# Solved: Outlook 2007 won't function: says 'text formatting command not available'



## jmbau (Nov 18, 2008)

After installed Office 07 at Christmas, it's all been working fine but today Outlook is malfunctioning badly. 
It started by consuming 50-75% of system resources, which meant I could barely function in trying to read emails. 

Since then, I have:
* Removed & reinstalled Office 07 completely (would have preferred to just do Outlook only but couldn't figure it out
That seemed to fix the memory problem BUT introduced a new one.
Now it won't open or create any email at all, giving the following error message:
'Cannot open this item. Text formatting command is not available. It may not be installed correctly. Install Outlook again."

* I created a new Outlook profile. No change.

I searched & found some hints that the prob may be because of an add-in. I've removed all add-ins other than the following:
In an Office12 folder: 
-Microsoft Exchange Unified Messaging (do I need it??)
- Sharepoint Server Colleague Import Add-In (don't think I need this, def not using Sharepoint)
- MS Outlook Mobile Service
In Windows \system 32:
-Office Genuine Advantage
Windows Search Email Indexer

Inactive:
MS VBA for Outlook.

Questions: 
1. Please, can anyone suggest how I can fix the problem of Outlook not functioning? ie, what I do next? I will in the meantime try reinstalling Office again, but don't like my chances.

Follow-up: tried reinstalling. No change. Have removed ALL the add-ins. Still getting the same error message. 
Created yet another new profile and used that. No change. (Should one remove the Default profile?)


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## makethissound (Mar 17, 2010)

When you tried uninstalling office did you reboot afterwards and before reinstalling?

Are you running XP or Vista or Win7?

When Office is uninstalled it leaves a fair number of registry keys behind, as well as a number of folders in your user folder. 

****WARNING**** 
Your profile resides in one of these folders. Be very careful about deleting these, as i dont want you to be up a creek without a paddle. 
****WARNING****

The other thing you may try is performing a SCANPST or SCANOST on the mail archive. If you are an Exchange client you will have an OST file, and if you are a POP3 user, you will have a PST file. These utilities are, when Office is installed, located in the OFFICE12 directory.


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## jmbau (Nov 18, 2008)

Thanks so much for your reply. (And yes, I did reboot in between times.)

I'm running XP (sorry, should have said). Now I did - finally!- manage to get email functioning agani after heavy web searching, I then tried someone's solution (from a Microsoft support person) of deleting a bunch of Outlook's *.dat files - eureka! it worked. And I can open & create email again. I of course had a backup of my *.pst file,

But I now have a different problem - I have all my 'old' calendar and email in 'personal folders' and an entirely clean new Inbox & Calendar as the default normal one. Becuase I synchronise Contacts, Calendar etc to Palm and to my mobile phone, this is a big problem I haven't yet had time to solve. I really do NOT want to have to recreate all from scratch, if I can avoidit.

Any clues? I'm guessing it's to do with the new Profile... 

>>your profile resides in one of these folders. Be very careful about deleting these

I haven't deleted anything. In fact, I discover I was using the Outlook 'default' profile - never created one & in fact didn't know I should have. (Stand alone desktop computer, home office, I'm the sole user). 

>>The other thing you may try is performing a SCANPST or SCANOST on the mail archive. These utilities are, when Office is installed, located in the OFFICE12 directory.

?? Sorry, don't quite understand what you're telling me here. (it's a *.pst file of course).

Later addition: I did run a SCAN on the *.pst file, which told me there were errors & I chose Repair. Still working on the dual folders bit...


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## makethissound (Mar 17, 2010)

Have you tried opening Outlook in safe mode?
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HP101407921033.aspx#2


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