Inserting A Contact in a Word 2004 Table Causes Spinning Beach Ball

[Simon Simpson]

I'm trying to insert a contact, and/or an associated address, into a
Word table - something which I could do with alacrity in Word X (on a
good day with a following wind) - but which now causes the
multi-coloured 'pizza of death' to appear.

Dear fellow Word 2004 users, please try this for me.

Open a new blank document.
Insert a two column, to row table.
Insert the curser in the first cell.
Find a contact, using the 'Contact' Toolbar. Click to insert.
After a short pause does the dreaded pizza appear ?
(Word is not responding, dear reader)
Or.
Try clicking on the 'Include Address' button in the 'Contact'
Toolbar.
Does the dreaded pizza appear ?

Why is this, or more to the point, how can I stop it from doing this ?
It would, then, be possible to be able to insert multiple contacts in a
label template which, incidentally, uses a table for formatting.

 

[Elliott Roper]

I'm trying to insert a contact, and/or an associated address, into a
Word table - something which I could do with alacrity in Word X (on a
good day with a following wind) - but which now causes the
multi-coloured 'pizza of death' to appear.

Dear fellow Word 2004 users, please try this for me.

Open a new blank document.
Insert a two column, to row table.
Insert the curser in the first cell.
Find a contact, using the 'Contact' Toolbar. Click to insert.
After a short pause does the dreaded pizza appear ?
(Word is not responding, dear reader)
Or.
Try clicking on the 'Include Address' button in the 'Contact'
Toolbar.
Does the dreaded pizza appear ?

Why is this, or more to the point, how can I stop it from doing this ?
It would, then, be possible to be able to insert multiple contacts in a
label template which, incidentally, uses a table for formatting.

I did as you bid. With even more spectacular results.

Word 11.3 crashed on my Mac Pro 10.4.8 with a kernel exception.
Microsoft's error reporter was either on holiday or too slow out of the
blocks, so the crash report went to Apple instead.
It died as I tabbed from the top left table entry (which worked
immediately) to the top right cell.
Note that I had but one contact in the offered list (me), because I
don't use any kind of Entourage or other contact apparatus from within
Office. I hate having all my eggs in such a rickety basket.

Looking on the bright side, it was dead before it had a chance to show
me the pizza.

It's broken Jim.

(I do my labels, form letters and envelopes using mail merge from an
Excel spreadsheet and a small bunch of templates for each purpose)

I always feel that the monolithic database Entourage uses is a disaster
waiting to happen. Address Book is also one of those, but at least it
isn't hanging onto all my mail as well.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

OS 10.4.8, PPC powerbook g4, Office 11.2.6 (not updated).

No crash here, worked totally fine. I even kept on inserting random things,
still no problem.

I would try it in a different office or OS user identity, to see if it
happens with a freshly created database--except it sounds like Elliott has
not touched his. The difference between my results and Elliott's suggests
it could be Rosetta, or it could be Office 11.3.

Simon, what's your OS and Word version, and Intel or PPC Mac?

 

[Simon Simpson]

Dear Daiya,

My current version of Word is 11.3.0, although it happened in 11.2.6 as
well.
Power Mac G5 Dual, OSX 10.4.8.

Also happens on my wife's G4 (OSX 10.2.8), on a 'virgin'
Entourage database.

Apologies to Elliot. But I did enjoy his description of the resulting
mayhem.

Would be interesting, and fruitful, to know what differs between your
'set-up' and mine.
Or did you do something different ?
Exactly what "randon things" were you inserting ?

Best wishes,
Simon

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hi Simon,

I followed your exact directions in the first post (very helpful, by the
way)--just did it again, no problems.

Open a new blank document.
Insert a two column, to row table.
Insert the curser in the first cell.
Find a contact, using the 'Contact' Toolbar. Click to insert.
Try clicking on the 'Include Address' button in the 'Contact'
Toolbar.

To bring up the Contact Toolbar, I used View | Toolbars | Contact. When
nothing bad happened, I tried another document, a bigger table, different
cells, adding phone numbers or emails, etc. Still nothing bad. I "found"
the Contact in the toolbar via both the drop down and typing a few letters.
I tried various tabbing and shift-tabbing around the table, still no crash.

