Task pane is not displayed on startup in Word 2002

You have a document or template in the Word startup folder. You set Word to display the task pane on startup. However, the task pane may not be displayed when Word starts.

Service Pack Information

This problem is corrected in Office XP Service Pack 3. To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft Office XP. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Hotfix Information

A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

If the hotfix is available for download, there is a "Hotfix download available" section at the top of this Knowledge Base article. If this section does not appear, submit a request to Microsoft Customer Service and Support to obtain the hotfix.

Note If additional issues occur or if any troubleshooting is required, you might have to create a separate service request. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for this specific hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Customer Service and Support telephone numbers or to create a separate service request, visit the following Microsoft Web site: Note The "Hotfix download available" form displays the languages for which the hotfix is available. If you do not see your language, it is because a hotfix is not available for that language.
The English version of this fix has the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel. After the hotfix is installed, the English version of this fix will have the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table. To use the hotfix, follow these steps. WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

1. Create a Dword registry key with the following settings: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\microsoft\Office\10.0\Word\Options\ShowWorkPaneAtStartup
2. Set the value of the key to 1 to turn on the hotfix, or set the value of the key to 0 to ignore the hotfix.

This fix is a post Microsoft Office XP Service Pack 2 (SP-2) fix. To install the fix you must have Office XP SP-2 installed on your computer. For additional information about Microsoft Office XP Service Pack 2 (SP-2), click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Additionally, you may have to install Microsoft Windows Installer 2.0 to install this fix. For additional information about the Windows Installer requirement for Post Office XP Service Pack 2 fixes, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was first corrected in Office XP Service Pack 3.