Outlook not recognizing word

Was required to reinstall Windows XP on my HP laptop, and then reinstalled Office XP and Norton Anti Virus. When sending an email, receive an error message indicating that word is either busy or not found and cannot be used as the email editor.

To date, have done the following to no avail:
1. Run detect and repair, with no results.
2. Reinstalled office several times.
3. Used the office disk to attempt repair.
4. Unselected word as the email editor, restarted windows, and selected word.

Nothing works.

Word launches normally.

I have the identical setup of Windows XP and Office XP on 2 other machines with everything working fine.

Would very much appreciate any help.

Many thanks,
Joe

In Outlook 2003
choose Options from the Tools drop down menu. Click on the Mail Format and make sure there is a check in the box preceding "Use Microsoft Office Word 2003 to edit e-mail messages.

Many thanks, but have done this exercise many times, and always end up with the unintended result.

In every instance, the option for word is checked......sometimes it remains checked, and other times it becomes unchecked.

I'm still faced with the same problem........thanks in advance for other solutions.

Joe

Here are a few additional questions that will help us to identify the issue:
1) What version of Word? What version of Outlook?
2) Do you have Works installed along with Office?
3) Do you have multiple versions of Office installed on this machine?
4) Can you copy and paste from Word to other applications?

When I run into this problem I do the three finger salute to Windows (ALT CTRL DEL) and I then select the Windows Task Manager button. Then I select the Processes Tab and sort on the column "Image Name" and find WinWord.exe. Right Click on it and select "End Process" . Outlook will now start using Word again as the editor.

Raine - thanks for the reply, but after executing your instructions, the problem persists.

Macarenas - thanks for the reply, and here are the responses to your questions: Word and Outlook are both XP versions 2002. Works is installed on the machine, but I have never used it. Only one version of office is installed on the machine. I can copy and paste from word.

Grateful for your continuing assistance.

Close Outlook and go to Start -> Run and type Regsvr32.exe %Windir%\System32\Ole32.dll

Then click OK. Now restart Outlook.

Eric - many thanks, but I receive a message indicating that the parameter is incorrect. Do you have any other advice?