Error: The last time you opened BasicSimple.dotx, it caused a serious error

Anonymous
2023-01-28T14:48:37+00:00

When I am typing in Word, I will hover the mouse over the toolbar and spin the wheel and as it goes back to the right toolbar (Home for example from view) I get this error: Error: "The last time you opened BasicSimple.dotx, it caused a serious error. Do you still want to open it?"

I do not understand why it keep popping up only when i spin the scroll wheel when i am trying to switch between toolbar menus. Any advice?

Moderator's note: BasicSimple.dotx is a built-in [Quick] Style Set.

[Quick] Style Sets and Word Themes in Microsoft Word

[Quick] Style Sets

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For business | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2023-07-24T15:55:25+00:00

Can you please give me a step by step description of what you did. I am the one who created this thread and so far nothing I have tried or seen here has worked. I still get the same error.

Hi sidscrat,

Your Normal.dotm file should be at this locaition: C:\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates.

Rename Normal.dotm to Normal.dotm_old or something similar. After that, restart the computer.

That process seemed to fix the issue for some of us.

James

Was this answer helpful?

1 person found this answer helpful.
0 comments

46 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2023-02-28T04:11:00+00:00

    I have encountered same series of error messages due to the same behaviour; that is scrolling the mouse wheel with my point over the tool bars. More problematic, doesn't always occur. It has hapeneed on documents on SharePoint and locally saved and I was also able to make this happen with a new empty document. However, now I can't make it happen and haven't changed anything other than restrarting word. Checking the word start up folder (...\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\Startup) there are no files.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2023-02-14T19:52:02+00:00

    No it had no effect. I really wonder if this is the result of a recent update to Word. My wife is having the same issue.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2023-02-13T21:59:28+00:00

    If I rotate the wheel over the toolbar area to run between categories (home, layout, view, etc.) the error still pops up.

    OK, that is a new piece of information (or I missed it earlier).

    This may indicate that some third-party ribbon customization is involved. You can troubleshoot COM add-ins, if you haven't already done so. See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/word/issues-when-start-or-use-word#option7.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  4. Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2023-02-13T12:31:14+00:00

    The File Locations dialog box will give you the path to the Startup folder, that is, the folder from which Word loads template files into memory on startup. Often you have to click Browse to see the whole path. This is just a way to confirm that you are looking in the correct place, in case the Startup path had been customized on your system.

    If you find that you have been looking in the correct place and there is still no sign of the template, you will have to consider the possibility that the template is loaded into memory because it is used as the document template for a document you are editing.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments