made visible, and/or doesn't trigger a Close Event
  • When users starts Word they activate a previously created instance
  • Paragraph borders lost when printing from a VBA macro
  • Toolbars not showing when automating Word
  • All other UserForm controls disabled after displaying a message box

 

Why is my “Blank Document” not blank?

When I start Word or create a new document, it has the text of an old document in it.

Article contributed by Suzanne S. Barnhill

For an updated version of this article, see http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com/BlankDocNotBlank.htm.