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Note: This applies to all programs within Office 2007 not just Word.

Since installing Office 2007 Home & Student I have always been frustrated that one feature I used to use regularly now seemed to be removed or restricted, perhaps only available in the pro version I thought.

The ‘Send To Mail Recipient’ action on the ‘File’ menu was grayed out requiring me to save files and then locate them though my email client if I wanted to send them as an attachment. Not the biggest inconvenience but frustrating when I could do this with my previous version of Office.

After more investigation it turns out that this isn’t the case at all and is a bug. There is a Knowledge Base article giving more information and solutions and below i have extracted the key steps I followed to solve the problem.

I hope this helps anyone who has also missed this feature.

(This solution is as per Windows Vista, you may need to make some amends to the paths etc. for XP.)

1. Close all programs.

2. Open the registry editor by going to Start- >All programs->Accessories->Run (alternatively type run in the Vista search box and hit enter)
3. Type in ‘regedit’ to the command prompt and click OK

4. Locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Messaging Subsystem

5. Locate the following registry values.

If any of these registry values are missing, follow these steps to add the values: a.

1. Click the Windows Messaging Subsystem subkey, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click String Value.
2. Type the name of the missing value, and then press ENTER.
3. Click the new value, and then click Modify on the Edit menu.
4. In the Edit String dialog box, type the correct value for the missing string value in the Value data box.
5. Repeat these steps for each value that is missing from the table
6. On the File menu, click Exit.

Let me know if this works for you.

Matt S

Filed under: How-to, Microsoft Office