Problem with MS Office 2003

Hello,

I am currently running MS Office Professional 2003 at home, usually just Excel and Word.

Yesterday I went to open one of my files to make some modifications and I recieved this message at the bottom of my screen "This modification is not allowed because the document is locked" I have tried un-installing and re-installing the programs, I've downloaded all current updates, I have tried product activation under the help menu (as I have seen suggested on other sites) but nothing seems to help. I've even shut down both Spysweeper and Norton incase there might be a conflict there.

Word and Excel will run perfectly fine in safe mode, I can make modifications in safe mode, and save it there. But once I open either program in normal mode the changes I made in safe mode are still there but I cannot make changes. Also my documents work fine on my other smaller computer. So I think there is a problem with the program itself.

Is there anyway to fix this or do I have to do everything through safe mode.

Thanks very much for any help,
Paul

 

In Word, on the drop-down menu Tools does the option show 'Protect Document' or 'Unprotect Document' ?

 

In safe mode yes. But in normal mode every button is deactivated. The pull down menu's still open but every available option in every field is deactivated.

 

Has this software worked ok for you in the past?

Just clarify for me, for elimination purposes, that the software is not any kind of trial version, and that you have activated it using your product key code? I see you said you had tried this but it doesn;t work...what message do you get when you try to activate and it doesn't work....something like... "it is already used" perhaps?

Also,in Safe Mode does it appear as 'Protect Doc' or 'Unprotect Doc'? If the latter, unprotect in Safe Mode and then try to access in normal mode.

 

Yeah, its the full version, I activated it with the key code on the box. The message I get is "this product has already been activated"

The document is unprotected.

 

So, again, has this exact piece of software worked ok for you in the past? Is it new to you? Where did you purchase it from?

 

Sorry,

Yeah it's worked perfect untill yesterday, no Problems at all. Got it from work as a "Microsoft Home Use Program" have had it about 2 years and no problems.

 

As I see it, the reason you get that message is simple enough: The suite was activated when you installed it, hence why you can't use that code again. What happens if you call in to reactivate it, the way you would when reinstalling Windows? Does it change anything?

You may want to consider just wipe it out and reinstall it, if nothing else helps. I'd save that for a last desperate effort when all else fails though.

/Mimsy

 

I don't know what you mean by call to reactivate it. Windows crashed on me about a month ago and I just re-installed the office software.

And I have tried un-installing and re-installing but that doesn't do it.

 

Thanks for the help guys. But For some reason it started working again this morning. Dunno what happened or changed but it works.

Thanks