Small annoying blank window in Word 2004

[DocB]

When I've left my iBook on for a while, with Word 2004 open, I often
get a small blank window that I cannot displace or close without
closing down the entire program.
Is there anything I can do to prevent this window's appearance?
Thanks.
B.

 

[little_creature]

Hello,
Could you kindly describe *the window* a bit more. Is there any
message in the window? Does this happen only in the Word? Does the
screen save come in to play?
Do you have latest updates installed? Both the operating system and
the office?

 

[DocB]

The blank window is just white, no border, no minimize/maximize/close
buttons, just a white box about 1.5 to 2 inches square. Definitely not
another document window.
I don't know how long it takes to appear, but probably days, which
means that the machine has gone to sleep and woken up several times
before I notice it. The screen saver has come on beforehand lots of
times. I'm often flipping to and from applications. I've never seen it
happen with applications other than Word, but I don't use the others
in the Office suite very often.
There are no updates available that I haven't installed.
I'm using an iBook 1.42GHz G4, 512 MB RAM

Thanks for responding. Hope this info is enough,
Best,
B.

 

[CyberTaz]

Ah, thanks for the clarification!

Without going into an exhausting technical monologue [at which I would most
likely fail miserably ] I believe you're experiencing a combination of
limited hardware resources & most likely some degree of memory leakage. In a
nutshell, as a result, the screen isn't being completely redrawn.

The first suggestion I would make is to increase your RAM to *at least* 1 GB
- perhaps 512 MB was "a lot" when your Mac was new, but both OS X & Office
are far more demanding than they were when that unit was released. Also, the
ATI video in that unit has only 32 MB of VRAM, which restricts resources
even further.

Secondly, don't leave Word (or any program) continuously running for days on
end. If you aren't going to use it, Quit the program - it only takes a few
seconds to launch it again when you need it. (Some recommend quitting or
restarting Word daily.) That not only frees up resources for the other
programs you use in the interim, but also gives both the OS & the app a "new
lease on life", so to speak. At the very least, minimize the window while
the app isn't in use - either of the following will do the trick:

1- Double-click the window's title bar,
2- Key Apple+M,
3- Window> Minimize
4- Click the Minimize (yellow traffic light), or
5- Word> Hide Word

All this having been put forward, however, it doesn't seem that you should
have to restart Word to rid yourself of the dead spot. Have you tried any of
the suggestions above? Or perhaps the resource shortage is more serious than
I had originally assumed.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[DocB]

I haven't been able to try to minimize the window. Clicking on it
results in whatever other active window is open being selected.
Anything I do to minimize or close the dead spot results in the window
behind it being altered/closed/minimized. The dead spot sticks around
until I shut the app completely.

I guess I'll just have to spend a couple more seconds of my life
closing it down at the end of the day. Not as annoying as the cost of
new memory.

Thanks for putting in the time.
B.

Ah, thanks for the clarification!

Without going into an exhausting technical monologue [at which I would most
likely fail miserably ] I believe you're experiencing a combination of
limited hardware resources & most likely some degree of memory leakage. In a
nutshell, as a result, the screen isn't being completely redrawn.

The first suggestion I would make is to increase your RAM to *at least* 1 GB
- perhaps 512 MB was "a lot" when your Mac was new, but both OS X & Office
are far more demanding than they were when that unit was released. Also, the
ATI video in that unit has only 32 MB of VRAM, which restricts resources
even further.

Secondly, don't leave Word (or any program) continuously running for days on
end. If you aren't going to use it, Quit the program - it only takes a few
seconds to launch it again when you need it. (Some recommend quitting or
restarting Word daily.) That not only frees up resources for the other
programs you use in the interim, but also gives both the OS & the app a "new
lease on life", so to speak. At the very least, minimize the window while
the app isn't in use - either of the following will do the trick:

1- Double-click the window's title bar,
2- Key Apple+M,
3- Window> Minimize
4- Click the Minimize (yellow traffic light), or
5- Word> Hide Word

All this having been put forward, however, it doesn't seem that you should
have to restart Word to rid yourself of the dead spot. Have you tried any of
the suggestions above? Or perhaps the resource shortage is more serious than
I had originally assumed.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

The blank window is just white, no border, no minimize/maximize/close
buttons, just a white box about 1.5 to 2 inches square. Definitely not
another document window.
I don't know how long it takes to appear, but probably days, which
means that the machine has gone to sleep and woken up several times
before I notice it. The screen saver has come on beforehand lots of
times. I'm often flipping to and from applications. I've never seen it
happen with applications other than Word, but I don't use the others
in the Office suite very often.
There are no updates available that I haven't installed.
I'm using an iBook 1.42GHz G4, 512 MB RAM

Thanks for responding. Hope this info is enough,
Best,
B.

 

[CyberTaz]

Anything I do to minimize or close the dead spot results in the window
behind it being altered/closed/minimized. The dead spot sticks around
until I shut the app completely.

That pretty much confirms my suspicions - the "White Hole" isn't Word's
doing - at least not entirely - but failure of the Mac to redraw the
affected area until more resources are freed up.

I'm glad you've got a workaround that will relieve the stress a little
Unless you plan to invest in a replacement in the not-too-distant future,
though, I'd still suggest that you at least double the RAM. Not only should
it alleviate the current issue, but also provide a significant boost to
overall performance... Not to mention avoidance of some of the other
potential "pitfalls" that arise from memory shortages.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac