Page contents disappearing - Normal?

[Jeff Wiseman]

I'm new in the newsgroup so if there is a FAQ for this, please
let me know where it is, Thanks!

Running Office 2004 on Mac OS 10.3.6. When using Word, I
typically set up my view to see most of a page. Occasionally,
part of an adjoining page will be seen and then the contents on
the page will disappear. I though at first that Ihad accidentally
inserted two page breaks instead of one but then I noticed that
it was actually the text on the page that was missing.

Through experimenting I discovered that the text was still there
but just invisible. If I scrolled down far enough that the page
was totally off of the screen and then scrolled back, it would
seem to "fix" it for a while (i.e., you could see the text on the
page whenever you would go there).

Is this a normal bahavior for Word? From all the other bugs and
side effects I've seen in MS software, it wouldn't surprise me
but I do want to make sure that it isn't just my installation.
Has anyone else seen this?

- Jeff

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Jeff-

I haven't had this problem with Word '04, but that is a possibility.
Another is that there is a system problem that is preventing screen
refresh from occuring as it should.

What type of system, how much RAM, other detail?

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Jeff,

I'm not familiar with this issue, so I can't advise specifically on what is
going on. It's probably worth renaming your Normal template to see if
that's at fault. You'll find instructions for that here:
<http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/MacWordNormal.htm>
(If using Safari, hit Refresh once or twice; or use another browser for this
site.)

For much more on using Word, explore the site that hosts the above article.
The URL for its home page is in my signature. Another useful site for
specific tips on using Office is here:
<http://www.mcgimpsey.com/index.html>. You'll also find a lot of
information on Microsoft's Mactopia.com.

And stick around this newsgroup! There are plenty of knowledgeable users
who contribute regularly.

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>

 

[Jeff Wiseman]

Hi Jeff-

I haven't had this problem with Word '04, but that is a possibility.
Another is that there is a system problem that is preventing screen
refresh from occuring as it should.

What type of system, how much RAM, other detail?

G5 iMac bluetooth running OS 10.3.6 and Office 2004 with current
upgrades (Word 11.1 I believe). 1.5Gbyte Ram

Was just playing around with a Resume that I had produced on
another PC at one time. I had inserted a page break before one
paragraph to start it at the top of the next page. I later tried
to remove it, thinking I was still in AppleWorks I tried to
delete backward over the "newpage" character which triggered the
condition of a blank page between two visible ones. When I
realized that the text had not just been paged out one more page
(i.e., the text on the blank page was invisible) I sortof paniced
since I had been working on that text for a while.

Eventually, I discovered that if I scrolled the blank page far
enough that it disappeared from the window entirely, when I
scrolled back, the text had reappeared.

As far as refresh goes, I could have the blank page, the bottom
of the previous one and the top of the next one showing their
appropriate text and the middle page blank. I suppose that if
refresh is done on a page basis, that might be a plausible problem.

Anyway, I'm real new to this tool and I need to learn Word much
better than I now know it, this is why I purchased myself a copy.
I've only seen this problem once but it freaked me out and has
now further added to my distrust of anything Microsoft.

- Jeff

 

[Jeff Wiseman]

Hi Jeff,

I'm not familiar with this issue, so I can't advise specifically on what is
going on. It's probably worth renaming your Normal template to see if
that's at fault. You'll find instructions for that here:
<http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/MacWordNormal.htm>
(If using Safari, hit Refresh once or twice; or use another browser for this
site.)

For much more on using Word, explore the site that hosts the above article.
The URL for its home page is in my signature. Another useful site for
specific tips on using Office is here:
<http://www.mcgimpsey.com/index.html>. You'll also find a lot of
information on Microsoft's Mactopia.com.

And stick around this newsgroup! There are plenty of knowledgeable users
who contribute regularly.

I have already noticed that! Thanks for the references. BTW, I
did not generate the document in question from scratch, it is an
evolved document that was generated on a PC about 3 years ago (my
resume It has been on a coupld of machines and has been
cloned two or three times. Could it have potential corruptions in
it? If so, would creating a new blank document and just
copy/pasting the text from the original document be a useful
test? I.e., is this a possible way to isolate your content from
possible document corruptions?

Thanks again for the info!

- Jeff

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I have already noticed that! Thanks for the references. BTW, I

did not generate the document in question from scratch, it is an
evolved document that was generated on a PC about 3 years ago (my
resume It has been on a coupld of machines and has been
cloned two or three times. Could it have potential corruptions in
it? If so, would creating a new blank document and just
copy/pasting the text from the original document be a useful
test? I.e., is this a possible way to isolate your content from
possible document corruptions?

