Can't SAVE files to Folders from EXCEL (and WORD)

"DAVID I." wrote:

I can't save files to existing folders... can't even do a "save as"... the
EXCEL 2003 Program gets to a "Not Responding" state and I have to crash it.
I was able to save a file to the "My Documents" folder. The same thing
happened to my Word Program. This all happened after I did the latest
security update to the XP program. I "removed" and then reinstalled the
Office 2003 program but the problem still exists.

You just happened into one unfortunate thread. Probably at least 50% of the
questions in the microsoft.public.word.application.errors NG and a very
large proportion of those posted here in the past couple of weeks have been
about this issue. If you had scanned the subject lines of other posts
(including many much more recent ones), you would have found many where the
solution was posted in the first reply.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"ZephyrRowanoak" wrote in message
...
Thank you Suzanne for posting the link, I never would have recognized it
as
being related to the problem if you hadn't.
I suggestion/request to all of you who know so much more than the rest of
us
(hear my voice light (deep and mellow actually))....I would have never
removed anything based on the advice of someone I didn't know (have had
that
disaster before), having the official page makes me comfortable about
doing
it. I only wish I hadn't needed to read through the personal quarrels to
find
it. I'm new to the "community", is this typical?
I'm going to try to fix my computer now (cross fingers for me)...and I
agree
with (forgot who) thanks a lot Micro....two hours of trying everything I
know
before I had time to start a search...

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

See "Problems in Windows Explorer or the Windows shell after you install
security update MS06-015" at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918165

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Velocity Guy" wrote in message
ups.com...
I am having the same problem, I can't save any files in Office, yet I
did not do a security upgrade.
Thinking it may have upgraded automatically, I went to the Add/Remove
section and did not find any Security Updates list.
I have run a virus scan, Spyware scan, and put my MS Office 2003 CD
back in and ran the "repair" function, I have tried starting it up in
safe mode and tried saving a file that way..... none of this is
helping
Can someone tell an non-IT type what he can try and walk me through
the
steps
Many thanks
Phil

I'm sending it out, it's been a hot topic these past few days...I'm surprised
my more computer savy friends didn't find this first (one for me ;-))...I
just entered "word save as program not responding" and landed here....as for
scanning subject lines.....is that a faster way to find a result? I'm new
here...Z

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

You just happened into one unfortunate thread. Probably at least 50% of the
questions in the microsoft.public.word.application.errors NG and a very
large proportion of those posted here in the past couple of weeks have been
about this issue. If you had scanned the subject lines of other posts
(including many much more recent ones), you would have found many where the
solution was posted in the first reply.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"ZephyrRowanoak" wrote in message
...
Thank you Suzanne for posting the link, I never would have recognized it
as
being related to the problem if you hadn't.
I suggestion/request to all of you who know so much more than the rest of
us
(hear my voice light (deep and mellow actually))....I would have never
removed anything based on the advice of someone I didn't know (have had
that
disaster before), having the official page makes me comfortable about
doing
it. I only wish I hadn't needed to read through the personal quarrels to
find
it. I'm new to the "community", is this typical?
I'm going to try to fix my computer now (cross fingers for me)...and I
agree
with (forgot who) thanks a lot Micro....two hours of trying everything I
know
before I had time to start a search...

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

See "Problems in Windows Explorer or the Windows shell after you install
security update MS06-015" at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918165

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Velocity Guy" wrote in message
ups.com...
I am having the same problem, I can't save any files in Office, yet I
did not do a security upgrade.
Thinking it may have upgraded automatically, I went to the Add/Remove
section and did not find any Security Updates list.
I have run a virus scan, Spyware scan, and put my MS Office 2003 CD
back in and ran the "repair" function, I have tried starting it up in
safe mode and tried saving a file that way..... none of this is
helping
Can someone tell an non-IT type what he can try and walk me through
the
steps
Many thanks
Phil

We encourage people to search the NG before posting. It's almost always a
mistake to assume that your problem is unique, no matter how bizarre it may
seem to you. In most cases we will have seen it many times already.
Sometimes there are almost as many descriptions of a problem as there are
people experiencing it (one notable example is the "Hide White Space"
issue), and in such cases looking at subject lines won't help; possibly even
using the NG search wouldn't help. In this instance, though, almost all of
the users who have been posting to the Word NGs (as opposed to those who are
having problems with IE, OE, or other Windows apps) are reporting inability
to open or save documents or insert pictures, and this is reflected in the
subject lines.

