Audio Notes Freezing

[lexophile]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

Hello,

Whenever I use audio notes in notebook view, the program will freeze when I save the document. The recording is usually lost (though the computer usually recovers the text)...in fact, I just tried to save a document with audio notes, and the pinwheel is currently spinning....I am afraid to force quit, because I know I will loose everything.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

Hello,

Whenever I use audio notes in notebook view, the program will freeze when I save the document. The recording is usually lost (though the computer usually recovers the text)...in fact, I just tried to save a document with audio notes, and the pinwheel is currently spinning....I am afraid to force quit, because I know I will loose everything.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

Hi,

Yours is the first posting I;ve noticed about this problem, so I have to
some pretty basic questions to ask.

Is this behavior new or has it always been this way? If it is new, what
changed on your computer recently (install an update? have an unusual
crash?)

Have you tried any basic troubleshooting - such as repair disk
permissions or run DiskWarrior?

Thanks.


-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are independent experts who are not affiliated with Microsoft.


Visit my blog
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-i7JMeio7cqvhotIUwCzaJWq9

 

[lexophile]

I googled around, and apparently this issue has happened to others as well. I can't really say if this behavior is new...I don't use the feature that frequently...but when I have it is variable, it has worked a few times, and crashed a bunch of others (causing me to loose a bunch of very important meeting details).

anyways, I found this: <http://support.microsoft.com/kb/841491>

I am not sure if there is any way to recover any of my lost files. I find it obnoxious that this is not mentioned as a potential issue (i.e. that the files cannot be recovered), rather than having me look around for answers after the fact . I don't record anymore with notebook (I liked it because the audio was time-coded with the actual text I was typing). But, as stated, it was horribly buggy and frustrating, so I gave up. If anyone has any ideas about how to possibly recover these files, please let me know.

 

[John McGhie]

Sorry, you can't recover the files from a Word 2004 document. You could in
a Word 2008 document.

Make sure that each time you start a document tat is to have Audio Notes,
you begin with a new blank document.

Copying a pre-existing document and adding to it is one of the most common
causes of this unreliability: eventually the documents get so chopped around
they become corrupted.

Cheers

I googled around, and apparently this issue has happened to others as well. I
can't really say if this behavior is new...I don't use the feature that
frequently...but when I have it is variable, it has worked a few times, and
crashed a bunch of others (causing me to loose a bunch of very important
meeting details).

anyways, I found this: <http://support.microsoft.com/kb/841491>

I am not sure if there is any way to recover any of my lost files. I find it
obnoxious that this is not mentioned as a potential issue (i.e. that the files
cannot be recovered), rather than having me look around for answers after the
fact . I don't record anymore with notebook (I liked it because the audio was
time-coded with the actual text I was typing). But, as stated, it was horribly
buggy and frustrating, so I gave up. If anyone has any ideas about how to
possibly recover these files, please let me know.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Matthew.K.Houston]

Sorry, you can't recover the files from a Word 2004 document.  You could in
a Word 2008 document.

Make sure that each time you start a document tat is to have Audio Notes,
you begin with a new blank document.

Copying a pre-existing document and adding to it is one of the most common
causes of this unreliability: eventually the documents get so chopped around
they become corrupted.

Cheers





--
Don't wait for your answer, click here:http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group.  Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia.   mailto:[email protected]

I have had this problem as well. Mine has done this for the past 2
years. I too have Office 2004, but it does it so often that it must
be a problem on the software side of things. It sucks because I loose
all my audio notes from class!! Sometimes 2 hours worth!!

 

[John McGhie]

Yes, it is a problem on the software side of things.

The main problem is that the old ".doc" format simply isn't strong enough to
contain audio notes. Word gets confused, writes rubbish into the file, then
can't read its own handwriting.

The function will never be reliable (and they can't/won't fix it...)

However, there are some things you can do to "improve" the reliability:

1) Start with a new document each time. Never copy an existing document to
start off.

2) Make sure your Normal template is in default condition: if you think it
might not be, quit Word then drag it to the desktop to force Word to create
a new one when it next restarts.

3) Don't change the styles in the document. The notebook layout is
critically dependent upon the styles in the document: don't change them.

4) Don't "edit" a notebook document -- not ever! Once you close a notebook
document, never try to add more audio to it, begin a new document.

If you do these things, they will blow up "less often". But they will still
blow up.

Sorry!

I have had this problem as well. Mine has done this for the past 2
years. I too have Office 2004, but it does it so often that it must
be a problem on the software side of things. It sucks because I loose
all my audio notes from class!! Sometimes 2 hours worth!!

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]