The How-To Library

Visual Basic Run-time error 5 in MS Word 2000

Question:
When I open Word 2000, this message appears on the screen:

"Microsoft Visual Basic
Run-time error 5
Invalid procedure call or argument".

I click on the "Exit" in this message, and Word 2000 starts working.
Any help?

Answer:
This message is the one, which appears when a template with faulty macros is attached to Word. You must have installed an application using word templates lately, haven't you?

If under Windows XP (or Windows 2000), have a look at this folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\YOURUSERNAMEHERE\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP

You should find a few .dot files in here. Close Word and move those .DOT files somewhere else (do not delete them!).

Open Word again. Your error message should not appear again. To find out which template is faulty, just move your template files again in this directory one by one and launch Word each time. When the error message appears again, you'll have your guilty template at hand!

Question:
I followed your advice. The only .dot file I found in ...\STARTUP, is the Trados5 .dot. I moved it elsewhere, I opened Word and the Visual Basic message has gone, but also the Trados set-up in Word has gone too. I need to have Trados5 .dot template in Word!!! What should I do??

Answer:
If the error message has gone, that's because your Trados5.dot template must have gotten corrupted in some way.

You should be able to find a copy of this template in the following folder:

C:\Program Files\TRADOS\T5_FL\TT\Templates

(Well... unless you installed Trados 5 in another directory).

Just copy the one you find here in your Word startup directory, and you should be ok.

If you still have the error message with this new template, I suggest you go to:

http://www.officeupdate.com/ProductUpdates/default.aspx

Click on "Go" in the Check for Office Updates section. It may take a while if you don't have a broadband connection. This script will check your Office installation and tell you if any update/patch is available. It may help.

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