[accesscomp] Re: Running Multiple Versions of Word on the same system without a lag

  • From: "Wayne W Hinckley" <wwhinckley@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <accesscomp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 9 Apr 2009 12:25:21 -0600

I would like to read the review that you have mentioned.

Thanks,
Wayne

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Reginald George 
  To: accesscomp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Thursday, April 09, 2009 6:47 AM
  Subject: [accesscomp] Re: Running Multiple Versions of Word on the same 
system without a lag


  Have heard of this add on, but had been told you have to pay eventually or to 
unlock certain features.  Unless there is more than one.  I have a review of 
this software I could send to the list if anyone is interested.  
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Wayne W Hinckley 
  To: accesscomp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 8:43 PM
  Subject: [accesscomp] Re: Running Multiple Versions of Word on the same 
system without a lag


  Is anyone on the list using the free download available from

  http://www.ubit.ch/software/ubitmenu-languages/

  that gives you the 2003 menus on the 2007 Word, Excel and PowerPoint?  It 
sounds like this would eliminate the need for two versions on anyone's system.

  Any feedback would be appreciated.

  Wayne

    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Reginald George 
    To: accesscomp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
    Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 11:50 AM
    Subject: [accesscomp] Re: Running Multiple Versions of Word on the same 
system without a lag


    Many folks are not ready to give up their Office 2003 until they learn the 
Office 2007 interface.  It is quite a bit different.  
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Scott Granados 
    To: accesscomp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
    Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 12:29 PM
    Subject: [accesscomp] Re: Running Multiple Versions of Word on the same 
system without a lag


    Why would you want to bother running two versions?  Newer versions are 
backward compatible.



      ----- Original Message ----- 
      From: Reginald George 
      To: accesscomp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ; Adaptive technology information and 
support. 
      Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 4:27 AM
      Subject: [accesscomp] Running Multiple Versions of Word on the same 
system without a lag


      Sorry for the multiple post, but some of us have to do this.  So  I 
thought it would be helpful.  A friend sent a long, probably ten page article 
about this subject.  I reproduced the last part of it below.  But I'll excerpt 
the important part at the top.  He covers licensing issues and everything else. 
  But he confirms my own experience that you can do this and, you don't have to 
choose a different folder.  You can even install Office 2003 after installing 
Office 2007 and it will work.  The only problem has been the long lag when 
switching between Office versions.  The tip below which requires a small 
registry edit does resolve this issue, and I will be doing this from now on 
whenever Offfice 2003 and 2007 are going to live happilly on the same system.  
To save people time I copied the tip first, then a much longersection that 
anyone who is really interested in doing this should read for background.  

      Reg

      But wait...this is important! Before you close up shop and start working 
on this reg fix, open the version of Word that you will want to be your default.
      In other words, say you have two versions of Word on your system. You 
want to use 2007, but you want 2003 to be the version that opens by default when
      you click on a DOC file. Open Word 2003 before you insert the fix below. 
This will ensure that Word 2003 is the last version opened and it will, if 
necessary,
      reset the registry to that version. (More on getting around this default 
in the next section.)  

      Now make sure Word is closed and open the Registry. To open the registry, 
click Start > Run (or hit Windows + R) and type REGEDIT into the Run dialog box
      and hit Enter. Note that if this doesn't do anything, you're using a 
system where the administrator has taken away your ability to edit the registry 
so
      you don't mess it up! 

      Once within the registry, click the + (plus sign) to expand the 
HKEY_CURRENT_USER folder.   

      Scroll down and locate the Software folder and expand that one. We have a 
long journey ahead, so hang in there!  

      Once within the Software folder, scroll down that branch of the folder 
tree until you find the folder for Microsoft. Click the + to expand that one.  

      Now scroll down to locate the Office folder.  

      There you'll see the numbered versions of the Office versions you have. 
2007 is version 12, 2003 is version 11, 2002 is version 10 and so on down the 
scale.  

      This fix can be used for all recent versions. Or at least, I know it 
works as far back as 2000. I can't confirm anything earlier. But if you're 
still using
      a version older than 2000, speed is obviously not an issue for you!<grin> 
Expand the folder for the version you want to speed up. (Note, this speed up
      fix will only help you if you are running multiple versions. So if you 
only have one version of Office on your system...don't bother with this setting,
      as it won't do anything for you.)  

      Move to the Word folder and expand that. Almost there!  

