Parts of File Which Disappear

[PaulG]

(MS Word 2003)

I am working on a file (approx 100 pages long). When this file is closed and
reopened for further editing I only find the first 18 pages. This has
happened suddenly - until a few minutes ago all was OK. This also happens
when I open the corresponding .wkb files.

When I checked Windows Explorer I found the the file size did not change and
when I opened the file with another package which reads MSWord I saw all the
pages.

Luckily I was Saving As rather than just Saving so I have a fully visible
file to work on BUT at one point I will have to close all the files to work
on something.

Has anyone faced this problem and solved it?

Paul

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Try copying and pasting everything except the last paragraph mark in the
document into a new document.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide




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This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
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[PaulG]

Hi Charles

I tried the Copy&Paste option but it did not work. Do you think that this is
a corruption? How can a corruption occur, when the copies of the file which I
was not using are affected? I always make multiple copies as I go along. In
this case however I could not use a previous copy as all the previous copies
(which were not opened or edited) are affected.

Paul

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Are you working with removable media? (Floppy disk, memory stick, CDR)

When you say "but it did not work," what, specifically, did not work? You
need to be opening the version which has all your pages.

Are you using the Master Document "feature?"
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm
--

Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide


--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[PaulG]

No I'm working directly on the HD. No I never use the Master Document feature.

As I work, I normally Save As the current file in order to have backups to
fall back to when I get a corruption. HOWEVER, this time, ALL my backups
(both .doc and .wbk files) were corrupted except the .doc file which happened
to be Open when the 'corruption' occurred.

I then Saved As my open uncorrupted file. When I re-opened the newly closed
file, it was also 'corrupted' - that is it appears with 16 visible pages of
the 100 ones in the file. The file size never changes though, and when I open
a 'corrupted file' with another package (which can read MS Word) I manage to
see all the pages.

This is what I find most puzzling! Why did the 'corruption' not affect the
Open file but the closed and untouched ones only? and why does the corruption
affect newly closed files (after a Save As) and not the Open file?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Are you in Print Layout view? Are you viewing nonprinting characters? If the
answer to either is no, then it's possible there is material there that you
are not seeing because it has inadvertently become formatted as Hidden text.
Or a table could have become wrapped (by being slightly dislodged), so that
it no longer breaks to the next page and instead extends off the first page
(in this case you'll actually see the entire table in Normal view but not in
Print Layout). Text in text boxes is not visible unless you have "Drawings"
displayed (and never visible at all in Normal view). So there are a number
of intriguing possibilities that would be a matter of display options rather
than actual file content, and those would also explain why files that were
closed would also be affected (since they would be opened in the same view).

 

[PaulG]

Suzanne

This is absolutely incredible. I switched to Normal View and saw all the
pages! For some reason, the status bar says that there are only 16 pages and
identifies all the pages after page 16, as 16/16.

I have looked at the displayed pages closely but I cannot see anything
unusual. If I do I shall report what I see.

Thanks

Paul

 

[PaulG]

Suzanne

I have found the following:

Of the 16 visible pages, the 16th page was blank.

This page contains two tables into one cell of each of which I had inserted
an organisation chart.

Everything came back to normal (on both Print Layout and Normal views) after
I tried Tools>Options>View and turned off Print and Web Layout
options>Drawings

I still do not know what caused this sudden change.

But thanks to your advice a solution was found.

Regards

Paul

 

[Beth Melton]

It could be a columns issue - we've seen this before but it's
difficult to duplicate. Go to Format/Columns and in the Presets, click
"One" (even if one column is reflected) and see if you can now view
all of your document in Print Layout view.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

It sounds as if you may have gotten a big chunk of something into a table
that perhaps shouldn't be in a table, and possibly the table has gotten
wrapped (wrapped objects, which are in the drawing layer, can't exceed one
page). Another thing that causes stuff to disappear like this is have the
number of newspaper-style columns set to more than 1, the "Equal column
width" box not checked, and the width of column 1 set to the margin width;
everything else gets squeezed into columns that have no width, and so they
disappear or cause the document to be infinitely long, or something.

 

[PaulG]

I have tried the following and I also got positive reults:

This time I turned on Print and Web Layout options>Drawings in
Tools>Options>View.
Then I went to the tables containing the organisation charts and carried out
the following: Table>Select>Table followed by Table
Properties...>Cell>Options and turned off Options>Wrap text.

Paul