the modification is not allowed because the selection is locked

**Hiya** · 08-09-2008

I need some urgent help from you all for this annoying list of problems with MS Word. I bought this Vista system about two months ago which came with MS Office Home and Student 2007 preinstalled with the system. Recently I bought a serial key for the same Activated the office edition. Now when I open MS Word and try to type something, it gives me an error message at the bottom of the screen saying:

“The modification is not allowed because the selection is locked”

I though uninstalling and re-installing may fix the problem but don’t know why I was not able to remove them as well. It says “setup cannot continue because a required file is either corrupted or not available. Run setup again from original source disc or download location.” I searched web for some help and found Microsoft KB saying “How to uninstall the 2007 Office system if you cannot uninstall it by using the Add or Remove Programs feature” Well this helped me to remove it from the system.

Now I inserted the system recovery disk and ran recovery to get the pre-installed apps as they were before. Completed recovery again got the Office applications like before. It asked me for Activation code, I inserted the same but still, I get the same error and it wont allow me to edit word documents. Somebody please help.

**stringse** · 13-02-2009

Even I am facing the same problem with Office 2007. I put the product key and it accepted the keys without any error then why is it not allowing me to modify or edit any word file. I’m sure the documents are not protected because it should prompt to enter password if they are protected, right? I even tried to enable the forms toolbar by going to the Office Button/Word Options but it wont allow me to click on the Popular button. Any help please?

**T.J.** · 13-02-2009

Hello friends, just entering the product keys and getting it accepted is not everything done. Did you tried activating the product? Later entering product keys, you need to click Office Button, click Word Options, then Resources and finally click Activate Microsoft Office.

Try this and if yet you get the same problem, reply back.