When I open a Word attachment from an Outlook e-mail, it opens another instance of Word. (Two winword.exe's show in task manager processes, and when I close the [attachment] document, I'm told that normal.dot is already in use and can't be saved to its original location.)

Is there some way to make Outlook use the instance of Word that's already running?

Thanks.

Its probably not the best idea to open an attachment direct from e-mail. Better to save it then open in Word.

Thanks, Scott, but that's not an option in my work environment. If it's viruses you're worried about, don't. We've got the latest and greatest scanner.

The other instance of Word is Outlook using it as your editor.

We recently upgraded to Office 2003. Our previous version didn't behave like this. Is this new?

I've got a few hundred people screaming at me that they don't want the tedium of going through the "save normal.dot" process every time they open/close a Word doc. From an e-mail. Any ideas?

I'm curious as to why that isn't an option? Most network admins prtefer that attachments be downloaded then run.

Too many steps for our babied users, I guess. Also, saving attachments only saves natively, not to our document management system, and that's a whole 'nother ball of wax. Our users are not able, from Word, to get to a native File|Open, so that's yet another reason.

Ok, Word uses something called MDS (Multiple document system), that opens multiple instances of Word. I would check for info about MDS to see if it can be modified.

That was next on my list, Scott. Thanks.

When I open a Word attachment from an Outlook e-mail, it opens another instance of Word. (Two winword.exe's show in task manager processes, and when I close the [attachment] document, I'm told that normal.dot is already in use and can't be saved to its original location.)

Is there some way to make Outlook use the instance of Word that's already running?

Thanks.

Hi superljl,

Windows In Taskbar

Microsoft Office uses something called Single Document Interface and Multiple Document Interface.

You can toggle this feature on and off by selecting Tools + Options + View, and selecting or de-selecting the "Windows in Taskbar" option; and the option is switched off by default. (Word 2002 and higher)

From the Menu Bar select Tools, Options and the View Tab if not already selected.

Put a check mark in the box labeled Windows in Taskbar* under Show and click OK

* Displays a separate icon on the Microsoft Windows taskbar for each open window in your Microsoft Office program. Clearing this check box will display a single icon for your Office program on the Windows taskbar.

Good luck.

Dale :-)