Microsoft Word starts instead when you start Microsoft Word Viewer

If you install Microsoft Word and Microsoft Word Viewer 97-2000 on the same computer, when you try to start Word Viewer, Word may be started instead.

This problem may occur when you do any of the following:

• Click WordView.exe on the WordView folder.
• Click Start on the Windows taskbar, point to Programs, and then click Microsoft Word Viewer.
• Click a .doc file in Microsoft Internet Explorer when Word is running.

To start Word Viewer 97-2000, follow these steps:

1. Make sure that Word is not running. Also, make sure that WordMail and Microsoft Outlook are not running (they run Word in the background).
2. Start Word Viewer. To do so, click Start, point to Programs, and then click Microsoft Word Viewer.

You can use the Microsoft Word 97-2000 Viewer to view documents that were created in Microsoft Word 97, in Microsoft Word 2000, in Microsoft Word 2002, and in Microsoft Office Word 2003.

For additional information about Word Viewer 97-2000, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: