Word 2003 - no dialog box after Control-P

rgrosz78
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Word 2003 - no dialog box after Control-P

Post by rgrosz78 »

A friend started having a weird problem today. They can use Control-P to get the standard print dialog box for most programs, but NOT in Microsoft Word.

When they use File / Menu /Print (or Control-P), the entire document prints immediately. They typically only want to print the current page ... I tried Googling for this problem, but no success.
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Re: Word 2003 - no dialog box after Control-P

Post by Rebel »

Has your friend tried the Detect and Repair procedure? Scroll down to the "On-demand detect and repair" section for instructions.
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Rudi
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Re: Word 2003 - no dialog box after Control-P

Post by Rudi »

Another option to try is have your friend hold down Ctrl when starting Word (to force it into "Safe Mode" - installation defaults). Have them determine is File/Print works in the expected way in Safe Mode? If yes, then they have some kind of Add-in or startup macro that's overriding the default command.
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HansV
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Re: Word 2003 - no dialog box after Control-P

Post by HansV »

Something to try:

Select Tools > Customize...
Click the Keyboard... button near the bottom of the Customize dialog.
Click in the 'Press new shortcut key' box.
Press Ctrl+P.
You can see what this keyboard shortcut is currently assigned to. It should be assigned to FilePrint, which is the command that displays the Print dialog. If is is assigned to FilePrintDefault instead, that would explain why the Print dialog is bypassed. If so, the user can select File or All Commands in the list of Categories, then FilePrint in the list of Commands, and assign Ctrl+P to it.
Best wishes,
Hans

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Re: Word 2003 - no dialog box after Control-P

Post by rgrosz78 »

Thanks for the great suggestions! I will try these when I visit her tomorrow.
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Re: Word 2003 - no dialog box after Control-P

Post by rgrosz78 »

Rebel wrote:Has your friend tried the Detect and Repair procedure? Scroll down to the "On-demand detect and repair" section for instructions.
This was the first thing I tried - and we never got it to work. At some point, it asks for the original install CD. But when I put the Office 2003 CD in the disk drive, it never found any files. I opened up Windows Explorer, and the computer acted like there was NO disc in the drive at all.

Just for fun, we put a music CD in the drive, and it started playing - so it seems like the disc drive is functioning properly. After canceling out of the Detect and Repair, I tested the Office 2003 disc on a different PC - and it is a valid disc. At this point my conclusion was that Windows itself was somehow corrupted.
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Re: Word 2003 - no dialog box after Control-P

Post by rgrosz78 »

Rudi wrote:Another option to try is have your friend hold down Ctrl when starting Word (to force it into "Safe Mode" - installation defaults). Have them determine is File/Print works in the expected way in Safe Mode? If yes, then they have some kind of Add-in or startup macro that's overriding the default command.
We tried, but never did get Word to open in Safe Mode. Not sure what the problem was, probably user error.
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Re: Word 2003 - no dialog box after Control-P

Post by rgrosz78 »

HansV wrote:Select Tools > Customize...
Click the Keyboard... button near the bottom of the Customize dialog.
Click in the 'Press new shortcut key' box.
Press Ctrl+P.
You can see what this keyboard shortcut is currently assigned to. It should be assigned to FilePrint, which is the command that displays the Print dialog. If is is assigned to FilePrintDefault instead, that would explain why the Print dialog is bypassed. If so, the user can select File or All Commands in the list of Categories, then FilePrint in the list of Commands, and assign Ctrl+P to it.
We checked this, and it showed that Control-P was correctly mapped to the FilePrint dialog.
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Re: Word 2003 - no dialog box after Control-P

Post by rgrosz78 »

I assumed Windows was corrupt, so my final solution was to restore from an earlier Acronis backup. I chose the May 20, 2016 backup image. After 30 minutes, the PC booted up fine. After all her startup programs loaded, we tried Control-P in Word, and finally got to see the print dialog. I thought that was the end, but I was wrong ...

There were several other computer mysteries to unravel, and one of them involved printing some photographs. After going through printer maintenance (nozzle check and head cleaning), we loaded up the Word document with two embedded photos. We hit Control-P, and the document printed immediately!! I have no idea how, but within one hour of restoring from backup, the Print dialog in MS Word stopped working properly.

As a last gasp, I tried the "Detect and Repair" procedure, but it did not work. It acted like there was no disk in the drive. I have NO idea how to proceed from here.

