MS Word's "screen tips" hell -- I want them back for my comments!!!

[Armando]

I lost my "screen tips" in Word 2003.

They're really useful because of all the comments I insert in my documents : these comments are normally instantly available via "screen tips" (or tooltips) when i hover my mouse on top of the highlighted portion of the text.

1- I've enabled (+ disabled and reenabled...) "screen tips" in Tools --> Customize --> Options.
2- I tried reverting to the original normal.dot template... (just in case).
3- I tried exiting word, reboot...

They do work VERY briefly for manually inserted screen tips  (via the "insert bookmark" option), But still don't work for comments.



Any ideas???

[lanux128]

try deleting your normal.dot and let Word re-create them.

[Armando]

Thanks lanux! I tried that before. Actually,  if I let Word recreate a new normal.dot, the tooltips will reappear, but only for the newly created documents (using the new normal.dot). I guess I could reassign this new normal.dot to the old documents, but... that would create a real formating mess. Between these 2 evils, I'll choose to have no screen tips!

There might be another solution though, but it seems that my templates are somewhat corrupted. I'll try to see if I can purify my old templates... I'll try the VBA Code Cleaner and other stuff...

[lanux128]

hmm.. i wonder where else is the settings saved? anyway try this: KB822005. i also remember there is a command-line option to repair the registry settings.

[lanux128]

another useful link: Troubleshooting Word with SUPPORT.DOT

[Armando]

Hey, thanks again lanux! 

I just saw your posts.

A bit earlier, I tried opening the normal.dot using "open and repair". I also tried saving the document in HTML, and then saving it back in DOC format. (funny thing --> the screen tips worked when the document was in HTML, but stopped working when saved back to the DOC format). So... nothing really totally worked. (Well... now at least the newly created documents will show the screen tips. But not the "old" documents.)

I'll try some of your links tomorrow.

[lanux128]

(Well... now at least the newly created documents will show the screen tips. But not the "old" documents.)

just a thought, now that the "screen tips" are working try opening those "older" documents, edit them or leave them open for a while (so that auto-save kicks in) then press/click the save button to see if they're back to normal.

[Armando]

Thanks lanux.
Nope... it's broken. I also tried a repair (Help menu). Didn't work. I might try a more drastic approach and try a deeper repair going through the add/remove programs. But I'll have to do a backup before. I would dislike loosing all my settings...