Microsoft KB Archive/166050

= Outlook/WordMail Tries to Use Word Viewer as Editor =

Article ID: 166050

Article Last Modified on 1/19/2007

-

APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Word 97 Viewer
 * Microsoft Office Word 2003
 * Microsoft Word 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 2000 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 97 Standard Edition

-



This article was previously published under Q166050



SYMPTOMS
When you run Microsoft Outlook, you receive the following message:

Starting Word as your e-mail editor.

After you receive this message, Outlook may appear to stop responding (hang). Finally, the following error message appears:

This form requires Word as your e-mail editor, but Word is either busy or cannot be found.

Outlook then uses the default Outlook e-mail editor.



CAUSE
This problem occurs because Outlook is trying to use Word Viewer as your e-mail editor.

Outlook tries to use Word Viewer 97-2000 instead of Microsoft Word as your e-mail editor when all the following conditions are true:
 * You have installed Microsoft Word and Microsoft Word Viewer 97-2000 on the same computer.
 * You have Word Viewer set as the default program for opening .doc files.
 * You have WordMail turned on.



RESOLUTION
This problem is fixed in the Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003.

For additional information on how to obtain the latest version of the Microsoft Word Viewer, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

891090How to obtain the latest Microsoft Word Viewer

Remove Microsoft Word Viewer 97-2000, reinstall it, and choose not to open documents with Viewer.

To remove Microsoft Word Viewer 97-2000, follow these steps:
 * 1) On the Windows taskbar, click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
 * 2) Double-click Add/Remove Programs.
 * 3) Click Microsoft Word Viewer 97-2000, and then click the Add/Remove button.
 * 4) After Setup starts, click Uninstall.

Setup removes Word Viewer and prompts you to restart Windows. Now you can run Setup for Word Viewer from where you originally ran it by running the Viewer.exe file. When prompted for the program that you want to open .doc files with, click Open With Word.



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section of this article.

This problem was first corrected in Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003.



MORE INFORMATION
You can use the Microsoft Word 97-2000 Viewer to view documents that were created in Microsoft Word 97, in Microsoft Word 2000, in Microsoft Word 2002, and in Microsoft Office Word 2003.

