Renagade macros in Word 2000?

[Wordsmith]

Maybe support folks have gotten panicked calls on this, and I'll take any
opinions, theories, or other suggested sites to pass on to the bosses [so I
don't get blamed].

Bkgnd: Wurd 2k w/SP-3 on powerful desktop [3+ Ghz Intel CPU, 512 Mb RAM, 120
Mb HD] running Win 2k; many uncomplex [nothing fancy, no images or columns,
etc] manuals documents originally converted from WordPrefect some years ago.
MANY users adding pieces over the years, all kinds of formatting & layout
tricks & mistakes. Font changed from original WP Univers [not supported by MS
products] to Arial w/no apparent bad effects. Ave. size 800-1100 kb.

Problem: when making simple changes [typos, punctuation, etc.], no problem.
BUT, when making changes involving ruler settings, paragraph formats, tabs,
selected text, & font characteristics, weirdness reigns:

Oddity #1: When change is applied, even to selected line, text, or
paragraph, the WHOLE DOCUMENT takes on the change, formatting & layout
completely changed. Press CTRL-Z [undo] and the doc reverts to original
settings, yet the change is made on the selected parts, so all looks well.
[Pressing undo again eliminates the change just made w/o affecting the rest
of the doc.] BUT...

Oddity #2: the doc grows to HUGE size: a 1.1 Mb doc grew to 27 Mb after a
couple hour's work, until Wurd freezes trying to do a save. Reopening Wurd &
the doc shows nothing unusual [except last changes lost], page counts are
same, but when closing [even without changes] Wurd freezes again. Doc is
useless now.

Wurd Macro Virus Protect is enabled. Full virus scan of whole PC w/updated
defs showed nothing. Restoring default Normal.dot in Wurd did nothing. Track
Changes and Automatic Update for Styles was originally enabled, but even
after disabling these doc would still grow.

I encountered this once before some years ago on a job [also w/Wurd 2k & Win
2k], had no solution except to rebuild doc from scratch and never found the
cause for that one [me - contract tech writer, changes jobs often]. I think
it's a corrupted macro or unknown macro virus, and since there's no way to
find where a macro resides in a Wurd document, it [and work done so far] is
now junk.

Ever seen this before? Any ideas? I don't think there is a fix for the
ruined docs, I just don't want it to start again w/new docs. Thanx!

 

[tamarakay]

We had somewhat the same problem when we converted documents. It seems that
when you convert from WP to word, word keeps some hidden codes to assist with
changing back to WP at some future date. You have to display those hidden
codes and delete them. As we converted four years ago, don't really remember
the specifics, just that if you didn't delete all the hidden garbage it was
guaranteed document corruption in time.

Maybe support folks have gotten panicked calls on this, and I'll take any
opinions, theories, or other suggested sites to pass on to the bosses [so I
don't get blamed].

Bkgnd: Wurd 2k w/SP-3 on powerful desktop [3+ Ghz Intel CPU, 512 Mb RAM, 120
Mb HD] running Win 2k; many uncomplex [nothing fancy, no images or columns,
etc] manuals documents originally converted from WordPrefect some years ago.
MANY users adding pieces over the years, all kinds of formatting & layout
tricks & mistakes. Font changed from original WP Univers [not supported by MS
products] to Arial w/no apparent bad effects. Ave. size 800-1100 kb.

Problem: when making simple changes [typos, punctuation, etc.], no problem.
BUT, when making changes involving ruler settings, paragraph formats, tabs,
selected text, & font characteristics, weirdness reigns:

Oddity #1: When change is applied, even to selected line, text, or
paragraph, the WHOLE DOCUMENT takes on the change, formatting & layout
completely changed. Press CTRL-Z [undo] and the doc reverts to original
settings, yet the change is made on the selected parts, so all looks well.
[Pressing undo again eliminates the change just made w/o affecting the rest
of the doc.] BUT...

Oddity #2: the doc grows to HUGE size: a 1.1 Mb doc grew to 27 Mb after a
couple hour's work, until Wurd freezes trying to do a save. Reopening Wurd &
the doc shows nothing unusual [except last changes lost], page counts are
same, but when closing [even without changes] Wurd freezes again. Doc is
useless now.

