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 Like Microsoft Windows, the Office programs such as Word are occasionally updated to patch up known vulnerabilities, solve problems, and add new features. Keeping your products updated with the latest updates ensures that your programs have the latest security and application improvements. In addition, Word updates can further enhance your application with converters for new file extensions and compatibility with other document types.

You can check for Word updates in several ways. If you have Word 2007, one of the easiest ways is to go to the Office button and select Word Options. Click on Resources and then select Get Updates. This will open Windows Update and direct you to the Windows Update website.

If you don’t have Windows Update enabled on your computer, you can go into the Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Windows Update (or Control Panel >Performance and Maintenance > Windows Update depending on your operating system). Once launched, enable the update settings and make sure to select the box down at the bottom to include updates for all Microsoft products.

Another option for obtaining Word updates is to go directly to the Microsoft Office Web site and click on the “Check for Updates” link. Here you’ll find a variety of related downloads for Word 2007, Word 2003, Word XP, and Word 2000 as well as any of the Office applications.

When at the Microsoft Office Web site, take a look at some of the other downloads available in addition to the Word updates. For example, you’ll find a variety of downloads including add-ons, updates, audio files, publications, viewers, and demos.

What types of updates are available for Word? It depends on which version you are currently using. For example, as of this writing, two updates have been released for Word 2007. The first one repairs conversion issues when the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack is installed for working with earlier Word documents. The second one resolves a vulnerability that allows arbitrary code to run when maliciously modified files are opened. Older versions of Word have far more updates as they have been around much longer. For example, currently, Word 2000 has about twenty updates available.
Because each version of Word has its own updates, you must make sure to download the proper update for your version of Word.

In addition to being able to download Word and Office updates from Microsoft, you can also order updates on CD. You will need to pay a small fee for the CD (usually around $3) and shipping which varies depending on where you live.

Keeping your computer’s operating system, software, and device drivers updated is vital to your computer’s overall security and performance. It doesn’t take long to set up Windows Update to do this for you automatically nor does it take long to check for updates manually from time to time.

 Microsoft Word displays a list of available fonts found in the Windows Font folder. However, Word doesn’t always list every font installed. Instead, Word relies on the font capabilities of your default printer and displays only those for which your printer is capable. If you previously had a huge selection of fonts in Microsoft Word and now only have a few, double check to see if your default printer and/or the printer driver have been changed.

For example, if your printer’s driver has become corrupt, Windows or another computer user may have loaded a generic printer driver in its place. While the printer can function, the support for numerous fonts will be limited. Microsoft Word will then only offer fonts that are compatible with the default printer’s driver.

Uninstalling the printer and reinstalling it should solve the problem. Before doing so, try switching to another printer if you have more than one on the computer. Now, switch back. This switching routine sometimes is enough to freshen up your font list in Word.

Another problem with fonts related to the default printer is when a printer has not been selected as a default printer. Make sure that you have a printer selected as the default printer and see if your fonts reappear.

Other issues surrounding missing fonts involve a corrupt font cache, missing or corrupt fonttext.dll file, corrupt Font folder, missing or corrupt Desktop.ini file, and low memory.

Low memory issues cause fonts to stop appearing on the screen. When this happens, you must reboot your computer in order to free up system resources. If memory issues are common, you may have too many programs loaded at once - including spyware. Run a spyware scan to rule out malware as a potential cause. In addition, limit the number of programs that launch at start up.

File corruption and registry issues often affect fonts. A good registry cleaning utility such as RegCure will resolve these problems. For example, the “fonts” value in the registry can disappear, causing havoc with any application that relies on fonts. If the value does not point to the Windows\Fonts folder or if the path is incorrect, the various computer applications won’t understand where to look for installed fonts.

Fonts don’t simply disappear from Word without a good reason. They may disappear because something is wrong with the default printer and its driver or your computer may be extremely low on resources. File corruption and registry problems are often causes of Word’s font problems as well. The first step is to double check the printer and printer driver. If that doesn’t work, maintaining your computer and getting it running properly should solve many of your problems. Free up memory and clean out the registry and see if that does the trick.

