Peculiar document corruption

[WJ Shack]

Mac OS X 10.4.5 Word 11.2


Documents become corrupted in a peculiar way when I work on them on my Mac.
If I start with a uncorrupted document and work on it for a while, I find
that all the entries in my Autotext and all the addresses in my Entourage
address book end up as Styles. This makes my list of Styles very long and
makes it very difficult to choose a style from a list by scrolling. The
address book entries are all the same format, the autotext entries again all
have the same format, but a different one from the address book entries.
Since I have keystrokes or toolbar buttons defined for my most common
styles, it is not totally unworkable, but obviously not good.

A new document will start out fine. I haven't figured out what operation I
do that trigger the problem. The corrupted document isn't unstable. Unless
one opens the Style list, there is no sign of a problem.

I have "Exclude Contacts" checked in my autotext, and my Entourage address
book doesn't multiply in my autotext as it did in the earlier version of
Word for OS X. The entries do multiply in the style list though, some
addresses will have many styles designated by a number after their name.

Any suggestions, has anybody else observed this happening?

 

[WJ Shack]

Update: the problem seems to occur only when I am working with track changes
on.

Mac OS X 10.4.5 Word 11.2

Documents become corrupted in a peculiar way when I work on them on my Mac.
If I start with a uncorrupted document and work on it for a while, I find
that all the entries in my Autotext and all the addresses in my Entourage
address book end up as Styles. This makes my list of Styles very long and
makes it very difficult to choose a style from a list by scrolling. The
address book entries are all the same format, the autotext entries again all
have the same format, but a different one from the address book entries.
Since I have keystrokes or toolbar buttons defined for my most common
styles, it is not totally unworkable, but obviously not good.

A new document will start out fine. I haven't figured out what operation I
do that trigger the problem. The corrupted document isn't unstable. Unless
one opens the Style list, there is no sign of a problem.

I have "Exclude Contacts" checked in my autotext, and my Entourage address
book doesn't multiply in my autotext as it did in the earlier version of
Word for OS X. The entries do multiply in the style list though, some
addresses will have many styles designated by a number after their name.

Any suggestions, has anybody else observed this happening?

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi WJ,

Not sure I understand exactly what's happening but it definitely sounds
weird. The only thing I can offer is this:

Quit Word. Navigate to your Normal template in the Microsoft User Documents
(MUD) folder. Rename it (for instance to OldNormal). Relaunch Word so it
creates a new "virgin" Normal.

Try again with a new, blank document. If the problem disappears, you had a
corrupt Normal template. You can recover many of your customizations from
OldNormal using the Organizer. See here for more:
<http://word.mvps.org/Mac/MacWordNormal.html>

If that doesn't work, one of the other troubleshooting procedures at the URL
below probably will. Besides a corrupt Normal template, the other very
common culprit is corrupt preferences, so check that next.

<http://word.mvps.org/mac/TroubleshootingIndex.html>

If none of this helps, then it's got to be something specific to Track
Changes and someone else will have to jump in with a suggestion.

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

Beth Rosengard
MacOffice MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/Mac/WordMacHome.html>

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

Does this happen in the Styles list (so=called "All Styles") of the
Formatting Palette, or in Format menu/Style..., or both?

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

Update: it would be nice if you stuck to one subject (thread) in posting
follow-ups...

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

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

Try replacing your Normal template. I think it has a serious internal
corruption.

There's a collection of look-up tables in a Word document that contain the
entries for things such as style names, autotext entries, address book
entries. These tables are addressed by Word using numeric "pointers" that
indicate offsets within the file.

If the pointers get corrupted, all manner of weird things can happen.

I would simply quit Word and re-name your Normal template.

If that fixes it, PLEASE send the old one to Microsoft: in ten years of
doing this, I have NEVER heard of that one before, and I bet they haven't
either We'd love to know what happened in that document.

Cheers

Mac OS X 10.4.5 Word 11.2


Documents become corrupted in a peculiar way when I work on them on my Mac.
If I start with a uncorrupted document and work on it for a while, I find
that all the entries in my Autotext and all the addresses in my Entourage
address book end up as Styles. This makes my list of Styles very long and
makes it very difficult to choose a style from a list by scrolling. The
address book entries are all the same format, the autotext entries again all
have the same format, but a different one from the address book entries.
Since I have keystrokes or toolbar buttons defined for my most common
styles, it is not totally unworkable, but obviously not good.

A new document will start out fine. I haven't figured out what operation I
do that trigger the problem. The corrupted document isn't unstable. Unless
one opens the Style list, there is no sign of a problem.

I have "Exclude Contacts" checked in my autotext, and my Entourage address
book doesn't multiply in my autotext as it did in the earlier version of
Word for OS X. The entries do multiply in the style list though, some
addresses will have many styles designated by a number after their name.

Any suggestions, has anybody else observed this happening?

--

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 (0) 4 1209 1410