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Can't "save" or "save as" documents in Microsoft Word 2007

Anonymous
2018-11-14T19:54:27+00:00

I have a super old version of Word (2007, Windows version 8.1) but it has been working great until suddenly, I can no longer save any documents - not new documents or changes to existing documents. If I click on either option there seems to be no response

  • it doesn't give an error message or get hung up. It just does nothing. The only "save as" option that seems to work is the save as pdf or xps. And Excel is not affected.

I've received 2 messages and have no idea whether either are related. The first maybe appears when auto-save would normally run. I'm not sure of that though.

The second pops up when I go to close the application. If I click yes, the dialogue box will disappear but Word will stay open. If I go to close it again, the same message pops up.

One more note: the features work if I run Word in safe mode.

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Suzanne S Barnhill 277.8K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2018-11-16T00:01:24+00:00

    The general troubleshooting technique is to add the add-ins back in one at a time until you find the one that is causing the problem, then decide whether or not you can live without that add-in.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-11-15T18:56:46+00:00

    Thanks for the suggestions. I tried Method 6 first to no avail. I then tried each of the rest. The only method that worked was Method 2, starting Word using the a/ switch, which I see is not a permanent solution.

    After trying all of that though, I disabled all my add-ins via the File > Word Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Add-ins, selecting 'disable all application add-ins', and the problem went away. So it must be an add-in. But I tried Methods 6 & 7 again, just to make sure I hadn't missed something. Neither was effective.

    I'm at least glad to be able to save my documents again, so long as I don't need the add-ins! But any thoughts on how else to troubleshoot the add-ins?

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  3. Suzanne S Barnhill 277.8K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2018-11-14T22:03:10+00:00

    Since Word works as expected in Safe Mode, you need to troubleshoot possible issues. Although the problem could be in the Normal template or the Registry, the most likely cause of the issue is an add-in. The article at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/921541/how-to-troubleshoot-problems-that-occur-when-you-start-or-use-word has many helpful troubleshooting tips, but you might want to start at the bottom with the section on add-ins (Method 6).

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