Member Avatar for FabianBachmeier

My PowerPoint has gotten buggy, the slide templates are invisible. Also, word runs slowly and seems to crash and not close files properly.
I have my installation CD. When I put it in the CD drive, it brings up a window with dozens of file icons and no explanation of where to begin. Office 2003 on a 6month old IBM x40 laptop running XP. Someone help please!
Thanks!

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Short, practical plan that follows what worked for others in this thread (and what and were pointing toward), plus a few safety steps to avoid losing templates or macros.

Start with Detect & Repair (least invasive). Close Office, open Word, choose Help → Detect and Repair and follow the prompts. If it asks for the CD, insert it; the utility will check files and restore missing pieces before you try a reinstall. If Detect & Repair doesn’t fix it, run Control Panel → Add or Remove Programs → select Microsoft Office → Change, then choose Repair or Add/Remove Features to reinstall or remove specific components. These maintenance options are the supported way to repair or change Office 2003. Microsoft: How to reset user options and registry settings in Word.

If you need to reinstall only Word or PowerPoint, the Office maintenance wizard (launched by the CD’s Setup program or via Add/Remove Programs → Change) lets you add/remove or reinstall individual Office applications without wiping the whole suite. If the CD’s autorun merely shows files, open the CD in Explorer and run the installer/maintenance program from the disc root and pick the maintenance options. (That is the same workflow was describing.)

Backup before touching installs. Copy Normal.dot (and any .dot/.dotm templates) plus custom dictionaries and macros. On Windows XP the usual user-template location is:
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates\. You can also test Word without add-ins by running winword.exe /a (this helps tell whether an add-in or Normal.dot is the culprit). Microsoft Q&A: which files to rescue / template locations.

If you reinstall, apply Office 2003 Service Pack 3 (the final SP for Office 2003). Also note Office 2003 (and Windows XP) are out of support — no more security updates — so plan an upgrade for security and compatibility. Office 2003 SP3 (archive) · Support has ended for Office 2003.

If Detect & Repair or a repair/reinstall still leaves PowerPoint templates invisible, the most common remaining causes are a corrupted Normal.dot/global template, a damaged template in the user templates folder, or a conflicting add‑in — start with the backup + winword.exe /a test, then repair/reinstall only if needed.

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Member Avatar for rproffitt

Small world. I have my old Office 2003 CD and I look for the setup.exe to run. However I'm just about to run out the door so I'll be back with a note about a specific service patch for Office. (No, it's not for the OS but let's hope it's at least XP SP3 for the OS.) There's a patch I have to install for Office 2003 if it is to work right. I'm out of here for 2 hours but will add detail later.

Member Avatar for rproffitt

OK, just back and the patch was on my USB key filed as Office2003SP3-KB923618-FullFile-ENU.exe
And on my Office 2003 CD the file to run is indeed setup.exe.

Hope this helps.

Member Avatar for meahanabanerjee

You can reinstall by your CD
But there are no option to Uninstall word
Anyway go to add or remove programme to uninstall your apps

Member Avatar for FabianBachmeier

Thank you all guys for your advice! The issue has been resolved.

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