Hi there,

A customer is experiencing a strange problem when they copy and paste from a web browser into Microsoft Word 2003 (SP3).

Word completely stops responding and needs to be ended via task manager.

I have ensured all the latest updates have been performed on both Windows XP SP3 and Office 2003 SP3.
Normal.dot has been deleted and recreated, I have performed a detect and repair and completely uninstalled and reinstalled Office 2003, to no prevail.

The issue does not occur when the user opts to paste "unformatted text". This issue only occurs when pasting HTML formatted text.

Any ideas as to why this is happening?

Your assistance is much appreciated,

Arty

Hi,

Test this issue in safe mode.

Start the Office program in safe mode

==============

1.       Click Start, point to All Programs, and then point to Microsoft Office.

2.        Press and hold the CTRL key, and then click the Office program you want to start.

If the problem does not occur in the safe mode, this issue might be related to some third-party add-ins in the Office program, we can try to disable them.

Best Regards,

Sally Tang

TechNet Subscriber Support in forum

If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com  

Hi Sally,

There are no third-party add-ins enabled - I have checked this.

It look likes an issue with Word 2003, a quick Google search reveals that this is a common problem with no solution yet provided from Microsoft.

Any other ideas?

Thanks in advance,

Carlo

Hello Carlo,

I have seen this issue a few times and when pasting html content into Word, Word will immediately process it by performing html compatibility (if \* is in the html code I've seen that cause problems) or by Word crashing when trying to spell check something it does not recognize or with a conflict in spell check.  When 3rd party applications have "hooks" into Word, they can read anything that is called into that process and then depending on the functionality of it act or not.

I've got 2 suggestions.

1st, I know you say there are no 3rd party addins enabled, but I'd like you to try going to Start/Run and type in:
winword.exe /a

Then hit Enter and try to paste in content from html as formatted text.  If it does not reproduce, then it's likely a 3rd party dictionary that has been added into Word.  I would suggest looking through Add/Remove Programs to see if that is the case.

If it does reproduce in /a mode, then I would like you to rename your Word registry key as it may be a corrupt setting maybe left by something like an old dictionary or another input into Word.  You can do this by following these steps:
- Close Word and Outlook
- Click on Start/Run and type in: regedit
- Hit Enter to open the Registry Editor
- Browse to this location by clicking on the plus signs in front of each key (folder):
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word
- Rename the Word key from Word to Wordold
- Minimize the registry and try to reproduce the issue in Word

Some people like to rename the data and options keys, but renaming the entire key for me is more like good practice maintenance.

Please let me know how it goes Carlo.

Hi Adrian,

I looked high and low for a solution to this problem. I tried dozens of suggestions I found on line, and no luck: any HTML paste into Word 2003 on my XP SP3computer crashed Word, even in safe mode. I almost gave up on having normal paste options for HTML, and I was going to have to live with using paste special, not an choice I relished. Then I found your post. Your solution worked! 

Surprisingly, I could find no one else who posted your solution on line. From my perspective, you deserve another few medallions!

Interestingly, when I tried changing the registry items one at a time, the only item that made a difference was the Data key. However, even that only worked for my first open of Word. Once I closed and reopened, it crashed again. So, I just renamed Word, and voila!

One suggestion - since I wanted to keep my customized template, I renamed it in Templates before forcing the key change. This forced word to create a new Normal.dot, which I deleted, and then I restored the name of my original normal.dot. I don't know if this was necessary, just letting you know how it went.

Anyway, thank you, thank you, thank you. I don't know how else to get in touch with you and thank you, so I am posting here.

Have a great day,

David

Hello Carlo,

If it does reproduce in /a mode, then I would like you to rename your Word registry key as it may be a corrupt setting maybe left by something like an old dictionary or another input into Word.  You can do this by following these steps:
- Close Word and Outlook
- Click on Start/Run and type in: regedit
- Hit Enter to open the Registry Editor
- Browse to this location by clicking on the plus signs in front of each key (folder):
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word
- Rename the Word key from Word to Wordold
- Minimize the registry and try to reproduce the issue in Word

Some people like to rename the data and options keys, but renaming the entire key for me is more like good practice maintenance.

Please let me know how it goes Carlo.