It's been a few days and the settings are holding, so I think that the
problem is solved. Thank you all for your help--and especially Shauna, who
came up with the solution!

-Andrea

Andrea wrote:
Thank you. I'll keep an eye on this now that I've unticked the Office part
of the diskcleaner. So far, so good. I like this particular diskcleaner
(except for the Office component apparently) more than the Windows tool
because it cleans out caches from more programs, e.g., SeaMonkey, Yahoo.

Graham Mayor wrote:
I have examined the normal.dot you sent and that works fine - it even
changed my registry so I will have to roll back to yesterday to fix all
the preferences it contained

I am inclined to agree with Shauna that your disc cleaner is the problem.
Treat such software with caution. Those that attack the registry can
sometimes be more trouble than help. It is simple enough to clear out
temporary files manually. In fact Windows itself provides a tool to do
that called Disc Cleanup.


Andrea wrote:
Hi Shauna,

The software is open source and free, so one uses it with some risk. I
haven't had a problem with it before and don't know if it's the cause
of the problem yet. Believe me, I'll be thrilled to find some
resolution. I've looked at all of the programs that it addresses
because the user picks and chooses and can add additional plugins at
will, but I can't see anything else that could interfere with Word. I
did pause at Microsoft Works, but I don't use that and don't have it
checked off. Most of the plugins are set to delete recent files; I
don't know why it was written to "clean" the Office settings. If it
turns out to be the cultprit, I'll post a message to the Diskcleaner
page--as the web site requests.
Shauna Kelly wrote:
Hi Andrea

If un-ticking that particular box doesn't work, I suggest you keep
un-ticking boxes in that program until you find the one that is
causing the problem.

And then write a very angry letter to the makers of the software!

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word


"Andrea" wrote in message
...
Hmmm, you may have something there! The software is Diskcleaner
http://www.diskcleaner.nl and is supposed to clear temporary files,
but I just looked at all the plugins. There is one for Office, and
part of it includes Data Settings. Rather than turning off the
program, I unchecked that box and will see if that does anything.

Shauna Kelly wrote:
Hi Andrea

I haven't been following all the details of this thread, but as I
understand it, the options at Tools Options are not holding.

You wrote this:
I use a disk cleaning program obsessively, so there weren't any
.tmp files anywhere, but there were a couple of other junk files,
including a ~$normal.dot template from 2005.

This disk cleaning program is probably a registry cleaner. And it
sounds to me like it's cleaning out the Word Data key, where the
setting setting is saved.

Try turning it off for a few days and see what happens.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word


"Andrea" wrote in message
...
I did save normal.dot, and I am using Word as Outlook editor,
although Outlook was closed when I made the changes and it was
closed when I opened Word and saw that the options hadn't held. I
did have an original AutoOpen macro with only the reading layout
line and another one with all the options (called AutoOpen2). It
sounds as if I should have deleted one? I've now done that. I
looked at the newest link you sent. I use a disk cleaning program
obsessively, so there weren't any .tmp files anywhere, but there
were a couple of other junk files, including a ~$normal.dot
template from 2005. I've seen it there before and not known
whether to delete it. I'll report back whether the settings hold
now. Thank you. Graham Mayor wrote:
Did you save normal.dot after making the changes?
Are you using Word as Outlook editor?
Close both Word and Outlook
Attend to the measures listed at
http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm then
reopen Word.
I take it that you only have one copy of each macro in
normal.dot? Andrea wrote:
Thank you for your response. I didn't mean that the AutoExec
macro ended with "End with.' What I meant was that in your
sample, the line just before "End sub" was "Command Bars etc.,"
but for the AutoOpen and AutoNew macros, the line just before
"End sub" was "End with." I hope that's clearer. Anyway, it's
not an issue for me now that I know that the AutoExec macro
doesn't apply to options. I've realized that my problem goes
beyond the Reading Layout view option, so I included the other
options that aren't being saved from the General and Save
option tabs. However, the reason that I'm posting this here
instead of directly to you at your website as you requested is
that I don't have a question anymore about what to put in the
macros. The issue is that I've had an AutoOpen macro with
Options.AllowReading Mode = False for some time and recently
added an AutoNew macro with the same line after reading this
thread, but the Allow Starting in Reading Layout box kept
getting checked again anyway. Yesterday I created different
AutoOpen and AutoNew macros to include the other options that
weren't being saved, but after opening and closing Word several
times, none of them (including the Reading Layout view) held.
Do you or anyone else have a suggestion? Graham Mayor wrote:
There are three automacros listed on the web page:
AutoNew (which runs when a new document is created from the
template) AutoOpen (which runs when an existing document is
opened) AutoExec (which runs when Word is started).
and an associated macro CodesOff which is run from the AutoExec
macro after a short delay.

