"document too complex---please save now"

[david toub]

I've received two documents from the same Windows user, both of which
involved tracking changes. After a few minutes, I receive a recurring
error message "the document formatting is too complex. Please save the
document now." The only way to get out of this is to quite Word and
restart the process. I turned off Fast Saves and AutoRecover, and
nothing seemed to help other than replacing my Normal template with a
default one.

This does not happen with any other documents, and I really don't want
to have to rebuild a new Normal template. Any suggestions?

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi David,

It sounds like you had Fast Saves turned on in the first place. Now that
you have it turned off, LEAVE IT OFF and don't EVER turn it back on.
AutoRecover is fine and Always Create Backup Copy is fine, but Fast Saves
will add invisible versions of saves onto the document until it becomes too
big for Word to handle.

Do you have an unaltered version of the documents you received? If so (and
in case the previous writers also had Fast Saves turned on), use the
techniques in the article below to "uncorrupt" a *copy* of the document:

<http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/DocumentCorruption.htm>
(If using Safari, hit Refresh once or twice; better yet, use another
browser.)

If you don't have an unaltered version of the document, do the procedure on
whatever you have regardless. You may lose some data if the document was
really badly corrupted. Performing the procedure on a copy of the document
will allow you to make a before/after comparison if necessary.

Hope this helps.

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
MacOffice MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
(If using Safari, hit Refresh once or twice ­ or use another browser.)
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>