compare documents crash

[muwando]

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

I have a MacBook Pro with Word 2004 11.5.5, 2 GB of RAM, OS X 10.5.8, and I recently discovered that "compare documents" causes the system to hang up with the spinning daisy wheel. I did this with "activity monitor" on, and the Word CP looks like it maxes out when this is happening. Compare docs used to work fine, but it's been awhile since I've tried it. Perhaps coincidentally, I discovered this problem while while trying to work around a corrupted Word document (which had a lot of track changes and footnotes active).

This happens with any document - even a blank one.

Any clues? Thanks!

 

[John McGhie]

Well, I guess the first clue is that using "Compare Documents" on any
document that has active tracked changes and footnotes and numbering
happening is an almost guaranteed crash

It is strongly recommended to resolve all the changes before you compare.

If you can't do that, save a copy of Old and New as plain text, then compare
those. You will then get character-for-character accuracy without the
crashes

Hope this helps

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

I have a MacBook Pro with Word 2004 11.5.5, 2 GB of RAM, OS X 10.5.8, and I
recently discovered that "compare documents" causes the system to hang up with
the spinning daisy wheel. I did this with "activity monitor" on, and the Word
CP looks like it maxes out when this is happening. Compare docs used to work
fine, but it's been awhile since I've tried it. Perhaps coincidentally, I
discovered this problem while while trying to work around a corrupted Word
document (which had a lot of track changes and footnotes active).

This happens with any document - even a blank one.

Any clues? Thanks!

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[muwando]

John - You suggest that "track changes" is the problem. Good idea, but perhaps you didn't see my note that this happens with any document, even a blank one or one with a few test words (with track changes off and never used).

Any other ideas? Thanks!

 

[John McGhie]

Yeah, I "saw" it, but I was simply "hiding" from that bit, because I don't
have a clue.

I "suspect" that it's document corruption (potentially caused by tracked
changes). If it IS document corruption, and it is happening in a blank
document, then it is in your Normal Template.

Which would mean that every document you have created since the problem
appeared is now corrupted.

You can prove this easily enough:

1) Prepare two new blank documents. Put ONLY one line of text in each, and
save each as a different file.

2) Compare them. If it crashes:

3) Delete those two documents AND your Normal template. Reboot to ensure
we clear the caches.

4) Restart Word, and create two blank documents as in (1) above. They must
be saved files.

5) Compare them.

If it doesn't crash now, bad news, it was the Normal template and every
document you have is suspect. If it does crash, "good news", the problem is
not in the Normal template and we need to find out what's wrong with Word.

To do that, create a new User ID and logion as that. Try the same test.

If it's OK this time, its Preferences and we need to de-louse those.

It can be a lot quicker to simply move your files into the new user ID and
delete the old one.

Hope this helps

John - You suggest that "track changes" is the problem. Good idea, but perhaps
you didn't see my note that this happens with any document, even a blank one
or one with a few test words (with track changes off and never used).

Any other ideas? Thanks!

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[muwando]

Victory! Following your lead, I got rid of a bad preferences file following the instructions here:
<http://word.mvps.org/Mac/damagedPrefs.html>

Thanks John!

 

[John McGhie]

Excellent!! I just love it when we succeed even though I haven't a clue!
Well done

Victory! Following your lead, I got rid of a bad preferences file following
the instructions here:
<http://word.mvps.org/Mac/damagedPrefs.html>

Thanks John!

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]