If you come across the issue where making formatting changes in Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher) causes the program to freeze and then crash, there are two solutions. I have found that in each case, the program is trying to connect to a network printer that it is unable to reach. These solutions are based on the end user being based in an enterprise environment.
- If you are working from home, make sure you are connected to your organisation’s VPN. This gives access to the network and will make the printer discoverable, causing the program to be able to communicate with the printer and let you carry on working.
- Check that the computer does not have an old printer added in ‘Printers & Scanners’. If there is an old network printer that no longer exists, it will get stuck in a loop of trying to connect. Remove the old printer and optionally add the latest one.