Another mistake users make is refusing to take the advise we give, often
given in very terse form, such as "See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm" or "See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/MissingMenusEtc.htm." When we post a
reply like that, we mean, "Read this article and do what it says." Often
users will post back and say, "I read the article, and it didn't apply to my
situation," and then we have to explain that, even though the article may
not mention their specific problem, the solution proposed *will* work for
that problem.

Sometimes users hear but don't understand. In the past couple of days I've
looked at two documents where a user was having trouble changing the
orientation of a document or resizing text in it. In both cases, I had told
the user to go to Format | Columns and click on the One button. Both users,
because they had already changed the number of columns to 1, claimed that
this didn't help. But changing the number of columns to 1 by using the
Columns button on the toolbar doesn't always result in the "Equal column
width" button being checked, and that's what clicking on the One preset does
accomplish. In both cases, I was able to "fix" the document by doing exactly
what I had told the user to do, which he had claimed to have done without
result.

Needless to say, none of this is directed to you--just some thoughts I've
been wanting to get off my chest. g

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"ZephyrRowanoak" wrote in message
...
I'm sending it out, it's been a hot topic these past few days...I'm
surprised
my more computer savy friends didn't find this first (one for me ;-))...I
just entered "word save as program not responding" and landed here....as
for
scanning subject lines.....is that a faster way to find a result? I'm new
here...Z

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

You just happened into one unfortunate thread. Probably at least 50% of
the
questions in the microsoft.public.word.application.errors NG and a very
large proportion of those posted here in the past couple of weeks have
been
about this issue. If you had scanned the subject lines of other posts
(including many much more recent ones), you would have found many where
the
solution was posted in the first reply.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"ZephyrRowanoak" wrote in
message
...
Thank you Suzanne for posting the link, I never would have recognized
it
as
being related to the problem if you hadn't.
I suggestion/request to all of you who know so much more than the rest
of
us
(hear my voice light (deep and mellow actually))....I would have never
removed anything based on the advice of someone I didn't know (have
had
that
disaster before), having the official page makes me comfortable about
doing
it. I only wish I hadn't needed to read through the personal quarrels
to
find
it. I'm new to the "community", is this typical?
I'm going to try to fix my computer now (cross fingers for me)...and I
agree
with (forgot who) thanks a lot Micro....two hours of trying everything
I
know
before I had time to start a search...

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

See "Problems in Windows Explorer or the Windows shell after you
install
security update MS06-015" at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918165

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Velocity Guy" wrote in message
ups.com...
I am having the same problem, I can't save any files in Office,
yet I
did not do a security upgrade.
Thinking it may have upgraded automatically, I went to the
Add/Remove
section and did not find any Security Updates list.
I have run a virus scan, Spyware scan, and put my MS Office 2003
CD
back in and ran the "repair" function, I have tried starting it up
in
safe mode and tried saving a file that way..... none of this is
helping
Can someone tell an non-IT type what he can try and walk me
through
the
steps
Many thanks
Phil

Fantastic advice! I had been racking my brains and Googling all over the
place to find out what had gone wrong. Though it might even be virus
related. But it seems Microsoft are themselves the culprits. What a bunch
of nerks! They should be ashamed of themselves.

Thanks again.

