Microsoft Office 2007 Add-ins May Become Disabled when Loading Older Microsoft Office Applications

Microsoft offers several add-ins for Microsoft Office 2007 to offer additional functionality or features. For example, the Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS add-in is a free and popular supplement to Microsoft Office 2007 that allows you to export to PDF and XPS formats.

These add-ins behave perfectly fine if Office 2007 is your only office platform, but they may become disabled if you are using side-by-side installations of Office. For example, an Office 2007 add-in may become disabled when Office 2003 is loaded.

Assume you are happily using the Save as PDF or XPS add-in under Microsoft Office Access 2007, when you decide that you need to open Access 2003. When Access 2003 loads, it attempts to load all of the Office add-ins. Since the Save as PDF or XPS add-in is only supported under Office 2007 programs, it fails to load. Office thinks that the add-in is broken, and marks it as disabled so that Office won’t try to load it anymore.

The next time Access 2007 is loaded, it sees that the add-in is disabled, and does not try to load it.

Don’t fret – you can re-enable the add-in through the options form.

Follow these steps to re-enable add-ins that have become disabled:

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Access Options, Excel Options, PowerPoint Options, or Word Options.
2. On the Tools menu, click Add-ins:
   

   

3. In the Manage drop down list, select "Com Add-ins", and click "Go":
   

   

4. Check all of the add-ins that you want to re-enable, and click OK.