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New Word 2003 update released

Office 2003 SP3 has a bug in the Documening Imaging program – Microsoft has a fix if you need the hotfix and if you can find a way to ask for it!

Microsoft has released a ‘hotfix’ to a repair a bug that arises in Office 2003 Service Pack 3.

The problem is described thus:

You install Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 3. Then, in Microsoft Office Document Imaging (MODI), you click the File menu. In this situation, MODI may crash. This problem occurs when the following conditions are true:



  • You open a file that has more than 55 characters in the file name.
  • The file name entry appears in the most recently used (MRU) files list on the File menu.

which is a fairly unusual set of circumstances in a part of Office that many people don’t use at all.

Microsoft ‘hotfixes’ are really interim patches designed to fix a specific problem.  However these patches haven’t undergone the extensive testing needed when there’s any change made to such a large and complex beastie as Microsoft Office.

In other words, the hotfix might solve the immediate problem but cause other difficulties.

So it’s a good idea NOT to install any Microsoft hotfix unless you have the problem described or a reasonable expectation that you might strike it.

The hotfix isn’t available for direct download, you have to specifically request it via a link provided in the Knowledge Base article.

Well, that’s the theory anyway.  At present the KB article and system to request the hotfix is broken.

KB 952002 has a request hotfix link but unfortunately that page just tells you to look up the Knowledge Base article all over again:


Contact Us: Hotfix Request Web Submission Form



This page has been modified. To make sure that you receive the correct hotfix quickly, initiate the request process by clicking the online submission link in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article that references the hotfix you want. You can start by looking up the KB article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base search page

 

I know Microsoft likes to discourage people from installing hotfixes, but this is ridiculous.  Until the web site is fixed (it might be by the time you read this), you’ll have to call MS support in your country.

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