Sometimes you receive error messages when using Microsoft Outlook in conjunction with Microsoft Word. You might be trying to send a Word document as an email attachment. The problem could be with how Word starts up, the command line startup and/or with the startup switches. The result is that you will receive MAPI errors.

If you’re trying to send a Word document as an email attachment you may receive an error message such as: “Word couldn’t send mail because of MAPI error: ‘Unspecified error’”.

This problem can occur if the following conditions are all true:

• You started Microsoft Word 2000 and your MAPI e-mail program (for example, Microsoft Outlook 2000).
• In Microsoft Word, you chose to send the current document as an attachment (on the File menu, point to Send To, and then click Mail Recipient (as Attachment)), but you did not send the message.
• You quit and logged off of your MAPI e-mail program. For example, in Microsoft Outlook 2000, on the File menu, you clicked Exit and Log Off.
• In Word, you again chose to send the current document as an attachment.

What happened is that since the current MAPI session was closed, Word can no longer connect to that MAPI session.

You can use one of the following methods to resolve this problem.

Method 1:  Restart your MAPI E-mail Application.
You can restart your MAPI e-mail application and then send your document from Word.

Method 2:  Save and Close Document and Word, and Then Restart Word.
You can save and close your document and then quit and restart Word. Word then establishes a new MAPI session, allowing you to send your document.

There is another situation when you might receive error messages while trying to send Word documents attached to emails. When you use the Send To command (on the File menu) in Microsoft Word 2000 to send a Word document as an e-mail attachment, and Microsoft Outlook is your default e-mail client, you may receive an error message similar to one of the following:

OUTLOOK Error: ‘The Operation Failed due to network or other communications problem. Check your connection and try again.’

OUTLOOK Error: ‘The Messaging interface has returned an unknown error. If the problem persists restart Outlook.’

WORD Error: ‘Word couldn’t send mail because of MAPI error: Unspecified error.’

However, when you use the /a switch to start Word, these error messages do not occur.

These error messages suggest that the Microsoft Office registry key is corrupted.

To work around this issue, change the mail format in Microsoft Outlook to HTML. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start Outlook, and then click Options on the Tools menu.
2. On the Mail Format tab, click HTML in the Send in this message format box, and then click OK.
3. Quit Outlook.

You can also resolve this issue if you delete the Office registry key and then repair your Office 2000 installation. To do this, follow the steps outlined below.
 
NOTE: Because there are several versions of Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your computer. If they are, see your product documentation to complete these steps.

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Run dialog box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. In Registry Editor, navigate to the following registry key:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice
4. On the Registry menu, click Export Registry File.
5. In the Export Registry File dialog box, select Desktop in the Save in box, and then type OfficeKeyOld in the File name box. Under Export range, click Selected branch, and then click Save.
6. On the Edit menu, click Delete. Click Yes to confirm the deletion.
7. On the Registry menu, click Exit.
8. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel. NOTE: In Microsoft Windows XP, click Control Panel directly on the Start menu.
9. Double-click Add/Remove Programs.
10. In the list of currently installed programs, click Microsoft Office 2000, and then click Add/Remove.
11. In the Office Maintenance Mode Wizard, click Repair Office, click Repair errors in my Office installation, and then click Finish.

Please note that 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. More information about how to back up and restore the registry can be found in the article, 322756, in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.