 When Microsoft Word has a hang up with just one particular document, it usually isn’t a problem with the software but rather a problem with the document itself. First, does the document open? Does it open but take forever to do so? Is the Word document file located on your computer’s hard drive or on a network?

Some documents are finicky, especially if they contain tons of graphics, pasted links, macros, and merge fields. The problem could be related to any of these linked or embedded objects. If you recently added an object and then begin experiencing problems with the document, the object could very well be causing the problem. In this case, removing the object usually solves the problem.

Occasionally, Word has a problem with the last paragraph mark in the document and becomes corrupt. This last paragraph mark and Word have an odd relationship. This paragraph mark contains a hidden section break and section breaks are where many corruptions appear. Word associates much of the document’s styling and formatting with this mark. By copying and pasting everything but this mark into a new document, you may be able to remove the corruption. To do this, select all text by hitting Control + A. Now, use the Shift + Left Arrow key combination to move the cursor away from the last paragraph mark. Once this is complete, copy the text and paste it into a new document.

Sometimes saving the Word document file as an RTF file, opening the new RTF file and then converting it back to a Word document removes the corruption. This doesn’t always work but it’s worth a try.

Microsoft Word comes with a built in “recover text from any file” option. This may need to be installed on your computer as it isn’t included in the default setup. If you don’t have this option, you can install it by re-running Office Setup. This tool only recovers the text, not formatting or any other objects such as graphics or drawing objects. However, at least you should be able to recover all of your text which is better than nothing.

To use the Recover Text from Any File convertor go to File > Open (or Office Button > Open if you have Word 2007). Under File Type, use the drop down arrow to find Recover Text from Any File and navigate to the document that is giving you trouble. This will recover the text so that you can then save it to a new document. 

What if you can’t open a Word document at all? The header information may be corrupt. If so, you may be able to paste the file as a link into a new document. This bypasses the header information. To do this in Word 2007, open a new document and then go to the Insert tab. Go to the Text area and click on Object. Choose Text from File and locate the file that you need to recover. In previous versions of Word, go to the Insert menu and choose File. Locate the file in question.

These are just a few possible reasons and solutions for troublesome Word documents. Other causes of file corruption include corrupt printer drivers, nested tables, corrupt normal.dot template, fast saves, computer viruses, malware, malicious macros, and unexpected shutdowns. If your computer is unstable, the likelihood of future file corruption is high. 

Did you just lose the shortcut on your desktop or the entire directory?
Look in Windows Explorer by right-clicking the Start button and choosing Explore. Click the C drive and find the “Programs” folder. Click that and scroll down in search of Outlook Express (or perhaps Microsoft then Outlook Express). If you find an Outlook Express folder, look for the application (.exe) file. If you find it, try double clicking it and seeing if OE opens.

Try the free scan of Data Recovery Pro. The scan will tell you if Outlook Express and related emails etc… are recoverable or not. If you end up wanting to recover them, you will need to purchase the full-featured product.

If you simply wish to replace Outlook Express with a fresh copy, you will need to download Microsoft Windows Mail as Microsoft has replaced Outlook Express with this new program (it’s quite similar).

My Excel spreadsheet prints strange. Can I fit the spreadsheet on one page?

One of my biggest pet peeves with Excel involves printing large spreadsheets. The very nature of Excel makes for wide printouts as each record stretches across the screen. While I might have a spreadsheet that looks good on my wide screen monitor, the printout is an impossible mess! Short of taping a bunch of pages together, what’s an Excel user to do?

Fortunately, you can control the way Excel prints. First, let’s take a look at the Print Area command before digging into the various print settings. You can control which areas print on a page by setting the Print Area. This helps to avoid printing blank pages or pages with information that you may need in the spreadsheet for calculation purposes but not necessarily for general viewing. To do this, highlight the text that you want to print and then go to File >Print Area > Set Print Area. In Excel 2007, highlight the text, go to the Page Layout tab, and select the Print Area icon. Choose Set Print Area.

