Question:

All of a sudden, Microsoft Word 2007 is no longer working with PERRLA. What happened and what should I do?

Answer:

In June of 2009, as part of the Microsoft Windows automatic update process, Microsoft Office 2007 users are receiving a "service pack" for Office 2007. This service pack ("SP2") contains a bug that can corrupt certain documents saved in the .DOCX format. Users who save their PERRLA papers in this default format are reporting serious errors when they try to re-open their papers. This is because the Microsoft bug in SP2 is scrambling the reference data in their PERRLA papers.

If your computer is set to automatically update receive software updates, you may be affected. These bugs have caused unfavorable effects to many Microsoft Word Add-In programs.

In response to this, we modified the PERRLA software to assist you with the problems you may have if you are affected by the Microsoft bug. As always, you may go to our website and log in with your email address and password to download the latest version of the program.

If you have a problem with an existing paper you need to:

• Start a new PERRLA paper
• Save the paper as a Word 97-2003 document (*doc)
• Close the paper
• Open that PERRLA paper again by clicking on the PERRLA Pencil and choosing open existing paper
• Click Add-Ins
• Click Edit references from the PERRLA menu
• Click on Reference Database
• Click the references from your reference database you would like to add to your current paper
• Click Select
• The references should be added to your paper and to the box called This Paper's References


• Now open the old paper, select all of the text from that paper by using the Word cut and paste options, and paste the text into the new paper. Once that is completed, all of your previous text and previous references should be within that new paper.
• You will need to go through this process for each of your papers with references. Your Reference Database will then repopulate.


What are the symptoms of the Word 2007 Microsoft bugs?


1. documents saved in Word 2007 .docx format will not save citations and will not sort references.
2. Errors will pop up when accessing PERRLA functions


How can you fix this problem?

We've found two ways to fix this problem.

#1. Download the newest version of PERRLA software from our website, www.perrla.com.

You may go to our website and log in with your email address and password to download the program. The repercussion of this fix is that your documents will be saved in the standard Word .doc (97-2003) format rather than Word 2007's .dotx format. This should not cause any problems for you or other people who use your documents.

OR

#2. The Microsoft “Fix” - This is a bit harder but you can then save your documents in any format you want to:


• Visit this web page: BUG 2007
• Click "View and request hotfix downloads"
• Fill in Microsoft's information request form and wait to receive their email
• From your email click the link way down at the bottom of Microsoft's email that is preceded by "Location:"
• Download or run the file
• When running the download you will be prompted for a password which is in Microsoft's email
• Running this download will unzip a file, save that file to a place where you can find it, e.g. your desktop. To do this click the little box w/ the 3 dots and select Desktop.
• Find the unzipped file on your desktop and double click to install.
  Thanks for your patience. At some point Microsoft will release a new Hotfix as part of the Windows Update process that will fix their bug.
  
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