Okay, some diagnostic tricks:

Shift-launch Word. This launches it with no add-ins or anything, and a
fresh Normal template. See if the same thing happens.

Shift-login to your user identity. This prevents any startup items from
loaded. See if the same thing happens.

The chances of you and your wife having similar startup items seems high,
though I don't know about Elliott. Those two methods should get you to a
pretty clean setup, and eliminate the possibility of third-party
interference.

Daiya

 

[Elliott Roper]

OS 10.4.8, PPC powerbook g4, Office 11.2.6 (not updated).

No crash here, worked totally fine. I even kept on inserting random things,
still no problem.

I would try it in a different office or OS user identity, to see if it
happens with a freshly created database--except it sounds like Elliott has
not touched his. The difference between my results and Elliott's suggests
it could be Rosetta, or it could be Office 11.3.

Well, that was a challenge I couldn't resist. I repeated the experiment
on my Powerbook G4 10.4.8, also with Word 11.3

What was different? Very little. Both machines have almost identical
normal and global template, fonts and lack of Entourage database.

How did it behave? It crashed after almost identical operations. The
only thing that was different was that the contact field initially
opened showing the field source. So I hit opt-f9 before hitting tab.

Microsoft's error reporter won the race this time. Otherwise they
behaved identically.

 

[Elliott Roper]

Okay, some diagnostic tricks:

Shift-launch Word. This launches it with no add-ins or anything, and a
fresh Normal template. See if the same thing happens.

Good idea.
It does. I confirmed it was running without my normal normal or my
global template.

Shift-login to your user identity. This prevents any startup items from
loaded. See if the same thing happens.

I didn't bother with that 'cause I'd already done it on two machine.
The Mac Pro user was running as a non-priviliged, and the PowerBook
user had admin privs.

The exact crasher is to open a new document (default operation on start
with the PB, after dismissing the project gallery (recent) on the Pro).
Then I create a 2*2 table as the only object in the document. I then go
to view » toolbars to bring up the contacts toolbar. I click on the box
to display the drop down list of contacts, choose the only one there.
That fills in the table cell. Typing a tab crashes Word.

The chances of you and your wife having similar startup items seems high,
though I don't know about Elliott. Those two methods should get you to a
pretty clean setup, and eliminate the possibility of third-party
interference.

Heh! I have a reputation to protect!

It would be useful if more than one of us could repeat a simple crasher
recipe. Then we'd hand that over to the maintainers at MS for their
delectation.

 

[Elliott Roper]

Hi Elliot‹



I think you should try it. The question is whether something like a menu bar
utility to give you the weather might be interfering--that's what
shift-login will test without. I don't see how admin privs or not is
relevant to that. And I would expect that you have the same menu utilities
on both machines. Unless you have no startup items at all--is is possible
to run a Mac like that?

You were wise to insist. After both a shift login and shift doubleclick
to start Word my procedure does not crash my Powerbook, but does crash
the Mac Pro.

I didn't expect that.
I have no common menu bar utilities between the Pro and the PB except
the .mac sync thing, bluetooth and spotlight. Shift login does not
inhibit them.

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

Note that I had but one contact in the offered list (me), because I
don't use any kind of Entourage or other contact apparatus from within
Office. I hate having all my eggs in such a rickety basket.

What total nonsense.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[Elliott Roper]

What total nonsense.

Perhaps I said it it with too much colour, but I can't have all my mail
(>20,00 items) in a closed proprietary database for which I have no
knowledge of the internal structure. I much prefer having individual
unix mailboxes with individual messages inside that I can back up and
use with any unix mail client. I like having my contact program
separate from my mail program. Apple could have done address book far
better than they did, but at least it will live through a mail
disaster, and can't possibly be affected by a Word disaster.
Remember how Entourage screwed up Word v.X autocorrect and the problem
was not fixed for over a year?

The idea of a monolithic Office is poor. What if this crasher in Word
we are talking about was scribbling over the closed format contact
database?

I am looking forward to Office having more open data structures in
future incarnations.

That's far from total nonsense surely?

 

[Simon Simpson]

First, thank you all for your posts, comments, and advice.

Sorry for the delay in responding, but us British folk have been
pushing out the zeds for the last few hours !

I am replying directly to Daiya's post (no.6).

