Odd character <SP> appearing in headers (prior threads noted)

[Hank Roberts]

Google locks threads so I"m just posting this as a continuation.

Prior but now locked threads HERE (and there are others as well):

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...read/thread/c7424df8c6407741#2d39fe4b00d09787
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...eebf3668f97?lnk=gst&q="<sp>"#9c9f3eebf3668f97

We're still seeing the problem show up, I suspect it spreads like
other document corruption with copy and paste and reuse of documents,
though that's just a paranoid thought.

If anyone knows how to do a literal search to find <SP> but not sp
and SP -- in Google, or in Firefox page searches --- I'd be grateful.
This problem is mentioned a lot but awful hard to search for without
reading an enormous number of false positive results and filtering
them with meatware.

I've emailed the same question to the Word MVPs, hoping to see
something show up on their site eventually if it keeps occurring.

 

[Hank Roberts]

To clarify, it's something that _looks_like_ <SP? but behaves
strangely.
We know (see prior threads) that <SP> means "space" -- that's not the
reason for the several threads.

Summing up, quoting myself from the last prior thread:

It looks like <sp>
It's a single thing, hilights as a unit.
It can't be deleted by hilighting and hitting delete or backspace
It can be copied and pasted
It shows up somehow attached to images in headers
It shows up sporadically in the middle of runs of carriage returns
used by, well, users, to format pages
It shows up once in a while along with the last paragraph mark in a
document

If it's in the middle of a run of carriage returns and I select
several on either side of the weird <sp> thing, it will cut out.

If it's attached to an image, it can't be cut without losing the
image.

AND, quoting Tony from the prior thread(s):


Tony Jollans
View profile
This is an issue I have seen reported a couple of times. The <sp>
appears to be a backspace character (ascii 8) that has somehow got
fixed in the document. IIRC it is awkward but not impossible to
delete. I have never managed to reproduce the problem myself. If you
can consistently do so, I would be very interested to know how. --
message -
Hide quoted text -- Show quoted text ->I would like to know what it
means. We are having the same issue here. > "JoAnn Paules" wrote: >>
Do you want to know what it means or what? >> -- >> JoAnn Paules >>
MVP Microsoft [Publisher] >> ~~~~~ >> How to ask a question >>
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375 >> "Hank Roberts"
(e-mail address removed)... >> > Just checking --
threads >> > here mentioning it including mine.
More options Feb 21, 4:43 pm
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.word.docmanagement
From: "Tony Jollans" <My forename at my surname dot com>
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:43:33 -0000
....
This is an issue I have seen reported a couple of times. The <sp>
appears to
be a backspace character (ascii 8) that has somehow got fixed in the
document. IIRC it is awkward but not impossible to delete.

I have never managed to reproduce the problem myself. If you can
consistently do so, I would be very interested to know how.

----------end summary ----

This thread's here to collect new ideas, as long as Google leaves it
open.
I sure wish I could use a real newsreader at the office (sigh).

 

[Tony Jollans]

To add to my earler comments, the backspace (ascii 8) character is used as
a placeholder for a graphic so, perhaps, the actual graphic has somehow got
corrupted or deleted.

Although I have seen some reports of this it is pretty rare - one every few
months or so, and I really would be interested to see a sample document if
you have one that isn't confidential.

On the other hand, I seem to remember someone saying it happened for an
individual user so maybe it isn't document-related; if so, a guess could be
some corruption in the Word Data key?

--
Enjoy,
Tony

To clarify, it's something that _looks_like_ <SP? but behaves
strangely.
We know (see prior threads) that <SP> means "space" -- that's not the
reason for the several threads.

Summing up, quoting myself from the last prior thread:

It looks like <sp>
It's a single thing, hilights as a unit.
It can't be deleted by hilighting and hitting delete or backspace
It can be copied and pasted
It shows up somehow attached to images in headers
It shows up sporadically in the middle of runs of carriage returns
used by, well, users, to format pages
It shows up once in a while along with the last paragraph mark in a
document

If it's in the middle of a run of carriage returns and I select
several on either side of the weird <sp> thing, it will cut out.

If it's attached to an image, it can't be cut without losing the
image.

AND, quoting Tony from the prior thread(s):


Tony Jollans
View profile
This is an issue I have seen reported a couple of times. The <sp>
appears to be a backspace character (ascii 8) that has somehow got
fixed in the document. IIRC it is awkward but not impossible to
delete. I have never managed to reproduce the problem myself. If you
can consistently do so, I would be very interested to know how. --
message -
Hide quoted text -- Show quoted text ->I would like to know what it
means. We are having the same issue here. > "JoAnn Paules" wrote: >>
Do you want to know what it means or what? >> -- >> JoAnn Paules >>
MVP Microsoft [Publisher] >> ~~~~~ >> How to ask a question >>
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375 >> "Hank Roberts"
(e-mail address removed)... >> > Just checking --
threads >> > here mentioning it including mine.
More options Feb 21, 4:43 pm
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.word.docmanagement
From: "Tony Jollans" <My forename at my surname dot com>
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:43:33 -0000
...
This is an issue I have seen reported a couple of times. The <sp>
appears to
be a backspace character (ascii 8) that has somehow got fixed in the
document. IIRC it is awkward but not impossible to delete.

I have never managed to reproduce the problem myself. If you can
consistently do so, I would be very interested to know how.

----------end summary ----

This thread's here to collect new ideas, as long as Google leaves it
open.
I sure wish I could use a real newsreader at the office (sigh).

 

[Hank Roberts]

This was in an earlier thread:


Andrew Tate wrote
Apr 6 2006, 6:08 pm
....
I have solved the problem by the renaming the folder in the registry

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Data