All the macros end with 'End Sub'. None of them ends with 'End
With'? You can record all of the Tools Options in a macro if
you want, but
usually it is only a handful of settings that cause problems.
The ones that bother me are included in the sample macros, but
you can supplement these and/or replace them as necessary.
Recording all the settings will give you the syntax required -
however as you have a specific issue let's get back to basics.

To stop the reading layout you need the line:

Options.AllowReadingMode = False

in a macro called AutoOpen
ie at its simplest

Sub AutoOpen()
Options.AllowReadingMode = False
End Sub

If for some reason ReadingLayout mode activates for new
documents, then you also need that line in an AutoNew macro -
again at its simplest Sub AutoNew()
Options.AllowReadingMode = False
End Sub

Options are document related so AutoExec which runs before the
document is opened, will not be required.

If you have created some automacros, open the VBA editor
(Alt+F11) and replace them with the two above by copying and
pasting from this message. If you have other issues such as
those documented on the web page
then you can add the relevant lines of code. (The text in green
explains what the code does). For example if you were to use
the three macros in full, then the line
Options.AllowReadingMode = True
could be inserted immediately before the EndSub statements in
each of AutoNew and AutoOpen.

If this is still not clear, contact me via my web site link
with more details.


Andrea wrote:
I _have_ looked at the link below--many times--as I wrote in a
previous post. Thank you for supplying the link, but it's not
that clear to someone as unfamiliar with macros as I am, and
the VBA help wasn't very detailed. Here are my questions. (1)
Can the information on each of the Options tabs be saved in
an auto macro? In other words, should I contain the macro to
just some of the tabs? I notice that in your samples, you're
only selecting some options. (2) In your sample of an AutoNew
macro, you "End with" a line of code, whereas your other auto
macros just say "End with," then "End Sub." I don't know what
these terms mean; is the AutoNew macro supposed to end
differently? (3) Could you explain your sample AutoExec
macro? I don't understand what it's supposed to do,
specifically "forces off the display of formatting commands."
Displayed where? I understand that the AutoExec macro is used
when Word is started or when a global template is loaded, but
I don't understand why the contents of this macro aren't
exactly the same as the AutoOpen or AutoNew. Because I wasn't
very grounded in macro terminology, I recorded a macro (not
an auto macro) as I opened each of the Options tabs. Then I
copied all of it to another AutoOpen and an AutoNew macro. (I
did this because I couldn't figure out if there was a way to
directly record an auto macro.) I don't know if this is
adequate or converely, too much copying. I still haven't
created an AutoExec maco, but I will once I understand what
I'm doing. Thanks for your help. Graham Mayor wrote:
See http://www.gmayor.com/installing_macro.htm


Andrea wrote:
I was hoping that this was fixed, but the Options settings,
including disabling Reading Layout View, are not holding. I
now have 2 auto open macros macros installed:
OpenOptions.AllowReadingMode = False and
ActiveWindow.View.Type = wdNormalView. I've read the link
that you suggest (many times), but I'm not familiar enough
with macros to know exactly how to go about creating an
autonew or autoexec macro. Do I just name the macro (E.g.,
for autonew) and then start recording as I would for a
non-auto macro? Graham Mayor wrote:
It is a fact of life that some users find some settings of
the Options volatile, exacerbated by the addition of
poorly written add-ins that write to the registry. The
only sure solution is to force the settings using auto
macros. You may need a combination of autoopen
autonew
and
autoexec
macros to fix all the likely issues.

Start the macro recorder and set all the options you
require. As you move to each new tab from options, all the
settings on that tab will be recorded. Extract the entries
you want and add them to the macros. Word's vba help
explains the use of the different types of auto
macros http://www.gmayor.com/installing_macro.htm also has
some sample code. Andrea wrote:
A Google search indicated old posts in this newsgroup on
permanently disabling the Reading Layout option in Word
2003, but I'm unable to bring them up through my
newsreader, so I'm creating a different thread. I've gone
through the generally suggested solutions: unchecking the
Allow box in the General/Options tab, renaming normal.dot
and forcing a new one to be created, creating an AutoOpen
macro in Normal.dot (Options.AllowReadingMode = False).
However, the checkbox kept returning--and also some of
the other Options settings didn't stay saved (e.g.,
Automatically Create Drawing Canvas, Recently Used File
List) and Save options (number minutes, etc.). Finally, I
deleted the Word Data Settings registry key, but nothing
seems to keep my Options settings stable. Does anyone have
any suggestions? I'm using Windows XP Pro SP2. Windows and
Office 2003 are completely updated.