further Comments question

[befuddle]

Greetings! I posted a comment recently, about having difficulty with
comments in Word with my Mac mini. Per John's suggestion, I have turned
the "bubbles" off, and am just working around it. Those brackets are
hard to spot, though, so it's not ideal.

However, I just realized something further about the problem (which was
that when I tried to create a new comment, the brackets would appear,
but the bubble would not). I am working in two table columns,
translating a text. I've got the original text in the left-hand column,
and my translation in the right-hand. I have no problem with comments
in the left-hand column, bubbles or no bubbles. It's only in the
right-hand column that I'm having difficulty. This includes any
newly-created double-column docs. This isn't a very long document - a
couple dozen pages - and I'm quitting other programs while working
Word.

Is there some way I might be able to get the right-hand column to
function like the left-hand column? Any suggestions welcome, and with
thanks.

Befuddled

PS:

Just to add a general comment, I'm disappointed with how Word 2004 is
performing. There seem to be a number of little bugs. Some examples:
Word crashes when I spellcheck my document (and the AutoRecovery
function didn't work once!). Navigating my document with the arrow keys
takes my cursor in strange directions. Things like these mean that I'm
spending too much time fussing with the program, with which I'm pretty
familiar. My word-processing needs are pretty basic; I'm not merging
documents, inserting images, or publishing to the web. And my computer,
though not one of the more powerful ones, is brand new and should be
more than adequate. (I think I'll be looking at software alternatives
when I move onto a larger projects, soon.)

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hi befuddled

Not that Word 2004 is perfect, cause it isn't, and alternatives may suit you
better and be easier--but the mini is severely underpowered with 256MB of
RAM, which many say is not even enough to enjoy running OS X, never mind a
memory hog like Word. And if you have Tiger OS X, I'm guessing that uses
more memory than Panther. (do confirm exact OS, please, for complete
information). Other opinions on the memory issue re OS X (article and
varying comments, some disagreeing):
http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/editors/2005/02/powerbookram/index.php

Yeah, the brackets are idiotically invisible. Although, since you are
translating, someone was just translating something for me (research,
though, not for publication), and I preferred to be able to read the
translation in Normal View and use View Footnotes to see the notes about
translation choices than to be forced to use Page Layout and Comment
balloons or the Reviewing Pane.

I don't know what's going on with the right-hand, left-hand thing--but in
addition to the memory demands of showing those balloons, Word uses a lot of
power to display long tables. A poster who complained of slow tables
reported that using Table Split every 10 pages or so was that only thing
that helped, though his original table was 67 pages. You might want to try
that while working on the doc.

From Clive Huggan:

Click where you want to have a break in
the table -> Table menu -> Split table. To get rid of the resulting
paragraph mark later, hit the Forward Delete key.

Although, the right hand thing and the random resetting to Show Final view
that you reported earlier sound rather buggy to me, and like actual problems
rather than just Word having display issues because it doesn't have enough
power to deal. Sorry I have no help to offer on that, aside from the
standard below.

Others have reported problems with AutoRecovery--crash on spellcheck and
weird arrow key behavior do not sound familiar, however.

Generally, consistent and reproducible problems/crashes in Word usually
respond to one of the standard troubleshooting measures, which you will find
listed here:

http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/TroubleshootingIndex.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

 

[Clive Huggan]

In support of Daiya's analysis:

... the mini is severely underpowered with 256MB of
RAM, which many say is not even enough to enjoy running OS X, never mind a
memory hog like Word. And if you have Tiger OS X, I'm guessing that uses
more memory than Panther. (do confirm exact OS, please, for complete
information).

I understand Tiger does require more memory, albeit some aspects of Tiger
are said to be more efficient (this is from friends who have upgraded; I'm
deliberately holding back till a few issues have been sorted out).

That said, 256 MB would probably be fine if you only used Apple software,
but would struggle if several applications were open and e.g. graphics
applications were involved. Conclusion: 512 is highly desirable but not
essential.

Using Office with simple documents undoubtedly calls for 512 MB (based on my
use of colleagues' struggling Macs).

But if you go into complex aspects of Word (e.g., working on tables,
especially long ones or ones afflicted with Comments), then 768 or --
preferably -- 1 GB of RAM is needed.

Generally, consistent and reproducible problems/crashes in Word usually
respond to one of the standard troubleshooting measures, which you will find
listed here:

http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/TroubleshootingIndex.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

I agree with Daiya here, too. Additionally:

You may find it useful to create, from scratch in a new blank document, say
3/4 of a page of the type of tables you are working on (populate it by just
keying some text into a cell, click in the next cell and key Command-y to
repeat the typing, and so on -- don't paste text in from your present
document. Then, see if the problems you're having repeat themselves. Yes?
Follow the URL above. No? I suspect (but wait till someone else has had an
opportunity to contradict) that it's a document complexity / lack of RAM
problem. Copy the table you have created, plus a paragraph mark or two.
Paste a few times. Does it get worse? Even more likely to be lack of RAM.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is at least 7 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
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