In Dec. 2001, I bought two iMac computers, both identical. One for the
office, one for the home. They are running OS9 Maxc OS Rom 4.6.1 128
MB. Most Microsoft Word files say MS Word 6.0 but some say MS Word
20...  MS Word is the problem; other menus pull down OK. Six months
ago, we quit being able to
pull down menus for MS Word files on the office machine. Now, I can't
pull down menus on the home machine. What is going on? I need an
answer that explains to a septuagenarian with a slow learning curve,
exactly what to do to fix this. Pleae, no references to "search thus
and such website" or "e-mail so and so." I'm hoping for a direct
answer from a computer guru. Thanks, Misterq2

---

Clarification of Question by misterq2-ga on 22 Mar 2004 08:40 PST

Thanks for your interest "dancethecon"  When the Word document is on
the screen, you cannot get the version from the Apple pulldown menu. 
The rest of the menu works ok. Best I can say is that it is Microsoft
Word 6.0/95 This is MS word within Microsoft Office 2001. I got that
from looking at the Applications folder, and reading what was written
alongside the Word entry. Does that help? Misterq2

Which version of MS Word is installed on the two computers? In case
you don't know the version number, you can launch MS Word, then go to
the Apple menu and choose "About Microsoft Word" from the choices you
see (it should be the top choice). The little window that pops up will
have the version number in it.

dtcx

Microsoft did come out with a version of MS Word for Macs called
version 6, but it wouldn't be the one found in MS Office 2001. Did
your software come in a plastic container that looks roughly like a
scallop shell? Then you probably have Word version 2001 (often
shortened to v2001). Older Mac versions include Word v98; Word v6.x;
and an oldie but a goodie, Word v5.x. Word v95 isn't a Mac product.

Some newer versions of Word for Mac can save documents in older file
formats. Did you set your version of Word to save as v6/95 documents?
Doing this wouldn't hurt anything, it just means that the docs are
saved in an older format. This option is available so that files can
be shared with people who don't own newer versions of Word--in this
case, people using v6 for Mac and v95 on Windows machines.

I'm not too familiar with Office 2001/Word 2001, sorry. Here are some
books you might try to find. I especially like Ms. Langer's computer
books, and she knows Word for Mac inside and out. I've never read
anything by the others.

Word 2001 for Macintosh (Visual QuickStart Guide) by Maria Langer
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0201730189/ref=pd_bxgy_text_1/103-0211804-4415016?v=glance&s=books&st=*

Office 2001 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual by David Reynolds and Nan Barber
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0596000812/103-0211804-4415016?v=glance

Microsoft Office 2001 for Macintosh Visual Quickstart Guide by Dan
Henderson and Sandra Soare:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0764507028/ref=pd_sim_books_4/103-0211804-4415016?v=glance&s=books

Microsoft Office 2001 for Macs for Dummies by Tom Negrino:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0764507028/ref=pd_sim_books_4/103-0211804-4415016?v=glance&s=books

By the way, I have a copy of Ms. Langer's Word 98 book, but I loaned
it to a friend, and it's not here for me to look at right now, sorry.

One thing you could try would be to throw away some MS Word
preferences files. (Don't worry, you won't hurt anything. MS Word will
make new ones, as I explain below.) I'm not using a version of OS 9 on
this computer, so I'll do this from memory; it should get you close.
Open things in this order:
Hard drive>System Folder>Preferences folder>a couple specific
files...see following note:

OK, now that you're in the Preferences folder, look for files that say
"Microsoft Office Settings" and also "Word Settings" and "Word Toolbar
Prefs" (or names similar to these). Drag all these to the trash (the
trash can desktop icon). Restart your computer (this is a crucial
step, or else your computer will continue to use the old preference
files) and launch MS Word. Is your problem fixed?

Preference files can become corrupted. If an application starts
misbehaving, that's the first place to look. As I said above, you
won't hurt anything by throwing away a preference file. The
application makes a new one the next time the computer is restarted
and the app is launched. The only thing you would lose are some custom
settings, but those are easily reset once you're back to normal.

If throwing the preference files away doesn't do the trick, you can
reinstall MS Word, or even all of MS Office. It's super easy to remove
MS Word from your computer and reinstall it. All you do is decide what
you want to throw away, and then drag it to the trash. Microsoft made
incredibly good installers for their Office suite. To reinstall
something, just put the original MS Office disc in your CD drive. You
can then choose to install all of the Office or any of its components.
If I were you and had decided to try reinstalling something, it'd just
be Word. Open the folder you see in the CD and drag the Word portion
to your desktop. That's it; it's installed (to the best of my
recollection). You probably wouldn't want to leave the application
there, so you could drag it somewhere where it'd be less obtrusive:
the applications folder on your hard drive, for example.

But maybe someone will know an easier fix for your problem that
trashing the preference files. Please let us know how you do, OK?

G'luck,
dtc

Oops...my next-to-last sentence should read: "But maybe someone will
know an easier fix for your problem THAN trashing the preference
files." Sorry for the typo.

dtcy

Hi mister2q,

A few more things to try:

OFF2001: Menu or Submenu Appears Dimmed or Does Not Appear When Selected
SYMPTOMS
"In the programs listed at the beginning of this article, when you
click a menu or point to a submenu, the menu may not appear, may be
unavailable, or the commands on the menu may not appear or respond."
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q288341

"My standard advice for loss of menus:
First, make sure you've downloaded and installed SR1 and the Word 
Security Patch from mactopia.
Second, Trash you Word Settings (9) file inside the Microsoft folder 
inside the Preferences folder.
Third, with Word closed, allocate more memory to Word using the 
Files/Get Info/Memory menu option. Set Preferred to at least 24MB (some 
MVPs  recomend as much as 64MB). Do the same thing to XL, while you're 
at it.
Fourth, Rebuild your desktop
The second item is what really fixes your problem, but the rest will 
help prevent other problems."
http://groups.google.ca/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&threadm=B8069857.A9DD%25john%40mcghie-information.com.au&rnum=9&prev=/groups%3Fnum%3D100%26hl%3Den%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26as_qdr%3Dall%26q%3Dpull%2Bdown%2Bmenus%2Bfor%2BMS%2BWord%2Bfiles%2Bmac%2B%26meta%3D%26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dwg

Good luck,
hummer