The Word add-in crashes (rarely), and Word disables it

Forum for the PDF-XChange Editor - Free and Licensed Versions

Moderators: TrackerSupp-Daniel, Tracker Support, Paul - Tracker Supp, Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team, Chris - Tracker Supp, Sean - Tracker, Ivan - Tracker Software, Tracker Supp-Stefan

Post Reply
PDFer
User
Posts: 37
Joined: Tue Dec 05, 2017 9:28 pm

The Word add-in crashes (rarely), and Word disables it

Post by PDFer »

Every few months the PDF add-in for Word crashes, and Word (exhibiting poor behavior) deactivates the add-in.

I am unable to reactivate it, even using Word's Tools>Options>Add-ins methods with Word running with administrator privileges. I check the box for the add-in, restart Word and even try rebooting, but it doesn't work.

How can I reactivate the add-in without uninstalling and reinstalling my Tracker products?

(I am using Word 2007 under Windows-7.)
User avatar
TrackerSupp-Daniel
Site Admin
Posts: 8436
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2018 6:52 pm

Re: The Word add-in crashes (rarely), and Word disables it

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello PDFer,

My first question is, of course, which version of our products do you currently have installed?
Following that, in a typical week how many times do you restart your PC, I ask because leaving a PC on for prolonged periods of time can lead to issues like this sometimes. Furthermore, can you confirm if restarting the PC allows you to enable the add-in once more?

As an aside, you mention that word is exhibiting poor behavior. Could you clarify, if it is already having issues on its own, it could be a system limitation or that word needs an update to work to its full potential.

Looking forward to your response.
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com
Support@pdf-xchange.com
PDFer
User
Posts: 37
Joined: Tue Dec 05, 2017 9:28 pm

Re: The Word add-in crashes (rarely), and Word disables it

Post by PDFer »

Thanks for your reply. By Words "poor behavior" I mean that is disables the add-in and makes it at best difficult to re-enable it (maybe impossilbe?) instead of notifying the user of the problem.

I don't know what Tracker version I was using, because I just ran an update (i.e.reinstall) to get the add-in working again. However, it was (by my intent) an older version because I simply can't handle the loss of screen space in the newer versions (the ribbon takes up way too much vertical space for my working style).

But my question isn't really version-specific. It is, what general procedure can a user perform to renenable the add-in in Word without going to the extreme of uninstalling and reinstalling the Tracker software? I'm just hoping there is some way to do this that I haven't discovered yet.

Also, the problem of this crash in Word (which may be a Word problem and not a Tracker problem) happens only 3-4 times per year. So it's not a huge issue, other than disrupting my workflow for an afternoon. I just need some way to easily re-enable the add-in, without a reinstallation and reboot. That is the issue for me, because I will be reinstalling my old, comfortable copy of Tracker software once I find the disc, if there is a bug in it (the ribbon/screen-space issue is a deal-breaker for me).
User avatar
TrackerSupp-Daniel
Site Admin
Posts: 8436
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2018 6:52 pm

Re: The Word add-in crashes (rarely), and Word disables it

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

I see... Well I am afraid that if disabling and reenabling the com addin does not do the trick, a reinstall is likely the only option there.
Likely Word thinks that the addin is causing the crash, and decides to block it from running. I cannot guarantee that the latest version will work any better, but if the Ribbon UI is the only reason you are not using the latest version, I should mention, With V7 it is possible to revert to the Classi UI, and you can even reduce its size.
To switch to classic UI:
DMKB18October482.png
DMKB18October482.png (9.04 KiB) Viewed 2891 times
and to reduce the size of the classi toolbars:
DMKB18October491.gif
DMKB18October491.gif (50.83 KiB) Viewed 2891 times
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com
Support@pdf-xchange.com
PDFer
User
Posts: 37
Joined: Tue Dec 05, 2017 9:28 pm

Re: The Word add-in crashes (rarely), and Word disables it

Post by PDFer »