      Okay, locate the Options folder and select that one. This is the folder 
where you'll be adding a new registry key.  

      With the Options folder selected in the route we took above, click Edit > 
New > DWORD Value, as shown below.  
      ***we would press alt E for edit, then choose new dword value.  
      This will insert a new registry key into the Options folder. It will be 
highlighted in edit mode so you can go right ahead and start typing the name of
      this key.  

      Carefully type the following as the name, exactly as shown: NoRereg Hit 
the Enter key after typing the name to have the name accepted.  

      Now double click or press enter on this new key to open it. The dialog 
box below will display. The Value data will read 0 (zero) by default. Change 
that setting to the number 1 and click OK to accept that value.  

      Then close the registry. You did it! 

      So what is it that you've done? Well, you went into the Word registry 
settings for the version of Word you selected and you set a new registry key. 
The key is an option that stops Word from reregistering itself if another 
version is the current default. The value of 1 means Yes. So the NoRereg (no 
reregistering) is set to Yes...i.e., don't do it! This will cause Word to 
ignore the default version and just open, without taking several minutes to go 
through the reregistering  hassle.  

      ***okay, here's the longer version.  


      But I recently learned about a wonderful, and amazingly simple registry 
fix that will allow you to switch between versions in about the time it takes 
you

      to click its icon!  

      Granted, this is a registry edit, so I must add the warning that messing 
up the registry can seriously trash your computer. Take precautions and don't do

      this if you have no idea what you are doing! Either back up all your 
registry settings or set a  roll-back point in Windows
       before you go into your registry. That said, if you're careful, this is 
a pretty easy fix.  

      Now, unfortunately, this fix only works with Microsoft Word. If I find a 
fix for other apps, particularly Access, which I've discovered is nearly worse

      than Word to reconfigure between versions, I'll let you know. For now, I 
can only remove your Word lag pain. 

      Also know that, before you do this you'll not only want to make sure that 
Word is closed, but also read this entire article so you know about a few 
caveats
      that may change your mind about using this option. 

      But wait...this is important! Before you close up shop and start working 
on this Reg fix, open the version of Word that you will want to be your default.
      In other words, say you have two versions of Word on your system. You 
want to use 2007, but you want 2003 to be the version that opens by default when
      you click on a DOC file. Open Word 2003 before you insert the fix below. 
This will ensure that Word 2003 is the last version opened and it will, if 
necessary,

      reset the registry to that version. (More on getting around this default 
in the next section.)  

      Now make sure Word is closed and open the Registry. To open the registry, 
click Start > Run (or hit Windows + R) and type REGEDIT into the Run dialog box

      and hit Enter. Note that if this doesn't do anything, you're using a 
system where the administrator has taken away your ability to edit the registry 
so

      you don't mess it up! 

      Once within the registry, click the + (plus sign) to expand the 
HKEY_CURRENT_USER folder.   

      Scroll down and locate the Software folder and expand that one. We have a 
long journey ahead, so hang in there!  

      Once within the Software folder, scroll down that branch of the folder 
tree until you find the folder for Microsoft. Click the + to expand that one.  

      Now scroll down to locate the Office folder.  

      There you'll see the numbered versions of the Office versions you have. 
2007 is version 12, 2003 is version 11, 2002 is version 10 and so on down the 
scale.  

      This fix can be used for all recent versions. Or at least, I know it 
works as far back as 2000. I can't confirm anything earlier. But if you're 
still using

      a version older than 2000, speed is obviously not an issue for you!<grin> 
Expand the folder for the version you want to speed up. (Note, this speed up

      fix will only help you if you are running multiple versions. So if you 
only have one version of Office on your system...don't bother with this setting,

      as it won't do anything for you.)  

      Move to the Word folder and expand that. Almost there!  

      Okay, locate the Options folder and select that one. This is the folder 
where you'll be adding a new registry key.  

      With the Options folder selected in the route we took above, click Edit > 
New > DWORD Value, as shown below.  

      This will insert a new registry key into the Options folder. It will be 
highlighted in edit mode so you can go right ahead and start typing the name of

      this key.  

      Carefully type the following as the name, exactly as shown: NoRereg Hit 
the Enter key after typing the name to have the name accepted.  

      Now double click this new key to open it. The dialog box below will 
display. The Value data will read 0 (zero) by default. Change that setting to 
the number

      1 and click OK to accept that value.  

      Then close the registry. You did it! 