Once the print area has been set, you will see a dotted line indicating the page boundaries. As your document evolves, you may need to clear and reset the print area. For example, you may need to add columns outside of the boundary. Keep this in mind as you edit your documents and adjust the print area as necessary. Otherwise, your new data won’t print.

While setting the print area is a good first step, it doesn’t solve the problem of wide records fitting on the page properly. While in the Page Layout area (either through File >Page Setup or the Page Layout tab depending on your version of Excel), you can further fine tune your spreadsheet. For example, you can adjust the margins, orientation, size, page breaks, and titles.

Adjusting the margins and orienting the page to landscape mode rather than portrait mode often does the trick. A few tweaks of column widths may also be needed. This option is ideal for those spreadsheets that “almost” fit across a page.

In addition, you can also scale the image down to less than 100% or even choose the option to fit the entire spreadsheet on a single page. Of course, doing so depends on the size of the spreadsheet. If you have a huge spreadsheet, shrinking it to fit on a single page will make it microscopic. A better idea is to scale it down to a legible size.

One problem when you print Excel spreadsheets on multiple pages is that you lose the column headings on the pages that follow. You can set Excel to print the title rows across the top and the columns on the left side. This helps to clarify the data on each page.

You can also set the printed page order to either print down then over or over then down.

As you adjust the print settings, use the Print Preview feature to see how your changes affect the printed document. Print Preview provides shortcuts to these various setting options as well.

I have had several Excel spreadsheets go bad on me with varying success in opening the spreadsheet. Excel spreadsheets become corrupt for a variety of reasons including unexpected shutdowns, computer crashes, viruses, and macros. Sometimes, an object within the spreadsheet causes the problem.

It is possible to open corrupt spreadsheets. Many software utilities exist for that very purpose. However, before you buy one, you can try a few of these do-it-yourself steps. Each of the following is a separate technique to try, not a sequence. Try the various options and hopefully open your spreadsheet.

• If you’re on a network, try opening the spreadsheet on a different computer. If it works, re-save the spreadsheet with a new file name. See if the new file will open on your computer.

• Disable macros. If your corrupt spreadsheet has macros, you should be prompted by a warning. Choose to disable the macros and see if the file opens.

• Another option to try is to open Excel in “safe mode” before trying to open the spreadsheet. This disables VBA and add-ins which may be interfering with your document. To open Excel in safe mode, go to the Start button, choose Run and then Browse. Look for the Excel.exe file which will be in the Program files>Microsoft>Microsoft Office folder. Once you find the path, add a “/s” to the end so that your path looks something like this (depending on the location of your version of Office):

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Excel.exe /s

• Set Excel to manual calculations before trying to open a corrupt spreadsheet. To do this, go to Tools >Options >Calculation tab. Find the calculation area and select manual. Now, try opening the file. (In Excel 2007, go to the Formulas tab and find Calculation options (on the right side) and select Manual from the list.

• If you can open the spreadsheet, consider saving it in the SYLK (symbolic link) file format. This format only allows you to save one worksheet at a time, so if you have multiple worksheets, you will need to save the file multiple times by going to each worksheet and saving the “active” worksheet as an SYLK file.

• Try opening the spreadsheet by using a different version of Excel or different spreadsheet application altogether (such as the free Calc program from OpenOffice.org.) This sometimes works because many newer versions of spreadsheet programs have better file recovery features.

• If you have Excel 97 (and only Excel 97) you can use the Microsoft Excel 97 Recovery Macro to recover worksheets into a new workbook. This macro is available for download at the Microsoft Web site.

• Try opening the spreadsheet in Microsoft Word or importing the data into Access. You will need an Excel converter in order to open an Excel spreadsheet in Word. You can download the converter from Microsoft.  You may be able to at least recover your data using this option though you’ll lose your formatting and formulas.  

• You can also use the Excel viewer to open corrupt workbooks. Like many of the options, you will not be able to recover formulas, just data.