corrupt file fails to print completely

[RobertB]

Reference system: Intel core2duo, 10.4.11. Word 2004 (latest updates
applied).

I've got a doc that I'm having trouble with. I am guessing that my
problems arose because of my decision to use automatically generated
endnotes. I've used footnotes before without a problem, but I don't use
endnotes as a rule.

Document is about 20 pages. Palatino font throughout. No fancy font
changes or formatting changes.

Symptom: The document will print (to an HP 4MP Laserjet) about 7 or 8
pages and stop. Often, the printer light will flash but nothing will
print. A couple of times I've checked the OS X Printer utility and there
is a message that reads something to the effect of "Unexpected EOF
received." Am assuming that means "End Of File."

- Saving as an RTF and printing yielded the same results.
- Saving as a PDF and printing from Preview yielded the same results
(Preview appears to actually print an RTF file).
- Saving as a PDF and printing from Acrobat Reader printed the entire
document.
- Saving as an RTF and opening the document on Word X on my older G4
iMac (also 10.4.11) printed the entire document correctly.

I tried the copy/paste into a new document but that didn't work. There's
no last paragraph mark beyond the endnotes available to delete.

Is there any way to fix this? There is a workaround but I have to turn
the document in to a client and I'd like not to give them any grief.

Thanks.

robert

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Robert -

If only 7-8 pages of a 20 page document are printing I tend to doubt that
endnotes are at fault. Is there anything in the neighborhood of where the
error occurs such as a section break, table, graphic, manual page break, or
other content or structural element?

See the info here on un-corrupting a document. I'd suggest you try Step #1
first. If that doesn't do it try #4:

http://word.mvps.org/Mac/DocumentCorruption.html

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[CyberTaz]

As an afterthought...

Well, yes there is, you just can't highlight it or the endnotes at the same
time as the document text However, if you simply use Command+A,
Shift+Left Arrow, then copy the endnotes will be included when you paste
even though they didn't appear to be selected. Headers & Footers are handled
in the same fashion.

In this case, however, I don't think a "Maggie" will do the job since the
corruption seems to be somewhere in the body of he doc.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[RobertB]

Hi Robert -

If only 7-8 pages of a 20 page document are printing I tend to doubt that
endnotes are at fault. Is there anything in the neighborhood of where the
error occurs such as a section break, table, graphic, manual page break, or
other content or structural element?

No, nothing. At least nothing I can see and nothing I did intentionally.
Document is just text and endnotes. The only possible weirdness might be
in an accented name that I copied from an HTML page (an Arabic name with
a handful of accents over the vowels). However, that page prints just
fine -- when it prints.

See the info here on un-corrupting a document. I'd suggest you try Step #1
first. If that doesn't do it try #4:

http://word.mvps.org/Mac/DocumentCorruption.html

I'll have a look.
Thanks.

 

[RobertB]

As an afterthought...

Well, yes there is, you just can't highlight it or the endnotes at the same
time as the document text However, if you simply use Command+A,
Shift+Left Arrow, then copy the endnotes will be included when you paste
even though they didn't appear to be selected. Headers & Footers are handled
in the same fashion.

In this case, however, I don't think a "Maggie" will do the job since the
corruption seems to be somewhere in the body of he doc.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

OK. I don't suppose there's any way to easily check for corruption by
using a text editor.

 

[RobertB]

Well, OK. Conversion to HTML and then to DOC didn't work. File printed
only 6 pages before stopping. I could print page 7 by itself using Print
Current Page. Last week, the original document printed up to page 11.

 

[CyberTaz]

Before you tear your hair out - Have you checked the HP site to see if there
is an update for your printer driver? If the doc is printing OK from an
older version of Word it suggests that could be the problem, especially if
the Save As Web Page had no effect.

Did you try doing the Maggie as described in my prior reply?

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[CyberTaz]

Then I'd suggest you get in touch with HP support. What you've reported
points even more toward the driver software so perhaps they can clarify your
questions on that... There's not to much retained I a text file that could
account for the behavior continuing there. It seems to me that if the file
structure or content were the cause that there would be a problem creating
the complete text file in the first place.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[John McGhie]

"Unexpected EOF" definitively means that the file is corrupted.

It's not possible to check for corruption using a Text Editor, because a
..doc file is not a sequential file, it is a set of linked lists. The text
and the properties that affect it are related by a series of binary
pointers.

However, you COULD save the file in the new .docx format using the free
converter from the Microsoft site.

That would a) Probably fix the problem, and b) Enable you to inspect the
code with a text editor if you can read XML.

I would imagine the endnotes are the problem: one of them has gotten mangled
and is causing one of the pointers to point to "nothing", hence the
unexpected end of file.

You could find it using a binary search:
1) Open the document
2) Press Command + period (.) to stop the repagination.
3) Change the View to "Draft"
4) Divide the file in half, and save both halves under new file names.
5) If there is only one corrupt paragraph, the bad one will be in one half,
the other half will behave properly.
6) Divide the bad half in half... And again... And again...
7) Keep this up until you have only one paragraph in each half Then
you know which the bad paragraph is. Be prepared for the fact that there
may be more than one, and they may not be near each other.
8) Delete it then re-type it into the document. Do NOT copy any part of
the bad paragraph, or you will copy the problem and you'll have to start
over.

This method will keep everything in the document except the bad paragraphs

I told you it was laborious! But if you have great patience, you will fix
the document this way.

Hope this helps

Well, I installed the latest HP printer drivers for 10.4. Didn't solve
the problem. I get the same error message after page 6, "Unexpected EOF
received." Weird.

--
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]

 

[RobertB]

"Unexpected EOF" definitively means that the file is corrupted.

It's not possible to check for corruption using a Text Editor, because a
.doc file is not a sequential file, it is a set of linked lists. The text
and the properties that affect it are related by a series of binary
pointers.

However, you COULD save the file in the new .docx format using the free
converter from the Microsoft site.

That would a) Probably fix the problem, and b) Enable you to inspect the
code with a text editor if you can read XML.

Thanks. How would I print it though? Can that be re-imported into Word
2004 for printing?

I would imagine the endnotes are the problem: one of them has gotten mangled
and is causing one of the pointers to point to "nothing", hence the
unexpected end of file.

So do I. Not sure if I mentioned it but Word crashed on this doc when it
was spellchecking the part with the endnotes, somewhere near the end of
the notes.

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Robert:

Did you try it?

You will find that Word 2004 can print a .docx.

Cheers

Thanks. How would I print it though? Can that be re-imported into Word
2004 for printing?



So do I. Not sure if I mentioned it but Word crashed on this doc when it
was spellchecking the part with the endnotes, somewhere near the end of
the notes.

--
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]

 

[RobertB]

Hi Robert:

Did you try it?

Not yet, no. Found it though.