Yes, but you have to copy/paste *without* the last paragraph mark (click ¶
on standard toolbar to show grey paragraph marks). That and other
corruption-fixing tricks are listed here.

http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/DocumentCorruption.htm
(hit reload a few times in Safari, if that doesn't work, try Explorer)

I have noticed screen refresh issues in Word 2004, but not the particular
one you mention, I don't think.

Do you recall if you were in Normal view (no margins showing) or Page Layout
View (margins and extra space around doc) when it happened?

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Jeff,

Yes, it's very possible, even likely after all this time, that the resume
doc has become corrupted. Copying all of the document and pasting into a
new one will NOT do it. You need to copy all EXCEPT the very last paragraph
mark and then paste. There are other options as well for "uncorrupting"
documents. See here:
<http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/DocumentCorruption.htm> (if using Safari,
hit Refresh once or twice; better yet, use another browser).

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>

 

[Jeff Wiseman]

Yes, but you have to copy/paste *without* the last paragraph mark (click ¶
on standard toolbar to show grey paragraph marks). That and other
corruption-fixing tricks are listed here.

http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/DocumentCorruption.htm
(hit reload a few times in Safari, if that doesn't work, try Explorer)

I have noticed screen refresh issues in Word 2004, but not the particular
one you mention, I don't think.

Do you recall if you were in Normal view (no margins showing) or Page Layout
View (margins and extra space around doc) when it happened?

It was in Page Layout view. I have just learned about the fact
that rendering is more simplified in the Normal view. I will
likely be trying that more frequently.

- JEff

 

[Jeff Wiseman]

Hi Jeff,

Yes, it's very possible, even likely after all this time, that the resume
doc has become corrupted. Copying all of the document and pasting into a
new one will NOT do it. You need to copy all EXCEPT the very last paragraph
mark and then paste. There are other options as well for "uncorrupting"
documents. See here:
<http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/DocumentCorruption.htm> (if using Safari,
hit Refresh once or twice; better yet, use another browser).

Great references, Thanks all!

- Jeff

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Do you recall if you were in Normal view (no margins showing) or Page Layout

It was in Page Layout view. I have just learned about the fact
that rendering is more simplified in the Normal view. I will
likely be trying that more frequently.

Word has to work harder to do Page Layout view, so if screen refresh issues
are due to temporary memory overload, it is logical to get more of them in
Page Layout than in Normal View. That's why Normal View is faster/better
for long documents. But I've seen screen refresh difficulties in Normal
View as well--usually the Find dialog get chopped in pieces and stuck
somewhere, and scrolling up and down fixes it.

DM

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

It's a "usual" behaviour for Word.

It's a side-effect of a power-saving feature.

Pagination is a separate thread that runs continuously in the background and
stays out of your way when you are typing. This speeds up Word's response
to keystrokes.

Word will come back and complete the pagination eventually. That operation
is triggered when it notices you have made an editing change that affects
the displayed area. But it doesn't always work right.

Knowing that it does this, you can handle it two ways:

1) Page back two screenfuls and come forward

2) Flip into Normal View and back to Page Layout View.

Either will force a repagination and your display will come right.

If this happens frequently in a document, it's a sign that your document
internal structure has become extremely complex, and Word is starting to
drop stitches in its knitting.

A "Pre-emptive Maggie" is a good idea in that case. A "Maggie" is when you
copy all except the last paragraph mark into a new blank document and save
to a new file name. It causes Word to completely rebuild the internal
structure of the document, removing the corruptions that have begun to
occur. You will avoid the crash that's just about to happen

Hope this helps

I'm new in the newsgroup so if there is a FAQ for this, please
let me know where it is, Thanks!

Running Office 2004 on Mac OS 10.3.6. When using Word, I
typically set up my view to see most of a page. Occasionally,
part of an adjoining page will be seen and then the contents on
the page will disappear. I though at first that Ihad accidentally
inserted two page breaks instead of one but then I noticed that
it was actually the text on the page that was missing.

Through experimenting I discovered that the text was still there
but just invisible. If I scrolled down far enough that the page
was totally off of the screen and then scrolled back, it would
seem to "fix" it for a while (i.e., you could see the text on the
page whenever you would go there).

Is this a normal bahavior for Word? From all the other bugs and
side effects I've seen in MS software, it wouldn't surprise me
but I do want to make sure that it isn't just my installation.
Has anyone else seen this?

- Jeff

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410