Keeping Full Menus Displayed

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 19, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

Robin is working with Word 2003 in a networked environment, and she can't get her menus to stay in full, non-dynamic mode. She displays Tools | Customize | Options tab and then clicks the Always Show Full Menus option, and things are fine. But the next time she starts Word, the check box is no longer selected and she is again faced with unwanted dynamic menus.

The inability to save this particular setting could be due to any number of reasons. It is possible, for instance, that an add-in you've installed in Word could be resetting the setting every time you restart the program. If you suspect this is the cause, you should disable or remove the add-in to see if the problem goes away.

A more likely scenario is related to running Word over the network. If your configuration files (such as Normal.dot, word.pip, or other similar files) are being stored on a network drive, it is very possible that they are being stored in such a way that you cannot save your changes or the files are being overwritten by other users. If this is the case, the only solution is to talk through the problem with your network administrator and figure out where the configuration files are stored and what permissions you have to those files and the folder in which they are stored.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (329) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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