Opening .doc in compatibility mode

[Gregg Hill]

Hello!

I have a strange Word 2007 problem. I had someone send an employee handbook
created in Word 2007 but saved in 97-2003 format. When I open it in Word
2007, the pages are all screwed up with different fonts and different
layout. Also, the page count in the lower-left corner keeps increasing. A
91-page document got as high as 15,000+ pages before I closed Word. It
happens on any computer running Word 2007. Opening the same doc in Word 2003
shows the same messed up page layout, but the page count does not go
haywire.

Does anyone know why page layout would change so drastically or why the page
count keeps increasing? The word count remains at 24, 524, but word count
goes bonkers.

Thank you for your help!

Gregg Hill
--

Apostrophes: when in doubt, leave them out! You will be correct more often
than not.

Its = Belonging to it. For example, "Look at the sky. Its color is blue."
It's = It is. For example, "It's hot today."
It's = It has. For example, "It's been nice talking to you."
Its' = completely incorrect usage. Stop it!

 

[Terry Farrell]

Sounds like a partially corrupt document. Have you tried the Open and
Rep[air option?

 

[Beth Melton]

Along with using Open and Repair as Terry suggested, anytime you encounter
infinite pagination then does your document include graphics or embedded
objects? If so then that could be a cause of your problem. I don't
necessarily have a lot of specifics on this, but from what I can gather it
has to do with the paragraph the object is anchored to. Word is attempting
to keep the paragraph on the page, and since the object is also anchored to
the paragraph it's trying to keep it on the page, so it goes to the next
page, and tries the same and fails again, so it goes into a continuous
repagination loop. It may have to do with the Keep Lines Together Property
or it could be one paragraph is spanning multiple pages and the object is
looking for a paragraph mark to anchor to, and cannot find it, because no
paragraph either begins or ends on that page.

If you encounter this issue sometimes installing another printer driver,
setting it as the default, and then reopening the document. You don't need
to have a physical printer in order to install the driver. If you currently
have a laser jet set as the default then install an inkjet driver or
vice-versa since they have different printable areas and it could be enough
to prevent the pagination issue and make the necessary corrections to the
document.

~Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I have a vague memory, too, that it has to do with graphics in the header
anchored to text inside a table (this can be solved by moving the anchor to
the empty paragraph below the table). And in one previous NG exchange the OP
found that removing a table from the header solved the problem. Jay Freedman
replied, "I have seen this before with tables in headers or footers combined
with page numbers in frames (as created by Insert > Page Numbers). If the
table width is just a little too much, Word can't seem to make up its mind
how to arrange the two conflicting elements."

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Gregg Hill]

Thank you for all of your responses. I will look into it and let you know
the results.

Gregg Hill