"Carol" wrote:

Hi David:

You can remove the offending update from Add/Remove Programs, where it shows
as "Security Update for Windows XP (KB908531)". Make sure the "show updates"
box at the top is ticked or you won't see hotfixes in the list.


--
Carol A. Bratt, MCP



"DAVID I." wrote:

I can't save files to existing folders... can't even do a "save as"... the
EXCEL 2003 Program gets to a "Not Responding" state and I have to crash it.
I was able to save a file to the "My Documents" folder. The same thing
happened to my Word Program. This all happened after I did the latest
security update to the XP program. I "removed" and then reinstalled the
Office 2003 program but the problem still exists.

Nope, this time Microsoft is not the culprit, but possibly the hero. The
problem arose because of third party software (possibly not written to
Windows specs) that tripped up a necessary security patch.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide

See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome!

My criminal defense site: http://addbalance.com
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.


"Simon" wrote in message
...
Fantastic advice! I had been racking my brains and Googling all over the
place to find out what had gone wrong. Though it might even be virus
related. But it seems Microsoft are themselves the culprits. What a
bunch
of nerks! They should be ashamed of themselves.

Thanks again.

"Carol" wrote:

Hi David:

You can remove the offending update from Add/Remove Programs, where it
shows
as "Security Update for Windows XP (KB908531)". Make sure the "show
updates"
box at the top is ticked or you won't see hotfixes in the list.


--
Carol A. Bratt, MCP



"DAVID I." wrote:

I can't save files to existing folders... can't even do a "save as"...
the
EXCEL 2003 Program gets to a "Not Responding" state and I have to crash
it.
I was able to save a file to the "My Documents" folder. The same thing
happened to my Word Program. This all happened after I did the latest
security update to the XP program. I "removed" and then reinstalled
the
Office 2003 program but the problem still exists.

Actually, it does "apply", not to the specific post-problem, but in
understanding more about how to utilize the site and dicusssions more
effectively. People who are highly skilled in a field often forget what the
people who are not highly skilled don't know or understand, most of the
things that become a problem for me with software have to do (eventually)
with something I didn't know and was not explained as fully as a new used
needed...the resolution said "4. Point to new", it took me a monent to try a
right click and find "new"....
your explaination was excellent and very good advice, thank you, Z

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

We encourage people to search the NG before posting. It's almost always a
mistake to assume that your problem is unique, no matter how bizarre it may
seem to you. In most cases we will have seen it many times already.
Sometimes there are almost as many descriptions of a problem as there are
people experiencing it (one notable example is the "Hide White Space"
issue), and in such cases looking at subject lines won't help; possibly even
using the NG search wouldn't help. In this instance, though, almost all of
the users who have been posting to the Word NGs (as opposed to those who are
having problems with IE, OE, or other Windows apps) are reporting inability
to open or save documents or insert pictures, and this is reflected in the
subject lines.

Another mistake users make is refusing to take the advise we give, often
given in very terse form, such as "See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm" or "See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/MissingMenusEtc.htm." When we post a
reply like that, we mean, "Read this article and do what it says." Often
users will post back and say, "I read the article, and it didn't apply to my
situation," and then we have to explain that, even though the article may
not mention their specific problem, the solution proposed *will* work for
that problem.

Sometimes users hear but don't understand. In the past couple of days I've
looked at two documents where a user was having trouble changing the
orientation of a document or resizing text in it. In both cases, I had told
the user to go to Format | Columns and click on the One button. Both users,
because they had already changed the number of columns to 1, claimed that
this didn't help. But changing the number of columns to 1 by using the
Columns button on the toolbar doesn't always result in the "Equal column
width" button being checked, and that's what clicking on the One preset does
accomplish. In both cases, I was able to "fix" the document by doing exactly
what I had told the user to do, which he had claimed to have done without
result.