      So what is it that you've done? Well, you went into the Word registry 
settings for the version of Word you selected and you set a new registry key. 
The

      key is an option that stops Word from reregistering itself if another 
version is the current default. The value of 1 means Yes. So the NoRereg (no 
reregistering)

      is set to Yes...i.e., don't do it! This will cause Word to ignore the 
default version and just open, without taking several minutes to go through the 
reregistering

      hassle.  

      How did I know what registry key you could set to do this? That's a trick 
in itself. When programmers create software, they often add options, but for one

      reason or another (usually because the company decides they don't want to 
support the option) not all these registry changes are documented, or finding

      info on them is something done only by those who really want to hunt and 
whine for a fix. Although this fix has apparently been around since at least 
version

      2000, because it works for that version, it's been pretty much 
undocumented until the recent MVP summit when and MVP complained about the lag 
time and

      a wonderfully helpful Microsoft staffer hunted down and dug up this 
information and shared it with us.  

      Herb Tyson,

      author of the Word 2007 Bible, got the information and added it to his 
Word 2007 blog: 

      
http://word2007bible.blogspot.com/2007/03/word-2007-and-word-2003-can-co.html.

      Then he emailed me to make sure I knew about this fix, since he knew I've 
been whining about the lag time with 2007 switches.  

      I swiped that info from his blog for this article. (Thanks Herb! And 
Beth! And Mr. Wonderful Softie!) [Yes, I'm protecting his identity so he can 
continue

      his covert work on our behalf.<smile>]  

      Caveats! 

      Okay, so now you can open Word 2007 and it'll just pop open with no 
worries about whether it's at the front of the line or not. You'll want to go 
through

      the other versions of Word on your system and add a similar NoRereg 
option key into the Word > Options folder for each of those versions, too. Then 
you

      can open any version of Word and it'll open instantly (assuming you don't 
have add-ins or other junk that might cause different delays). But at least you

      will no longer have to wait for that Reconfiguring screen to go away 
before you get on with your work. 

      However, you have done something else. You've stopped each version of 
Word from resetting itself as the new default version. So what if you have a 
file

      that you want to click and have it open in say 2003, but you have 2007 
set as your default. Yes, this can be a problem. 

      If you want to open say a 2003 doc in 2003, you can first open Word 2003, 
then use the File > Open dialog box to retrieve the file, rather than attempting

      to open the file by clicking it right from Windows Explorer, because 
doing so would cause it to open in the default version...Word 2007, assuming 
that

      is your current default.  

      Another workaround is to add shortcuts for each version of Word into your 
SendTo folder, as shown below. Then you can just right click any file and you'll

      find the option of choosing the program you want to open the file.  

      Granted, you can also use the OpenWith option, but I find using the 
SendTo trick generally faster.  

      One last item you need to keep in mind is that the underlying document 
structure for 2007 has changed. That's why they are now called .docx, because 
they

      use the newer XML format for their architecture. This means that older 
versions of Word won't recognize them unless you install a special 

      compatibility pack

       for previous versions or save out the .docx as a .doc file.  

      However, you should receive an error message if you attempt to open a 
.docx file in a previous program that only recognizes .doc formats. The error 
should

      tell you that the .docx file was created in a newer version and then 
offer to download the compatibility pack. See this KB for details on that 
scenario: 

      http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919026/.

      (Thanks, again, Beth...for this link.)  

      Now you can have one version, such as 2007, as your default when you 
choose to create a new Word document. This will force you to work with the new 
software

      more often, hence you'll learn it faster. But if you need to work with a 
previous version, you can either open that version directly or use SendTo to 
pass

      the needed file to the needed version...all without twiddling your thumbs 
waiting as each version resets.  

      block quote

      For more information on using the SendTo folder for shortcuts, see Greg's 
article on this subject: 

      http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=94 

      block quote end 

      Should you realize that your default choice is not the best for your 
workflow, you can go back and reset which one becomes the default. To do this, 
go to

      the NoRereg key for the version you want to become the new default and 
change the value to 0 (zero). Then go open that version. It'll do its thing to 
reset

      itself as the default.  

      Now if only I knew about this trick many years ago...I would have saved 
hours of wait time over these many years of using multiple versions!  

      ***Comment from Reg.  
      I also have installed multiple versions of Office on multiple computers 
without choosing different folders, so it's cool that he documented that this 
works.  And from now on I'll be using that registry fix to remove the lag time 
when I do it.  And the licensing restrictions be hanged!  


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