wine users - Jul 2009 - MS Word document window disappearing in 2003 & 2007 versions

Hi

Regularily, I will 'lose' a Word document window. It happens when both
single and multiple documents are opened.  I will first explain the 2 document
case.

If I open 2 documents, I can see this fact by looking at the 'window'
menu;  there, it will say that there are 2 documents open.  I can see one
document, on screen, but when I try to activate the document that is not seen, (
for example, using the keyboard shortcut alt-W, 1), the on screen document does
not change; it does not display the 'hidden' document.  When I press
ctrl-w, the hidden document tries to close, either by closing, or by displaying
'you have unsaved changes', but I cannot find any way to display the
'hidden' document.

In the case of a single open document, the Word application window just
disappears.  I can see that it is still running as a process. When I kill the
wine/Word process, and reload Word, Word tells me that I did not shut down
cleanly.

I am running Ubuntu 9.10, compiz window manager; but changing to metacity does
not fix the problem.  This has happened with Word from both Office 2003 and
2007.

Does anyone have an idea about how I would go about debugging this problem?  I
like Word under wine so much I am getting spoiled;  I want to fix this nagging
irritation.

Cheers
Dennis

dewoller wrote:
> Hi
> 
> Regularily, I will 'lose' a Word document window. It happens when
both single and multiple documents are opened.  I will first explain the 2
document case.
> 
> If I open 2 documents, I can see this fact by looking at the
'window' menu;  there, it will say that there are 2 documents open.  I
can see one document, on screen, but when I try to activate the document that is
not seen, ( for example, using the keyboard shortcut alt-W, 1), the on screen
document does not change; it does not display the 'hidden' document. 
When I press ctrl-w, the hidden document tries to close, either by closing, or
by displaying 'you have unsaved changes', but I cannot find any way to
display the 'hidden' document.
> 
> In the case of a single open document, the Word application window just
disappears.  I can see that it is still running as a process. When I kill the
wine/Word process, and reload Word, Word tells me that I did not shut down
cleanly.
> 
> I am running Ubuntu 9.10, compiz window manager; but changing to metacity
does not fix the problem.  This has happened with Word from both Office 2003 and
2007.
> 
> Does anyone have an idea about how I would go about debugging this problem?
I like Word under wine so much I am getting spoiled;  I want to fix this nagging
irritation.
> 
> Cheers
> Dennis

I've never had a Word 2003/7 window just disappear--that really sounds like
a compiz issue. Disable all desktop effects.

As for the two document problem, Word opens multiple documents in new windows.
Word's alt-w shortcut doesn't work in windowed mode because changing
focus between windows is handled by your window manager, not Wine. You need to
use whatever shortcut keys your window manager uses for switching windows. If
you run Word in a virtual desktop, alt-w should work.

>I am running Ubuntu 9.10, compiz window manager; but changing to metacity
does not fix the problem.  This
>has happened with Word from both Office 2003 and 2007.
Did you kill the Window Manager or did you change to Megacity and then restart
X?  You should log-out and back in to change the Window Manager.  If this did
not work, try rebooting the system.  If this does not work, please file a bug
report through Wine Bugzilla with all details on your system, including CPU
architecture, Video card and current video driver version.

James McKenzie