Needless to say, none of this is directed to you--just some thoughts I've
been wanting to get off my chest. g

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"ZephyrRowanoak" wrote in message
...
I'm sending it out, it's been a hot topic these past few days...I'm
surprised
my more computer savy friends didn't find this first (one for me ;-))...I
just entered "word save as program not responding" and landed here....as
for
scanning subject lines.....is that a faster way to find a result? I'm new
here...Z

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

You just happened into one unfortunate thread. Probably at least 50% of
the
questions in the microsoft.public.word.application.errors NG and a very
large proportion of those posted here in the past couple of weeks have
been
about this issue. If you had scanned the subject lines of other posts
(including many much more recent ones), you would have found many where
the
solution was posted in the first reply.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"ZephyrRowanoak" wrote in
message
...
Thank you Suzanne for posting the link, I never would have recognized
it
as
being related to the problem if you hadn't.
I suggestion/request to all of you who know so much more than the rest
of
us
(hear my voice light (deep and mellow actually))....I would have never
removed anything based on the advice of someone I didn't know (have
had
that
disaster before), having the official page makes me comfortable about
doing
it. I only wish I hadn't needed to read through the personal quarrels
to
find
it. I'm new to the "community", is this typical?
I'm going to try to fix my computer now (cross fingers for me)...and I
agree
with (forgot who) thanks a lot Micro....two hours of trying everything
I
know
before I had time to start a search...

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

See "Problems in Windows Explorer or the Windows shell after you
install
security update MS06-015" at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918165

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Velocity Guy" wrote in message
ups.com...
I am having the same problem, I can't save any files in Office,
yet I
did not do a security upgrade.
Thinking it may have upgraded automatically, I went to the
Add/Remove
section and did not find any Security Updates list.
I have run a virus scan, Spyware scan, and put my MS Office 2003
CD
back in and ran the "repair" function, I have tried starting it up
in
safe mode and tried saving a file that way..... none of this is
helping
Can someone tell an non-IT type what he can try and walk me
through
the
steps
Many thanks
Phil

Charles

You probably know moe aboutthis than me but I'm confused.

Microsoft send out a security patch. Microsoft Word and Excel get screwed
up. How is third party software to blame? And even if it is, does an
organisation the size of Microsoft not foresee such glitches? I'm also told
this kind of thing has happened before...

Simon

"Charles Kenyon" wrote:

Nope, this time Microsoft is not the culprit, but possibly the hero. The
problem arose because of third party software (possibly not written to
Windows specs) that tripped up a necessary security patch.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide

See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome!

My criminal defense site: http://addbalance.com
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.


"Simon" wrote in message
...
Fantastic advice! I had been racking my brains and Googling all over the
place to find out what had gone wrong. Though it might even be virus
related. But it seems Microsoft are themselves the culprits. What a
bunch
of nerks! They should be ashamed of themselves.

Thanks again.

"Carol" wrote:

Hi David:

You can remove the offending update from Add/Remove Programs, where it
shows
as "Security Update for Windows XP (KB908531)". Make sure the "show
updates"
box at the top is ticked or you won't see hotfixes in the list.


--
Carol A. Bratt, MCP



"DAVID I." wrote:

I can't save files to existing folders... can't even do a "save as"...
the
EXCEL 2003 Program gets to a "Not Responding" state and I have to crash
it.
I was able to save a file to the "My Documents" folder. The same thing
happened to my Word Program. This all happened after I did the latest
security update to the XP program. I "removed" and then reinstalled
the
Office 2003 program but the problem still exists.

Over 120 million successful installations of the update. Less than 1000
calls about problems.
http://blogs.technet.com/msrc/default.aspx

That update patched a very real security hole in Windows. If they try it
against every scrap of outdated software that is out there and all
combinations, they might release it by the next millenium.

Chances are that the third-party software was not written to WindowsXP specs
but still managed to run.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide

See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome!

My criminal defense site: http://addbalance.com
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.


"Simon" wrote in message
news
Charles

You probably know moe aboutthis than me but I'm confused.

