When you try to open an Office file that contains a damaged AutoShape object in Office 2003 Service Pack 3, you receive an error message: "<Office application> experienced an error trying to open the file"

On a computer that is running Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP3), you try to open an Office file that contains a damaged AutoShape object. When you do this, you cannot open the file.

Additionally, you receive an error message that resembles the following error message:To have us fix this problem for you, go to the “Fix it for me” section. If you’d rather fix this problem yourself, go to the “Let me fix it myself” section.

To fix this problem automatically:

1. Apply hotfix 950522.
   
   For more information about hotfix 950522, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
   950522  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950522/ ) Description of the Office 2003 hotfix package: March 21, 2008
2. Click the Fix this problem link. Then click Run in the File Download dialog box, and follow the steps in this wizard.
   
   
   
   Fix this problem
   Microsoft Fix it 50264
   
   
   Note this wizard may be in English only; however, the automatic fix also works for other language versions of Windows.
   
   Note If you are not on the computer that has the problem, you can save the automatic fix to a flash drive or to a CD, and then you can run it on the computer that has the problem.

Now go to the "Did this fix the problem?" section.

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: To resolve this problem, follow these steps:

1. Apply hotfix 950522.
   
   For more information about hotfix 950522, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
   950522  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950522/ ) Description of the Office 2003 hotfix package: March 21, 2008
2. Set the SkipCorruptedDrawingDataOnLoad registry entry. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
   2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
      HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\Draw
   3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
   4. Type SkipCorruptedDrawingDataOnLoad, and then press ENTER.
   5. Right-click SkipCorruptedDrawingDataOnLoad, and then click Modify.
   6. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
   7. Exit Registry Editor.

Check whether the problem is fixed. If the problem is fixed, you are finished with this article. If the problem is not fixed, you can contact support (http://support.microsoft.com/contactus) .

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.