1. Insufficient Disk Space or low on memory.
2. *Corrupt normal.dot * sited and described below
3. vbe.dll wrong version
4. TEMP permissions

We have seen this problem once as a corrupt normal.dot (Thank you Gene Baer for sharing this suggestion with us!), with a Visual Basic runtime error 5981.  When you click on any of the buttons on the WWB Toolbar, you get this error.

FIX:

Start Word, then go to Tools, Options, File Locations, and write down (yes, use a pen and paper!) the path to User Templates (you might need to push the modify key to reveal the complete path) ...  by default, this path is:
C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates < Word 2000, or
C:\Program Files\Office\Office\Templates < Word '97

Go into Explorer or "My Computer" and browse to this folder.  Now rename the file "normal.dot" to be "normalOLD.dot"  ... Now close Explorer or "My Computer"  

Go back to Microsoft Word.

Everything should work fine.  Start following the instructions in "Getting Acquainted" ..
When you close Word, if it prompts you to save "normal.dot" say OK.

Back to Writer's Workbench Tips Page

Last modified 8/17/01