Word97 gives runtim error 5981

I just tried to install the plugin for MS-Word. Had to use the manual installation as my old Word97 is not supported by the installer. After copying the Zotero.dot file to the STARTUP folder in the office directory, I can open MS-Word and see the new Zotero toolbar.

Unfortunately, however, I cannot use it. Whenever I click on one of the Zotero Icons (e.g. the leftmost one 'Insert Citation'), I get a runtime error 5981, saying something like 'cannot access macro storage' (my translation from the german error message I see). I am running Word97 under Vista, as a user with administrator privileges.

Any ideas?
  • The current documentation lists Word 97 as being supported, but as far as I know that assumption was based on a single user report (http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/354/). This user mentioned that he/she didn't fully test the plugin (maybe he/she only checked whether the toolbar showed up after installation). After that post, multiple users have mentioned errors when trying to use the plugin under Word 97, and I don't think there have been any users that have reported successful use of the plugin, so I guess that the plugin is currently just not compatible with Word 97.

    Perhaps the documentation could be changed to indicate this? This would also require some little changes in one of the error messages of the NSIS installer, which currently points users to the manual installation option when it detects that Word 97 is installed:

    54 DetailPrint "This installer does not yet support Word 97."
    55 DetailPrint "Instructions to manually install the Zotero Plugin for Word can be found at:"
    56 DetailPrint "http://www.zotero.org/documentation/microsoft_word_integration"

    Should then become something like:

    "Word 97 was detected on your computer. The Zotero Plugin for Word is only compatible with Word 2000 or higher."
  • I have removed references to Word 97 on the Microsoft Word Integration page. If anyone reports that it is working on their copy of Word 97 I can add it back, but it would seem that it is not working.
  • Word 97 is also mentioned here:

    http://www.zotero.org/documentation/windows_word_plugin_manual_installation_instructions
  • thanks, its fixed
  • Another mention of Word 97:

    http://www.zotero.org/documentation/plugins
  • Thanks, its fixed. And with that I think we should have removed all reference to Word 97.
This discussion has been closed.