Wow, that's great. Thanks so much! I'm glad I mentioned the issue; otherwise I would never have known.
User avatar
TrackerSupp-Daniel
Site Admin
Posts: 8436
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2018 6:52 pm

Re: The Word add-in crashes (rarely), and Word disables it

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

I hope the new version helps!
Who knows, maybe our old plugin was the cause of the crash, if it never happens again, you can chalk it up to something we fixed. If it keeps happening, it is certainly a bug within Word.
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com
Support@pdf-xchange.com
PDFer
User
Posts: 37
Joined: Tue Dec 05, 2017 9:28 pm

Re: The Word add-in crashes (rarely), and Word disables it

Post by PDFer »

I just had the same kind of crash using the current version. MS Word has disabled the add-in, and from past experience I will have to uninstall and reinstall PDF Xchange to get it running again (and redo all of my custom settings).

What I did: I cut and pasted the content at this URL (https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-107h ... g75640.htm) into Word, saved it with a filename of my choice, and then ran the add-in to make a PDF. Word then stalled, and after a long time I closed it from the system tray right-click menu. (Word's screen was blank, had an hour-glass, and the titlebar had the filename followed by "(not responding)".
User avatar
Dimitar - Tracker Supp
Site Admin
Posts: 1778
Joined: Mon Jan 15, 2018 9:01 am

Re: The Word add-in crashes (rarely), and Word disables it

Post by Dimitar - Tracker Supp »

Hello PDFer,

I have followed your instructions and indeed there was some freezing of Word application, but after a minute or so, the conversion was finished successfully.

I think that the freezing came from the fact that there were 350 pages to be processed and the load on the computer's hardware was relatively big.

Could you please give us detailed information about your computer configuration?


Regards.
PDFer
User
Posts: 37
Joined: Tue Dec 05, 2017 9:28 pm

Re: The Word add-in crashes (rarely), and Word disables it

Post by PDFer »

It is a Lenovo E560. 16 gb ram. Core i5 processor at 2.7 mHz. I closed Word after 15 or 20 minutes of non-response, but had to use Task Manager to do so.
PDFer
User
Posts: 37
Joined: Tue Dec 05, 2017 9:28 pm

Re: The Word add-in crashes (rarely), and Word disables it

Post by PDFer »

I am unable to get the add-in functioning again. I uninstalled PDF Xchange and reinstalled it. Then I ran Word with admin privilleges, turned the add-in on again in Word (it was in the disabled row), and rebooted. Still no add-in.

Or is it PDF Xchange Viewer that have to uninstall and reinstall. I'm really confused because there are so many Tracker programs showing (see attachment), but only those two in Add/Remove Programs.
Attachments
Screenshot.png
User avatar
TrackerSupp-Daniel
Site Admin
Posts: 8436
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2018 6:52 pm

Re: The Word add-in crashes (rarely), and Word disables it

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello PDFer,
Could I ask you to enable crash logging as we are having trouble reproducing this?
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/knowle ... estigation
First follow the beginning section to setup crash logs, then while the program is hung, please follow the lower section to create process dumps from our PDFSaver utility.

After you have created at least 1 of each, please zip all of them together, and if they are too large to post here, please upload them to our Useruploads server with your forum name as the file name.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/knowle ... le-service
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com
Support@pdf-xchange.com
PDFer
User
Posts: 37
Joined: Tue Dec 05, 2017 9:28 pm

Re: The Word add-in crashes (rarely), and Word disables it

Post by PDFer »

I was able to remove Word's "hard-disable" of the add-in by deleting the subkey at this Registry location:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Resiliency\DisabledItems

(By accident I had Word running at the time, but am not sure if that is necessary.)

The article is here: https://ardamis.com/2010/02/26/fixing-w ... in-issues/
User avatar
Tracker Supp-Stefan
Site Admin
Posts: 17823
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:07 am
Location: London
Contact:

Re: The Word add-in crashes (rarely), and Word disables it

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello PDFer,

Thanks for sharing your solution!
Hope it's useful to others as well!

Regards,
Stefan
Post Reply