Wurd Macro Virus Protect is enabled. Full virus scan of whole PC w/updated
defs showed nothing. Restoring default Normal.dot in Wurd did nothing. Track
Changes and Automatic Update for Styles was originally enabled, but even
after disabling these doc would still grow.

I encountered this once before some years ago on a job [also w/Wurd 2k & Win
2k], had no solution except to rebuild doc from scratch and never found the
cause for that one [me - contract tech writer, changes jobs often]. I think
it's a corrupted macro or unknown macro virus, and since there's no way to
find where a macro resides in a Wurd document, it [and work done so far] is
now junk.

Ever seen this before? Any ideas? I don't think there is a fix for the
ruined docs, I just don't want it to start again w/new docs. Thanx!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

For oddity #1, see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/WholeDocumentReformatted.htm

For #2, There are a number of reasons for excessive file size, including:

1. Fast Saves: Disable this at on the Save tab of Tools | Options.

2. Preview Picture: Clear the check box on the Summary tab of File |
Properties.

3. Versions (File | Versions): Make sure "Automatically save version on
close" is not turned on.

4. Revisions (Tools | Track Changes):
Highlight Changes: Make sure "Highlight changes on screen" is turned on
(or that "Final Showing Markup" is displayed).
Accept/Reject Changes: If "Accept All" or "Reject All" is available then
revisions are present; accept or reject all changes, then turn Track Changes
off.

5. Embedded True Type fonts (Tools | Options | Save); embedding fonts should
be avoided wherever possible.

6. Embedded graphics: When feasible, it is preferable to link the graphics.

7. File format: Make sure you are saving as a Word document; in some cases
..rtf (Rich Text Format) files are significantly larger than .doc files.

8. Document corruption: See
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm.

Maybe support folks have gotten panicked calls on this, and I'll take any
opinions, theories, or other suggested sites to pass on to the bosses [so I
don't get blamed].

Bkgnd: Wurd 2k w/SP-3 on powerful desktop [3+ Ghz Intel CPU, 512 Mb RAM, 120
Mb HD] running Win 2k; many uncomplex [nothing fancy, no images or columns,
etc] manuals documents originally converted from WordPrefect some years ago.
MANY users adding pieces over the years, all kinds of formatting & layout
tricks & mistakes. Font changed from original WP Univers [not supported by MS
products] to Arial w/no apparent bad effects. Ave. size 800-1100 kb.

Problem: when making simple changes [typos, punctuation, etc.], no problem.
BUT, when making changes involving ruler settings, paragraph formats, tabs,
selected text, & font characteristics, weirdness reigns:

Oddity #1: When change is applied, even to selected line, text, or
paragraph, the WHOLE DOCUMENT takes on the change, formatting & layout
completely changed. Press CTRL-Z [undo] and the doc reverts to original
settings, yet the change is made on the selected parts, so all looks well.
[Pressing undo again eliminates the change just made w/o affecting the rest
of the doc.] BUT...

Oddity #2: the doc grows to HUGE size: a 1.1 Mb doc grew to 27 Mb after a
couple hour's work, until Wurd freezes trying to do a save. Reopening Wurd &
the doc shows nothing unusual [except last changes lost], page counts are
same, but when closing [even without changes] Wurd freezes again. Doc is
useless now.

Wurd Macro Virus Protect is enabled. Full virus scan of whole PC w/updated
defs showed nothing. Restoring default Normal.dot in Wurd did nothing. Track
Changes and Automatic Update for Styles was originally enabled, but even
after disabling these doc would still grow.

I encountered this once before some years ago on a job [also w/Wurd 2k & Win
2k], had no solution except to rebuild doc from scratch and never found the
cause for that one [me - contract tech writer, changes jobs often]. I think
it's a corrupted macro or unknown macro virus, and since there's no way to
find where a macro resides in a Wurd document, it [and work done so far] is
now junk.

Ever seen this before? Any ideas? I don't think there is a fix for the
ruined docs, I just don't want it to start again w/new docs. Thanx!

 

[Bob S]

7. File format: Make sure you are saving as a Word document; in some cases
.rtf (Rich Text Format) files are significantly larger than .doc files.

Amen! I recently opened a 1MB DOC file in Wordpad and saved it as RTF.
The file size was 400MB!

Bob S