"Out of memory" error in Word 2004 opening Windows .rtf file

[tharpold]

Background to the problem: I created a moderately-long document on my
Mac (G4, OS X 10.4.8) in Word 2004 (11.3). The document, about 50
pages,includes no images, several simple tables (a few columns and
rows, no nested tables, etc), and about a dozen defined paragraph
styles.

I transferred this to a colleague, who edited it on her Windows (XP),
with Word -- not sure of version, but it should be current. She then
sent it back to me, also as an .rtf file.

I am now unable to open the file in Word 2004: every time I try to do
so, I receive an "out of memory" error.

The file can be opened in other .rtf-capable applications. However
those appear to eat the styles -- the text is correctly-formatted, but
all the paragraph styles are missing. Only Word seems not to be able to
open it at all.

Has anyone else here seen this problem? Any suggestions re how to
rectify it?

TH

 

[Elliott Roper]

Background to the problem: I created a moderately-long document on my
Mac (G4, OS X 10.4.8) in Word 2004 (11.3). The document, about 50
pages,includes no images, several simple tables (a few columns and
rows, no nested tables, etc), and about a dozen defined paragraph
styles.

I transferred this to a colleague, who edited it on her Windows (XP),
with Word -- not sure of version, but it should be current. She then
sent it back to me, also as an .rtf file.

I am now unable to open the file in Word 2004: every time I try to do
so, I receive an "out of memory" error.

The file can be opened in other .rtf-capable applications. However
those appear to eat the styles -- the text is correctly-formatted, but
all the paragraph styles are missing. Only Word seems not to be able to
open it at all.

Has anyone else here seen this problem? Any suggestions re how to
rectify it?

For a first pass, forget about using rtf to transfer your work. You
should be able to read one another's Word .doc files just fine.

Word has been known to report various lack of resource issues as being
a shortage of memory. You might be hitting some idiocy like not being
able to see something in her Active Directory that you don't have to
see.

If exchanging .doc instead of .rtf files does not clear this up, ask
again. One of the magic spells for saving as html might work. I don't
know enough about Word on the PC side to walk you through that, but
others here do.

 

[CyberTaz]

Hello TH -

The message is _usually_ misleading. It isn't the same as an "insufficient
memory" error, but typically indicates that the program is attempting to
locate something it can't find (because that 'something' is "out of [i.e.,
'not in'] memory").

Not to chastise, but Why RTF in the first place? I'm sure someone {like John
McGhie} will be along with more explicit technical insights, but suffice it
to say that you're basically going from A to B to C then back to A... Next,
your colleague is reversing the the process. Something is bound to get
tangled in the translations.

Word's native file format, OTOH, is the same on PC & Mac, whereas RTF is
*not* - Have her save as a regular Word file, zip a copy & email (I assume)
it to you. You should find everything to be in order - especially if the doc
is as straightforward as you say. Continue to work back & forth for as long
as necessary, but stay with .doc (and append the extension on your end).

Out of curiosity, though, are you attempting to open by dbl+click or using
File>Open from within Word? If not the latter, try that & see if it makes a
difference.

 

[tharpold]

The message is _usually_ misleading. It isn't the same as an "insufficient

memory" error, but typically indicates that the program is attempting to
locate something it can't find (because that 'something' is "out of [i.e.,
'not in'] memory").

Then, perhaps she did something silly like pasting something into the
document that her copy of Word treats as a reference to a resource on
her computer, another file, or the like? I will ask her to send me the
file in .doc format, but would that still clear up the out-of-place
reference?

Not to chastise, but Why RTF in the first place? I'm sure someone {like John
McGhie} will be along with more explicit technical insights, but suffice it
to say that you're basically going from A to B to C then back to A... Next,
your colleague is reversing the the process. Something is bound to get
tangled in the translations.

I'm a professor in an academic department with a wide mix of OSes (Mac
OS, Windows of several versions, UNIX), word processing applications
(pretty much everything), and, I'm sorry to say, *widely* varying
levels of technical expertise.

RTF was decided upon as the best solution to deal with the tendency of
faculty and staff to unthinkingly send off files in one-or-another
format that cannot be read by another person's computer, causing all
sorts of delays and misunderstandings. I know that she is using Word,
but we've exchanged documents in .rtf because that's the policy --
which has, oddly, worked perfectly well for me for several years until
now,

Out of curiosity, though, are you attempting to open by dbl+click or using
File>Open from within Word? If not the latter, try that & see if it makes a
difference.

File>Open produces the same error.

TH