I tried Shift/Opening Word and, low and behold, the problem goes away.
So, bearing in mind Daiya's suggestion of menu bar interference, I
noted that the Formatting Toolbar is not present. You know what I'm
going to say next. Re-introducing the Formatting Toolbar (after
Shift/Opening Word) reintroduces the problem.

So, it would appear, dear Word programmers, that you may have to do a
bit of re-programming here to prevent this happening in future. Daiya,
can you escalate this to Microsoft ?


In reply to Cyber Taz (post no.10), my experience concurs. It is only
trying to insert a contact in table cell that causes a problem.
Inserting directly into the text of a document, or into a text box or
column, causes no difficulties.

There is a work around, but a little clumsy. That is to create the
contact information in a place other than in a table cell and then copy
and paste it across - or, perhaps, temporarily dismiss the Formatting
Toolbar ?

My good wishes to you all.

 

[CyberTaz]

Here's an update from this end:

I am replying directly to Daiya's post (no.6).

I tried Shift/Opening Word and, low and behold, the problem goes away.
So, bearing in mind Daiya's suggestion of menu bar interference, I
noted that the Formatting Toolbar is not present. You know what I'm
going to say next. Re-introducing the Formatting Toolbar (after
Shift/Opening Word) reintroduces the problem.

How utterly incongruous! I've just confirmed that, Simon - and without using
Shift-Start. It appears that just having the Formatting TB turned OFF
resolves the problem. The Contact data inserts with no hesitation or crash.
In the same doc, same table, displaying the Formatting Toolbar & inserting
any contact flames the program.

So, it would appear, dear Word programmers, that you may have to do a
bit of re-programming here to prevent this happening in future. Daiya,
can you escalate this to Microsoft ?


In reply to Cyber Taz (post no.10), my experience concurs. It is only
trying to insert a contact in table cell that causes a problem.
Inserting directly into the text of a document, or into a text box or
column, causes no difficulties.

There is a work around, but a little clumsy. That is to create the
contact information in a place other than in a table cell and then copy
and paste it across - or, perhaps, temporarily dismiss the Formatting
Toolbar ?

Have you tried doing the insertions, then selecting the resulting "list" &
using Table>Convert>Convert Text to Table?

It also produces no error if you launch the Address Book & Insert from there
- regardless of whether the Formatting TB is displayed. I doubt this to be
acceptable if inserting multiple Contacts, though, as the Address Book
closes automatically after each insertion.

My good wishes to you all.

Thanks for the follow-up.

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

 

[Elliott Roper]

Here's an update from this end:


How utterly incongruous! I've just confirmed that, Simon - and without using
Shift-Start. It appears that just having the Formatting TB turned OFF
resolves the problem. The Contact data inserts with no hesitation or crash.
In the same doc, same table, displaying the Formatting Toolbar & inserting
any contact flames the program.

Mine still crashes without the formatting palette.
One thing I did notice was that after inserting the contact, the
insertion point moves to the beginning of the line after the table. If
I type a tab from there it crashes. If I reposition the insertion point
anywhere, even putting it back to where insert contact left it and then
type tab, it does not crash. (even a left right arrow sequence is
sufficient to save it from crashing)

I think in my earlier shift-start testing, the contact buttons were
inside a monster toolbar (I normally run with every toolbar off except
for one pixel of the most reduced formatting palette peeping shyly from
the corner of the screen (to work around a different misfeature)

Under those circumstances, the insertion point did not move to the
first line after the table after inserting a contact. I tried to
reproduce that by adding contact buttons to a custom toolbar but the
insertion point always strayed to the end.

In my very stylised test, the first line after the insertion point
contains nothing but the document's final paragraph mark.

Lets keep working on this. It would be good for the product's future
quality if we could send a 100% reproducible crasher back to MS.

 

[CyberTaz]

Mine still crashes without the formatting palette.
One thing I did notice was that after inserting the contact, the
insertion point moves to the beginning of the line after the table. If
I type a tab from there it crashes. If I reposition the insertion point
anywhere, even putting it back to where insert contact left it and then
type tab, it does not crash. (even a left right arrow sequence is
sufficient to save it from crashing)

I think in my earlier shift-start testing, the contact buttons were
inside a monster toolbar (I normally run with every toolbar off except
for one pixel of the most reduced formatting palette peeping shyly from
the corner of the screen (to work around a different misfeature)

Under those circumstances, the insertion point did not move to the
first line after the table after inserting a contact. I tried to
reproduce that by adding contact buttons to a custom toolbar but the
insertion point always strayed to the end.

