One of the most common complaints by firms that integrate third party programs with Word and/or Outlook – which is just about everybody – is that the integration sporadically “disappears.” This is more common with Outlook than Word, but can happen with both. It is frequently preceded with a message that “Outlook encountered a problem with X dll [integration]. Do you wish to disable it?” Without thinking, people just answer “Yes” and the integration is killed.
Most often, the integration can be reestablished by logging off and logging back in to the PC. Annoying, but doable.
Sometimes, however, the problem seems more intractable. Here is what you need to check.
Word and Outlook. Go to File | Options | Add-ins. Look under “Inactive Application Add-Ins” and “Disabled Application Add-Ins” to see if your integration (usually a *.dll file) is listed. If it is, click “GO” next to the drop-down list initially entitled “COM Add-Ins.” If necessary select the appropriate additional option (Template, Disabled Add-Ins, etc.) and re-enable it.
A second problem can occur with third-party macros. If you get a message “macros disabled,” go to File | Options | Trust Center. Enable all macros. In my view, the fact that this is “Not recommended” is part of Microsoft’s approach of “You want secure? We’ll give you secure. Then you’ll be sorry.” If this message is to be taken seriously, Microsoft is recommending that you not integrate its software with anything else. Enable all macros. Note that some third party software has programmed it’s way around this error message, others have not.
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