Hello,

I'm trying to open a Word2013 document from Outlook 2007.  This is the error I am getting :

"Word cannot open because a dialog box is open. Please close the dialog box to continue."

I have searched some forums and followed some recommendations to delete the templates folder but that does not help.  Any thought please?

Thanks,

Nghi Huynh

Hi,

Did you remove the Template from the Startup Folder?

And is the steps correctly? The path is:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office 15\STARTUP

Click to select the template that you want to remove, and then press DELETE.

 

Jaynet,

Are you sure the path you gave above is correct?

I've tried deleting the templates from C:\Users\<profile>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates but it recreates the file once Word2013 is launched.

I also checked in C:\Users\<profile>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP and it's empty.

BTW - this only happens in Word.  Excel, Powerpoint attachments for 2013 opens up fine without this error.

Thanks for your help,

Nghi Huynh

• Edited by Nghi Huynh Wednesday, March 13, 2013 6:41 PM

Dug around and found the solution:

Word | Options | Trust Center | Trust Center Settings | Protected View | uncheck all 

• Marked as answer by Nghi Huynh Tuesday, March 19, 2013 5:31 PM

Thanks, this solved my problem

I had a similar problem when trying to open an office document in Outlook 2013 (to Word 2013)

It was resolved when I changed the following Word setting in Options :

I went to : File/Options/Trust Center/Trust Center Settings/Protected View

and unchecked the "Enable Protected View for Outlook attachments" option

I now get a dialog box in Outlook to confirm when I try to open a word document, but for me that's better than getting the error message in Word

THANK YOUUUUUUU

I got the same problem: I just purchased Office 13. When I tried to open a Word file that came viaOutlook I got the dialog box "Word can't open this file because a dialog box is open" but when I clicked further it opened the file OK and gave me the option to remove "Protected View" which I did and everything was OK. I called MS Support and the person who answered had a very thick accent that I could barely understand. When I told him my problem he did not understand it and said the program is trying to prevent me from opening viruses. I asked, why didn't it say instead of giving me the "open dialog box" error message? He had no answer and suggested I buy Microsoft support for $149 a year of $99 per incident. Great customer service, eh? Then I tried this solution by unchecking "Enable Protected View for Outlook Attachments" in the Trust Center and the Word files opened normally. I am very disappointed in Microsoft but thank Mike_obe for his excellent help

Thanks...it's working..

One underlying problem is that the process of opening a Word document directly from an email tends to result in lost changes to the document even when Ctrl+S is used to save. This problem arises because the document is saved in a Temp files location.

Better practice is to save the document from outlook without opening (to a known location in the Documents folder) and then open it directly from the Hard Drive in Word.

I am having a similar problem right now. So I went to Microsoft Outlook settings>Word>Options>Trust Center >Trust Center Setting>I cannot find the Protected View option...please guide me. I  can't  open the Microsoft word  at all...

I am having a similar problem right now. So I went to Microsoft Outlook settings>Word>Options>Trust Center >Trust Center Setting>I cannot find the Protected View option...please guide me. I  can't  open the Microsoft word  at all...

   

Note that the settings discussed here are in Trust Center in *Word*. These options are not available in Word 2007, though.