In my very stylised test, the first line after the insertion point
contains nothing but the document's final paragraph mark.

Lets keep working on this. It would be good for the product's future
quality if we could send a 100% reproducible crasher back to MS.

Hi Elliott -

Just to clarify - we don't want to confuse the Laputians[*] - my results
involved the Formatting Toolbar rather than the Formatting Palette. The
Palette's presence seems to make no difference. Am I correct in my
understanding that you're experiencing the crash behavior even without the
Formatting TB displayed?

[*] Since Clive hasn't taken the bait on the other thread I thought I'd
contribute... didn't want you to be dissappointed ;-)

 

[Elliott Roper]

Hi Elliott -

Just to clarify - we don't want to confuse the Laputians[*] - my results
involved the Formatting Toolbar rather than the Formatting Palette. The
Palette's presence seems to make no difference. Am I correct in my
understanding that you're experiencing the crash behavior even without the
Formatting TB displayed?

That's right. I never have the formatting toolbar on screen. I was
confusing it with the palette in my descriptions.

[*] Since Clive hasn't taken the bait on the other thread I thought I'd
contribute... didn't want you to be dissappointed ;-)

It's a tough job. Somebody has to do it.

 

[Elliott Roper]

<[email protected]> wrote: <snip>

Hi Elliott -

Just to clarify - we don't want to confuse the Laputians[*] - my results
involved the Formatting Toolbar rather than the Formatting Palette. The
Palette's presence seems to make no difference. Am I correct in my
understanding that you're experiencing the crash behavior even without the
Formatting TB displayed?

That's right. I never have the formatting toolbar on screen. I was
confusing it with the palette in my descriptions.

No time to test now and risk a crash--but I certainly did not have the
formatting toolbar on during my other tests--I only use my custom toolbar.

[*] Since Clive hasn't taken the bait on the other thread I thought I'd
contribute... didn't want you to be dissappointed ;-)

It's a tough job. Somebody has to do it.

These literary references were totally over my head and I had to do some
googling--but CyberTaz, do you mean Lilliputians?

He should. I thought it would be churlish to fix his spelling, since he
was pinch hitting for Clive.

 

[CyberTaz]

<snip>

Hi Elliott -

Just to clarify - we don't want to confuse the Laputians[*] - my
results
involved the Formatting Toolbar rather than the Formatting Palette.
The
Palette's presence seems to make no difference. Am I correct in my
understanding that you're experiencing the crash behavior even without
the
Formatting TB displayed?

That's right. I never have the formatting toolbar on screen. I was
confusing it with the palette in my descriptions.

No time to test now and risk a crash--but I certainly did not have the
formatting toolbar on during my other tests--I only use my custom
toolbar.

[*] Since Clive hasn't taken the bait on the other thread I thought
I'd
contribute... didn't want you to be dissappointed ;-)
It's a tough job. Somebody has to do it.

These literary references were totally over my head and I had to do some
googling--but CyberTaz, do you mean Lilliputians?

He should. I thought it would be churlish to fix his spelling, since he
was pinch hitting for Clive.

First, let me make it perfectly clear that I aspire, by no means, to the
level of literary erudition attained by the likes of Misters Roper & Huggan,
but aye ken spel rite (sumthinks, aniwaze)/

Below is a capsulation of the 3rd journey which follows his return from
Brobdingnag:

"Next, Gulliver sets sail again and, after an attack by pirates, ends up in
Laputa, where a floating island inhabited by theoreticians and academics
oppresses the land below, called Balnibarbi. The scientific research
undertaken in Laputa and in Balnibarbi seems totally inane and impractical,
and its residents too appear wholly out of touch with reality. Taking a
short side trip to Glubbdubdrib, Gulliver is able to witness the conjuring
up of figures from history, such as Julius Caesar and other military
leaders, whom he finds much less impressive than in books. After visiting
the Luggnaggians and the Struldbrugs, the latter of which are senile
immortals who prove that age does not bring wisdom, he is able to sail to
Japan and from there back to England."

