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WORD-NOT-RESPONDING

Word Microsoft Word Has Stopped Working / Not Responding Applies to: Windows 7, Windows 10, Windows 11

What it means

Word crashed or froze completely, usually tied to a specific add-in, a corrupted template, or a very large/complex document — though it can also just be a long operation (a big mail merge, a macro, repagination on a huge document) still genuinely running.

Also seen as: Microsoft Word has stopped working, Word is not responding

Quick fix steps

  1. Before assuming it's frozen, press Esc then Ctrl+Break and wait a minute or two — this interrupts a long-running macro or operation specifically, which can look exactly like a crash while it's actually still working.
  2. Start Word in Safe Mode to check whether a third-party add-in is the cause: hold Ctrl while launching it, or press Windows+R and type winword.exe /safe for the same result without needing to hold a key at the right moment.
  3. Rename the Normal.dotm template file so Word rebuilds it fresh — a corrupted template is a very common cause here.
  4. Run a Quick Repair from Settings > Apps > Installed apps > Microsoft 365/Office > Modify.
For the full step-by-step walkthrough, see Word Freezing or Crashing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the same troubleshooting as Excel not responding?
Very similar — both share the Ctrl+Break technique for a stuck calculation/macro and the Safe Mode approach for add-in conflicts, since they're both part of the same Office suite with a similar underlying architecture.
Could a very long document cause this by itself?
Yes — a genuinely huge document, especially with many images, tracked changes, or complex formatting, can take Word a noticeably long time to process certain operations, which can look like a freeze.

Other error codes

WORD-UNREADABLE-CONTENT — Word Found Unreadable Content

Word detected some form of corruption in the document when opening it.

WORD-CONTENTS-PROBLEM — Word Found a Problem With the Contents

Word's XML parser hit something it couldn't read inside the document's internal structure — usually corruption from an interrupted save or a bad conversion between formats.

WORD-COMMAND-SEND-PROBLEM — There Was a Problem Sending the Command to the Program

Windows tried to open a Word file through another program (like double-clicking an email attachment) and Word didn't respond in time — often a leftover invisible Word process.

WORD-LOCKED-FOR-EDITING — User Does Not Have Access Privileges / File Locked

Word believes someone else already has the file open, or your account doesn't have write permission on it.