Microsoft send out a security patch. Microsoft Word and Excel get screwed
up. How is third party software to blame? And even if it is, does an
organisation the size of Microsoft not foresee such glitches? I'm also
told
this kind of thing has happened before...

Simon

"Charles Kenyon" wrote:

Nope, this time Microsoft is not the culprit, but possibly the hero. The
problem arose because of third party software (possibly not written to
Windows specs) that tripped up a necessary security patch.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide

See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome!

My criminal defense site: http://addbalance.com
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.


"Simon" wrote in message
...
Fantastic advice! I had been racking my brains and Googling all over
the
place to find out what had gone wrong. Though it might even be virus
related. But it seems Microsoft are themselves the culprits. What a
bunch
of nerks! They should be ashamed of themselves.

Thanks again.

"Carol" wrote:

Hi David:

You can remove the offending update from Add/Remove Programs, where it
shows
as "Security Update for Windows XP (KB908531)". Make sure the "show
updates"
box at the top is ticked or you won't see hotfixes in the list.


--
Carol A. Bratt, MCP



"DAVID I." wrote:

I can't save files to existing folders... can't even do a "save
as"...
the
EXCEL 2003 Program gets to a "Not Responding" state and I have to
crash
it.
I was able to save a file to the "My Documents" folder. The same
thing
happened to my Word Program. This all happened after I did the
latest
security update to the XP program. I "removed" and then reinstalled
the
Office 2003 program but the problem still exists.

Sorry but still confused.

It took me ages to find out where the problem lay and I'm a pretty
determined kind of guy. I am also fairly tech savvy (if not an actual
techy). So to assume all 12 million updates were successful, or even most of
them were, is putting a rather positive spin on it.

More importantly, what is this outdated software you refer to? I use the
most up to date operating system (XP) and the most up to date software
(Office 2003), all of them kept updated by MS themselves. So apart from MS
products, what could have been the problem?

SImon

"Charles Kenyon" wrote:

Over 120 million successful installations of the update. Less than 1000
calls about problems.
http://blogs.technet.com/msrc/default.aspx

That update patched a very real security hole in Windows. If they try it
against every scrap of outdated software that is out there and all
combinations, they might release it by the next millenium.

Chances are that the third-party software was not written to WindowsXP specs
but still managed to run.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide

See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome!

My criminal defense site: http://addbalance.com
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.


"Simon" wrote in message
news
Charles

You probably know moe aboutthis than me but I'm confused.

Microsoft send out a security patch. Microsoft Word and Excel get screwed
up. How is third party software to blame? And even if it is, does an
organisation the size of Microsoft not foresee such glitches? I'm also
told
this kind of thing has happened before...

Simon

"Charles Kenyon" wrote:

Nope, this time Microsoft is not the culprit, but possibly the hero. The
problem arose because of third party software (possibly not written to
Windows specs) that tripped up a necessary security patch.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide

See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome!

My criminal defense site: http://addbalance.com
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.


"Simon" wrote in message
...
Fantastic advice! I had been racking my brains and Googling all over
the
place to find out what had gone wrong. Though it might even be virus
related. But it seems Microsoft are themselves the culprits. What a
bunch
of nerks! They should be ashamed of themselves.

Thanks again.

"Carol" wrote:

Hi David:

You can remove the offending update from Add/Remove Programs, where it
shows
as "Security Update for Windows XP (KB908531)". Make sure the "show
updates"
box at the top is ticked or you won't see hotfixes in the list.


--
Carol A. Bratt, MCP



"DAVID I." wrote:

I can't save files to existing folders... can't even do a "save
as"...
the
EXCEL 2003 Program gets to a "Not Responding" state and I have to
crash
it.
I was able to save a file to the "My Documents" folder. The same
thing
happened to my Word Program. This all happened after I did the
latest
security update to the XP program. I "removed" and then reinstalled
the
Office 2003 program but the problem still exists.