One thing I noticed ... her computer seemed to be running really slow. MS svchost.exe was running in the background, and consumed about 50% of the CPU. This lasted for a few hours, even after I left. I tried turning off Windows updates and rebooting, but it made no difference.
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HansV
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Re: Word 2003 - no dialog box after Control-P

Post by HansV »

rgrosz78 wrote:We tried, but never did get Word to open in Safe Mode. Not sure what the problem was, probably user error.
Another way to start Word in safe mode:

- Press Windows key+R to activate the Run dialog.
- Enter    winword.exe /safe     in the box, then press Enter or click OK.
Best wishes,
Hans

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Re: Word 2003 - no dialog box after Control-P

Post by Charles Kenyon »

Cross-posted at: http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showth ... -Control-P" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
For cross-posting etiquette, please read: http://www.excelguru.ca/content.php?184" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

rgrosz78
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Re: Word 2003 - no dialog box after Control-P

Post by rgrosz78 »

HansV wrote:Another way to start Word in safe mode:

- Press Windows key+R to activate the Run dialog.
- Enter    winword.exe /safe     in the box, then press Enter or click OK.
I will give this a try the next time I go for a visit.
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Re: Word 2003 - no dialog box after Control-P

Post by ChrisGreaves »

rgrosz78 wrote:A friend started having a weird problem today. They can use Control-P to get the standard print dialog box for most programs, but NOT in Microsoft Word.
Does your friend have, lurking somewhere, a public macro named "FilePrint"?
It is my understanding that such a macro would "Hijack" the regular MSWord File,Print command.
Cheers
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Re: Word 2003 - no dialog box after Control-P

Post by rgrosz78 »

ChrisGreaves wrote:Does your friend have, lurking somewhere, a public macro named "FilePrint"?
It is my understanding that such a macro would "Hijack" the regular MSWord File,Print command.
Cheers
Chris
I didn't see any macro like that. I will do more investigation when I see them next week.
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Re: Word 2003 - no dialog box after Control-P

Post by ChrisGreaves »

rgrosz78 wrote:I didn't see any macro like that. I will do more investigation when I see them next week.
When I got home, I felt awful; truly awful.
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Re: Word 2003 - no dialog box after Control-P

Post by rgrosz78 »

The conclusion is
1. I am blind :sad:
2. There is a FilePrint macro :flee:
3. The macro is in a template that Chris Greaves shared with me :cheers:
4. I still can't explain this fully yet :hairout:

I have exactly the same template files on my PC. I set all this code up for my friend, and it acts differently on her machine. I have NOT had a problem with the macro code "taking over" the default FilePrint dialog.

One minor difference is that I am running Windows 7 Professional, and she is running Windows 7 Home. And her system has EXTREME problems with Windows corruption. After twelve months, her system becomes so unstable that it is unusable. Then we have to restore a backup image from last August.

Right now, her system is ten months old. This is about the time frame that Windows starts getting flaky :flee:
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Charles Kenyon
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Re: Word 2003 - no dialog box after Control-P

Post by Charles Kenyon »

What you are showing is not a macro, but a comment in your vba file. If it were not commented out, it would be a macro.

Look in the list of macros shown with Alt+F8. It has to show up in there.

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Re: Word 2003 - no dialog box after Control-P

Post by rgrosz78 »

Chris was showing what the code SHOULD look like - it was active on my PC. I commented out the FilePrint macro and tested the results last night. I will visit my friend today to check out her PC.
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Re: Word 2003 - no dialog box after Control-P

Post by ChrisGreaves »

Charles Kenyon wrote:What you are showing is not a macro, but a comment in your vba file. If it were not commented out, it would be a macro. Look in the list of macros shown with Alt+F8. It has to show up in there.
Charles, I know that you're not blaming, but if any part of this falls on any entity other than Microsoft, then it falls on me.
It's true that I shared one of my Applications with Rick.
It's true that when I posted my comment that it *might* be a FilePrint macro causing the problem I didn't think it might be me.
It's true that when I went home I used my search-all-code application, just to see if **I** had any FilePrint macros hanging around.
It's true that when I saw one lurking in our shared application I cringed in abject humiliation. (John Cleese would have been proud of me!)

At my first online opportunity I expressed my cringeworthiness and sent Rick the image of my by-now-commented-out FilePrint macro.

The rest, by the sound of it, will be his-story. Ricks, i mean.

I have been aware for 12+months that the two systems that Rick oversees have their differences as, apparently, does my system from Ricks.

Cheers, salutations and all that sort of stuff ...
Chris
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Charles Kenyon
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Re: Word 2003 - no dialog box after Control-P

Post by Charles Kenyon »

rgrosz78 wrote:Chris was showing what the code SHOULD look like - it was active on my PC. I commented out the FilePrint macro and tested the results last night. I will visit my friend today to check out her PC.
If you want, you can rename this macro so it doesn't act as an intercept. Then attach it to a keyboard shortcut and/or a QAT icon.
:cheers: