MS Publisher 2003 irritatingly freezing all the time

[Yannick]

Hi everyone
I am running into a very frustrating issue with Publisher. I am a Publisher
first time user. I am running Win XP with Office 2003 on it.
I can open Publisher files (with some delay but that is not the real issue)
but whenever I try to edit it, for example, I double click on a text box to
edit it, the program freezes, sometimes it allows me in the text box after
about 5-10 minutes of freeze, sometimes it does not and I have to kill the
process from Task Manager.
I initially thought that the problem was that my file was too big, it is 245
MB. So I created another publisher file, copied one page from the previous
document to the new one (So basically I have a new publisher document with
ONE page). I double click on the text box to edit it, then the program
freezes again. I can tell you this is very frustrating.
ANY HELP would be welcome and very much appreciated.

Cheers

 

[Yannick]

By the way I forgot to add
I already tried disabling my video card acceleration and nothing changed at
all.

 

[Mary Sauer]

Did you check to see if there is a newer video/graphic driver available? Do you
have a default printer selected?

Right-click My Computer, Disconnect network drive...

 

[Yannick]

Hey Mary, thanks for replying
just in case, I downloaded and installed the latest driver for my graphic
card. I also disconnected all network drives, and it did not change anything.
stll having publisher freezing on me all the time.
Yes I do have a default printer ? do you mean I need to deselect all my
printers ? or is there a specific type of printer that I need to setup as
default ??

 

[Mary Sauer]

Sometimes Publisher will slow down if the printer driver isn't responding. Do
you have another printer installed? There are generic printers such as the Image
Writer or the Color PS for Commercial Printing you can install, they should be
on your computer. If you select a different printer in the Printer Folder does
Publisher run faster? You may need an updated driver.

It is always best to completely remove a driver before installing/reinstalling.
How to clean up printer drivers
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/CleanPrinterDrivers.htm

 

[Yannick]

Mary
the printer that is currently default is a printer that is working and I
print to it everyday. Do you mean that even though the printer is working,
Publisher will still act crazy t ? anyways I will try it right now and let
you know

Cheers

 

[Yannick]

I have the following printers installed :
- Adobe pdf (used for converting to pdf)
- Brother HL-6050N
-Canon iR C5185 ( this is the DEFault)
- Microsoft Image Writer
- Microsoft XPS Document Writer
- PostScript Files (actually and Apple LaserWriter 8500)

I changed the default printer several times between these printers with no
luck.

 

[Yannick]

One thing I have noticed is that, whenever I change the default driver,
Publisher is not taking it. I changed the default driver several times, and
when I open a publisher document and I go File->Print the default printer
shows "Adobe pdf".
I have verified with other programs like Word and Excel, and they recognize
the new default printers as I change it, but Publisher does not. what is up
with that.
I know at some point I disabled the aAdobe pdf plug-in in Publisher thinking
that it would solve the issue.

 

[Rob Giordano [MS MVP]]

Forget the original problem for now; create a simple document in Publisher
NOT using elements from the problem file and see if you can print that.



--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Giordano
Microsoft MVP Expression

 

[Yannick]

I tried and I can print that indeed. but the initial issue was not that I
could not print a Publisher document. the issue was that Publisher is
freezing on me every time I want to edit a text box. Then Mary suggested
that it could be caused by a malfunctoning printer driver.
if I create a document from scratch, yes I have no problem, I can edit the
text boxes fine. So could it be that something in my file corrupted it ? what
could cause a Publisher file to be corrupted ?

 

[Mary Sauer]

Do a "Detect and Repair" in the help menu. Do you have the third service pack
installed?
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...49-3E13-433B-B9D2-5E3C1132F206&displaylang=en

--
Mary Sauer
http://msauer.mvps.org/

One thing I have noticed is that, whenever I change the default driver,
Publisher is not taking it. I changed the default driver several times, and
when I open a publisher document and I go File->Print the default printer
shows "Adobe pdf".
I have verified with other programs like Word and Excel, and they recognize
the new default printers as I change it, but Publisher does not. what is up
with that.
I know at some point I disabled the aAdobe pdf plug-in in Publisher thinking
that it would solve the issue.

 

[Yannick]

Yes I had done "detect and repair" as I read it somewhere.
I also installed the SP3 for Office 2003
still getting the same result.

Do a "Detect and Repair" in the help menu. Do you have the third service pack
installed?
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...49-3E13-433B-B9D2-5E3C1132F206&displaylang=en

 

[Ed Bennett]

if I create a document from scratch, yes I have no problem, I can
edit the text boxes fine. So could it be that something in my file
corrupted it ?

That seems highly likely.

what could cause a Publisher file to be corrupted ?

Many things; try copying and pasting individual elements from the
original publication into the new publication until the problem rears
its head. Then you'll be able to copy all content over except for the
problem item, which you'll need to recreate.

 

[Yannick]

Hi
I was so frustrated that I went to see my IT department. they gave me the
2007 publisher version. Boy what a difference, nice and smooth, faster, more
stable. everyone out there on Publisher 2003, upgrade to Publisher 2007, it's
worth it.
My only problem now is that I have a lot of Visio 2003 document in my
publisher files. with Publisher 2003 I used to be able to double click on the
Visio diagram and it would allow me to modify it on the spot. with Publisher
2007, when I do that, it lets me into the diagram, but when I am done
modifying it and I come back to the Publisher file, it gives out an error and
publisher crashes and restarts with a blank page. what I am doing now is
copying the diagram, then pasting it to Visio 2003, do the modifications,
then copy it back to Publisher.

Cheers

Do a "Detect and Repair" in the help menu. Do you have the third service pack
installed?
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...49-3E13-433B-B9D2-5E3C1132F206&displaylang=en

 

[Yannick]

I think I spoke too soon. yesterday everything was fine. but today, back to
exactly what Publisher 2003 used to behave. unable to click in a text box to
edit it. The only difference is that at least with Publisher 2007 I can still
move from page to page, but as soon as I try to modify a text box, I get
locked up. freezing all the time. I don't know what to think anymore of this
Microsoft software !!!!!!

 

[Mary Sauer]

It is not the software. Do a disk clean-up. Right-click the hard drive,
properties, click disk clean up. I'd keep my Office setup files. It may take a
few minutes to populate. How much RAM do you have? Have you thought about
increasing your virtual memory? (Swap file) Does your hard drive have plenty of
free space?
Also be sure you *Disconnect Network drive* when you right click My Computer.

 

[Yannick]

HURRAY
I finally fixed it for good. after countless hours of troubleshooting and
trying weird stuff, I noticed that my master page had several pictures that
were not grouped together. I actually did not think that it could be a
problem, but just to try I grouped all the different objects together, and I
can tell you, after that, my file has been lightning fast.
Another thing that I noticed is that my file size changed dramatically after
I did that. my file was 270MB before I grouped all the objects in my master
page, and it dropped to 160MB after I did that. I guess it is normal since I
have grouped objects into one for many pages.
So I am thinking, why is it that I had to group objects together in my
master page for it to work, it should be left to people's choice to decide if
they want to group or ungroup the objects anywhere in a document (is it a bug
maybe ? ).
Anyways everything works fine for me now, thanks a lot for all your
suggestions !!!

CHEERS