Bob is being too modest: he IS an expert in this area, and so am I
* The signs from that document are quite clear: you have very definitely
got a corrupt document there. I will make some suggestions to fix it in a
moment.
* Bob is quite correct: re-installing Mac Office will only keep the
existing problem and give you another problem as well. Anything that goes
wrong with Mac Office hurts the files YOU create, not the files Microsoft or
Apple creates. So a re-installation never replaces them.
* If you think your installation of Office is corrupt, you must run the
Office Remover tool first, to remove the bad files, before attempting a
re-installation. I would be surprised if you ever have to do this in the
life of your computer. If you do, by all means come back here and we will
be happy to talk you through the steps involved
Now: The problem with that document is nothing to do with the length, or
the number of pages. The limits of a Word document are about 5,500 pages
and 2.2 gigabytes file size. If you are under those limits, size is not
your problem.
What has happened is that one of the internal code structures in the
document has become unreadable (and therefore, un-writeable, which is why
your attempts to fix it have thus far failed). These code structures are
all held within the paragraph marks.
A Paragraph Mark is not a "character", it actually does not even exist in
the document, what we see is simply a flagpole displayed by Word to show us
where each paragraph ends.
The actual formatting properties for each thing in a document are stored in
a complex table of numbers at the bottom end of the document. The Paragraph
Mark contains the pointer that shows which row in the table is in use for
that paragraph. The corruption normally happens in the row in the table at
the bottom of the document.
I've said all that so you understand what is happening as you read the rest
of this. In the case of your document, sadly it's likely to be an unusual
case. In your document, the corruption is potentially either at the bottom
of the document, or in the bad paragraph itself.
Here is how to proceed:
1) Open your document
2) Use File>Save As to save the document as a "Web Page". Warning: Do not
be tempted to save as "Web Page (Filtered)" or to use any code-cleaning
application such as DreamWeaver to remove parts of the HTML. If you do, you
will remove the information that will enable Word to read the thing back in
as a document.
3) Quit Word (this cleans out the memory).
4) Re-open the web page version of the document.
5) Use File>Save As to re-save the file back as a Document. Warning: Do
not save over the top of the previous document, you may not cure this at the
first attempt, you may need to go back to the original and start again
If we get lucky, the document will now be fixed!
If it is not (and you will know immediately, your problem will come back...)
then proceed as below:
A) Copy all of the text in the document EXCEPT the very last paragraph mark
in the document.
B) Close the original document.
C) Create a new blank document.
D) Paste into the new document and save with a new name. Warning: do NOT
overwrite the original!!
Sadly, if the first process did not work, the second one has little
likelihood of succeeding either: The first one causes Word to re-write the
bad table, the second causes Word to re-create the bad table. If the
problem is not in the table, neither will cure it and we have to get
serious...
* Locate your Normal template and re-name it as described here:
http://word.mvps.org/mac/MacWordNormal.html
Now repeat process A to D above.
From the indications you are getting, there is unfortunately a possibility
that you have the rarest of all cases, "one or more bad paragraphs". In
which case, you need to perform this last procedure: (Read the whole thing
first, there's a shortcut at the end...)
One) Open the original document.
Two) Save the top half as "Part 1" and the Bottom half as "Part 2".
Three) Try both documents. One will have the problem, one will not. The
one with the problem contains the bad paragraph!
Four) Save the BAD document in two halves, as described in steps one to
three.
There is a possibility that you have more than one bad paragraph. If not,
again, the problem will be in one half but not the other.
This process is known as a "Binary Search". Each time you save, you split
the bad half in two. The halves rapidly get smaller and smaller until
ultimately, the bad document contains only one paragraph. "Gotcha, you
little varmint!!!" That's your bad paragraph!
Re-open your original document and DELETE just that bad paragraph. Follow
steps A to D to create a new document.
Now, TYPE the bad paragraph into the correct position in the new document.
Warning: Do NOT be tempted to copy any part of it. If you copy it, you
will copy the problem in, and get to start all over again at the top of the
process!
Shortcut: What *I* would do is this:
AA) Open the original document
BB) Save the entire document as Plain Text Only. Plain text format will
not store advanced properties, so it automatically removes the corruption.
CC) Quit Word (to clean out the memory)
DD) Open the Text Only Version in Word
EE) Use styles to rapidly re-apply the formatting.
As a Technical Writer, my copy of Word is set up to use only styles for
formatting, and I have lots of macros to make applying those styles rapid.
I can completely reformat a document from plain text at 40 pages a minute or
thereabouts.
So the shortcut process is much faster for me. If you are using direct
formatting, without using styles, sadly you will have to do it the hard way:
reformatting will take you forever.
There you go: ONE of these methods will fix it for you. Promise!!
Cheers
Hope someone can help. I was emailed a word document from a PC
running Microsoft Vista. I then used this document to type in extra
notes. After about 60 pages the document would just close after I got
to page 19. Since then every time I start a new word document the
wavy lines for spelling and grammar mistakes do not show, even though
they are ticked to show and the spelling and grammar check states that
it is complete. The Compatibility Report states that 'word cannot
identify the text language. When I have highlighted the text and go
into tools>language>English UK, click default and yes, then I get wavy
lines and the spelling and grammar check appears to work. Do I have a
corruption problem to what? Will I have to do a custom install of
Word for Mac to overcome the issues? I cannot find how to find the
default language of Word. I appear to have to ope a document first,
do some typing, highlight and then change the default to English UK.
I have never used templates and nobody I know uses them either.
hb
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John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:
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