[Grammo]

My desktop shortcut icon no longer opens Word. I can get to Word in other
ways, but it's not working as it had before. Is there anything I can do? I
just turned 70, and I'm not totally computer-savvy, so I don't want to do
anything without advice from someone who knows what will solve this issue.
Thank you!

[Cindy M.]

Hi ?B?R3JhbW1v?=,

My desktop shortcut icon no longer opens Word. I can get to Word in other
ways, but it's not working as it had before. Is there anything I can do? I
just turned 70, and I'm not totally computer-savvy, so I don't want to do
anything without advice from someone who knows what will solve this issue.

What does happen when you try to use the shortcut?

It's certainly possible to create a new shortcut. You need to look for the
winword.exe file on your machine. When you find it, right-click the file name
and choose "Copy". Right-click on the desktop, choose Paste Shortcut.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

[Grammo]

THANK YOU, Cindy! Your's was my only response (thus far), and your
recommendation worked!! The previous shortcut simply turned a pale color and
did not open Word. I'm now back on track. I find it amazing (and appalling)
that this message board seems to be the only way, with the exception of
PAYING someone, to get an answer to what I thought was a very simple
question. In addition, I found it very difficult to even FIND this option!!!
So, from a barely-hold-my-own-on-a-computer Grandma, I thank you very much,
Cindy, and I hope you see this message.

"Cindy M." wrote:

Hi ?B?R3JhbW1v?=,

My desktop shortcut icon no longer opens Word. I can get to Word in other
ways, but it's not working as it had before. Is there anything I can do? I
just turned 70, and I'm not totally computer-savvy, so I don't want to do
anything without advice from someone who knows what will solve this issue.

What does happen when you try to use the shortcut?

It's certainly possible to create a new shortcut. You need to look for the
winword.exe file on your machine. When you find it, right-click the file name
and choose "Copy". Right-click on the desktop, choose Paste Shortcut.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

[Cindy M.]

Hi Grammo,

THANK YOU, Cindy! Your's was my only response (thus far), and your
recommendation worked!! The previous shortcut simply turned a pale color and
did not open Word. I'm now back on track. I find it amazing (and appalling)
that this message board seems to be the only way, with the exception of
PAYING someone, to get an answer to what I thought was a very simple
question. In addition, I found it very difficult to even FIND this option!!!
So, from a barely-hold-my-own-on-a-computer Grandma, I thank you very much,
Cindy, and I hope you see this message.

I do see it, and I'm glad the suggestion worked :-)

The problem with getting assistance is - as with so many things - one of
funding. Fifteen - twenty years ago, when I started working with PCs, support
was a simple telephone call away, and the people at the other end were GOOD. We
also paid close to $1000 for a single application (no such thing as a "suite",
back then). And we got real, printed manuals, too g

With the ever-increasing pressure to reduce the price of the applications, the
costs had to be cut somewhere. Support is man-hour intensive, so that was one of
the first things to be cut/out-sourced/put on a pay-by-the-issue basis. Looked
at from that point of view, we can be grateful Microsoft invests as much as it
does in maintaining and extending the on-line support venues, such as this one.
A few versions back, the link in the application interface wouldn't have been
there, so the Office team has been working at improving the Help. And how
fortunate that there are so many people in the world willing to help one another
and contribute freely of their time to provide the peer-to-peer support here.

Side note: one reason you didn't get a response sooner is that shortcuts
generally are considered more a Windows issue. And why the Word one isn't
working... No one has a clue. It's not something that happens that often. People
are always hesitant to answer when they're unsure :-)

-- Cindy Meister