Outlook Error when using Word as editor

Littlejuanito7

420 pts.

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Microsoft Outlook 2003

Microsoft Outlook error messages

Word 2003

Here we go again. Really starting to dislike Outlook. A user has started to receive the following message when replying or forwarding emails in Outlook 2003, not when creating new email: "Microsoft Word is been set to be your Word editor. However Word is unavailable, not installed, or is not the same version as Outlook. The Outlook email aditor will be used instead." It then mentions a few reasons why the message may have appeared. Went through them with nothing working. Never had a problem before. Ran Detect/Repair and when that failed, Reinstalled MS Office 2003. The problem persists. Have not been able to find out much more. Thanks in advance for the help. The advice here has always been great.

Asked: June 25, 2008 4:47 PM Last updated: March 7, 2011 5:15 PM

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Last updated: June 26, 2008 4:47 PM GMT

Karl Gechlik9,860 pts.
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- Karl Gechlik9,860 pts.

Thanks. We'll let you know when a new response is added.

Are you also using Word 2003? Both programs need to be the same version. Do you have AVG anti virus installed? If you do disable it and then try to send or reply to an email again.

You said you did a detect and repair – you said that failed. What was the error message given?

If all else fails uninstall office 2003 completely. Reboot. And install it clean.

Of course backing up your PST file before you uninstall.

****Added Information:
Outlook and Word are both running 2003. We don’t have AVG installed. I meant that Detect and Repair failed to fix the problem, I apologize for the confusion there. I uninstalled 2003 and reinstalled and we are still having the same problems. Office 2003 has also been updated to SP3 just it case it might have helped, but no luck.

Discuss This Question: 6 Replies

Schmidtw Jul 10, 2008 9:55 PM GMT

I have noticed this problem a few times when working with signatures. Depending on whether you have signatures or not, and whether they were edited in word or not, may actually be running a little Active X script which blocks either program from accessing each other. Food for thought.

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MrLoki Jul 28, 2008 8:33 PM GMT

Found the fix, my friend! What you need to do is open MS Word, tools, options, compatibility. Change that to match the version of outlook you are running. Close and then re-open word to ensure the change is correct. Then open outlook, the error should have disappeared.

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Hayman Aug 6, 2008 1:29 PM GMT

What do you change in the compatibility section? I too have this error.

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XavierD Feb 3, 2010 2:14 PM GMT

I did all of the following: reinstalled Office 2003 and checked the compatibility section in Microsoft Word, but I still get the same error. After doing this on an e-mail that I either reply or forward, I still get the same error, "Microsoft Word is set to be your email editor. However, Word is unavailable, not installed, or is not the same version as Outlook. The Outlook email editor will be used instead." I notice this when I reply to an e-mail or forward an e-mail where the e-mail is from an e-mail sender who is using Microsoft Outlook 2007. Please help.

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Tscot Mar 4, 2011 11:10 PM GMT

I got the same error for the first time after switching from Webroot anti-virus to Microsoft Security Essentials. I had never seen this error before, and began seeing it intermittently now with MSE installed. There is not really a problem with Outlook or Word because sometimes Outlook uses Word successfully and other times I get this error message. It is as if MSE is intercepting the communication between Outlook and Word sometimes and causing Outlook to think Word is not responding.

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Stevesz Mar 7, 2011 5:15 PM GMT

Unless there is some really important reason you need to use Word as the editor for Outlook, turn it off. The native Outlook editor is generally more than sufficient for writing and replying to e-mail. Word has a long history of doing weird things when it is used as an editor, though it was a lot better in 2003 than previous versions. Starting with 2007, it is no longer an option, it is the editor, and I've yet to see a problem attributable to Word's use as the editor.

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