Antique version of Word, help!

[Wordwanderer]

First: I have Word 97 (I know, an antique) and I'm in the middle of
a project utilizing it. However, it keeps freezing and forcing me to wait and
wait and wait until I can close it down and sometimes reboot and start all
over again. Is there a fix for this? Or a site I can go to for tweaking old
versions of Word? I understand that Microsoft is no longer offering support
on my antique. BTW, I believe that Word came on my computer, so I'm not sure
that I have a copy of it to re-install.

Second: If I am to buy a new version of Word, I have been told that
2003 is more like 97 and would be easier for me to work with. I don't have
time for a huge learning curve (my deadline looms!), and I understand that
that's what would be involved if I were to buy 2007. Where can I buy 2003?
And what does it mean when the title of the Word product says "upgrade"?
Possibly my version is to old to "upgrade"!

Any advice?
Thanks!

 

[Graham Mayor]

It would help to know what exactly you are doing when the program freezes.
In the meantime - see http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm
then http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProblemsStartingWord.htm. (Where
relevant Word 97 is Word 8.0)

If you don't have the disc re-installing or repairing Word 97 could be a
problem, though the setup files may still be on your PC.

I believe Word 97 does qualify as a product that can be used to validate an
upgrade, but Word 2007 would mean a very steep re-learning curve.

Amazon had Office 2003 available last time I looked, but if you only want
Word, Works Suite could be a cheaper alternative. I can't remember without
looking it up (and you can do that) whether Works Suite still includes Word
2002.

You should be able to pickup Word 97 from rummage sales or eBay for
peanuts.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[USEN]

This happened to me once using Excel. I got to looking and realized that for
some reason, the file was enormous...and shouldn't have been. I never did
figure out how all the extra rows got in there (and couldn't be deleted), but
all I did to solve the problem was to start a new blank spreadsheet (in your
case it would be a new document) and the just copy/paste ONLY the actual
text. This might not work, but it's worth a try if the size of your document
appears to be unusually larger than it should be.

If it IS a large file due to graphics, etc., you might try temporarily
dividing it into 2 documents so that you can finish working on it. Then
simply copy the 2nd document back to the end of the first.

A final suggestion would be to convert it to another Word Processing program
that has full functions (not just a text editor) and then convert it back to
Word once you get past the part that freezes it.

I hope one of these suggestions helps. If you use the 2nd idea & then have
trouble appending them, if you wish to send them separately to me, I'd be
happy to append them for you.