For more, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laputa

Although I've seen it's citizenry referenced both with & without the "i"
[|

 

[Elliott Roper]

On 11/14/06 6:06 AM, "Elliott Roper" wrote:
<snip>

Hi Elliott -

Just to clarify - we don't want to confuse the Laputians[*] - my
results
involved the Formatting Toolbar rather than the Formatting Palette.
The
Palette's presence seems to make no difference. Am I correct in my
understanding that you're experiencing the crash behavior even without
the
Formatting TB displayed?

That's right. I never have the formatting toolbar on screen. I was
confusing it with the palette in my descriptions.

No time to test now and risk a crash--but I certainly did not have the
formatting toolbar on during my other tests--I only use my custom
toolbar.

[*] Since Clive hasn't taken the bait on the other thread I thought
I'd
contribute... didn't want you to be dissappointed ;-)
It's a tough job. Somebody has to do it.

These literary references were totally over my head and I had to do some
googling--but CyberTaz, do you mean Lilliputians?

He should. I thought it would be churlish to fix his spelling, since he
was pinch hitting for Clive.

First, let me make it perfectly clear that I aspire, by no means, to the
level of literary erudition attained by the likes of Misters Roper & Huggan,
but aye ken spel rite (sumthinks, aniwaze)/

Below is a capsulation of the 3rd journey which follows his return from
Brobdingnag:

"Next, Gulliver sets sail again and, after an attack by pirates, ends up in
Laputa, where a floating island inhabited by theoreticians and academics
oppresses the land below, called Balnibarbi. The scientific research
undertaken in Laputa and in Balnibarbi seems totally inane and impractical,
and its residents too appear wholly out of touch with reality. Taking a
short side trip to Glubbdubdrib, Gulliver is able to witness the conjuring
up of figures from history, such as Julius Caesar and other military
leaders, whom he finds much less impressive than in books. After visiting
the Luggnaggians and the Struldbrugs, the latter of which are senile
immortals who prove that age does not bring wisdom, he is able to sail to
Japan and from there back to England."

Indeed, but it is during the first journey, to Lilliput where he
encounters the big-endian v little-endian egg opening wars with the
monarchs of Blefescu. (see 2 paras up from your quote in the same Wiki
article)
I'll confess to poor research in ascribing your error to spelling ;-)

Now. Where do we stand on making the perfect demo of this bug?
I can crash PPC and Intel machines with the same recipe.
You can beachball yours with a similar recipe, as can Simon.
Daiya can't crash or beachball hers at all.

Can you report where the insertion point ends up immediately after
inserting a table cell from contacts?

 

[CyberTaz]

As will I--I haven't read the book and didn't get the first reference *at
all.* The second one just made me think Gulliver's Travels, for some
reason.

Now I can. With the Formatting Toolbar (not palette) showing, I got a
beachball on Insert Contact and never ever got to tabbing or Include
Address. Office 11.2.6, OS 10.4.8, PPC G4.

Someone else can escalate the bug report, though.

At least we know a workaround.

Nowhere, as it beachballed. But previously, after the table, which is
something else that needs to be fixed.
--
Daiya Mitchell, MVP Mac/Word
Word FAQ: http://www.word.mvps.org/
MacWord Tips: <http://word.mvps.org/Mac/WordMacHome.html>
What's an MVP? A volunteer! Read the FAQ:

Oh, thank god!... I was afraid we were going to have to vote you off the
island ;-)

What she reports is the same as my results - there is no insertion point as
of the instant I insert the Contact. It simply evaporates & the program goes
into a coma. I can do nothing but switch to the Finder or another app in
order to access the Apple Menu & Force Quit (didn't play with it enough to
know whether the keystroke would work).

 

[Elliott Roper]

Oh, thank god!... I was afraid we were going to have to vote you off the
island ;-)

What she reports is the same as my results - there is no insertion point as
of the instant I insert the Contact. It simply evaporates & the program goes
into a coma. I can do nothing but switch to the Finder or another app in
order to access the Apple Menu & Force Quit (didn't play with it enough to
know whether the keystroke would work).

OK. I'll volunteer to escalate it. I'll write something up and drop it
on the MVP list.