Specific Word 2004 install crashes with specific document

[Scott Ribe]

I have a client who's reporting a problem that when she opens 1 of several
specific documents, Word crashes after a couple of seconds. It crashes
before she can print or save as.

Other documents work, but I don't know what the odds are. The document that
she desperately needs to work on right now doesn't work, of course.

This document has been edited on the Mac under v.X and then later 2004 since
the time it was copied over from a PC.

She has the latest updates to Office 2004.

This also happens on another Mac there.

They're both running the latest 10.3.7.

I also have the latest updates to Office 2004 and 10.3.7. When she emails
the document to me, I can use it just fine.

So I'm guessing that something has been corrupted in her installation. From
searching this group I gather that I should delete the normal template,
preferences, and any Word startup items.

What else should I do?

Are there Word prefs stored anywhere other than obvious files in the
standard locations for preferences?

scott_ribe at killerbytes dot com

 

[Elliott Roper]

I have a client who's reporting a problem that when she opens 1 of several
specific documents, Word crashes after a couple of seconds. It crashes
before she can print or save as.

Other documents work, but I don't know what the odds are. The document that
she desperately needs to work on right now doesn't work, of course.

This document has been edited on the Mac under v.X and then later 2004 since
the time it was copied over from a PC.

She has the latest updates to Office 2004.

This also happens on another Mac there.

That means it is unlikely to be her installation alone that is causing
this one document to misbehave.

They're both running the latest 10.3.7.

I also have the latest updates to Office 2004 and 10.3.7. When she emails
the document to me, I can use it just fine.

OK. That means it is not the document alone.

So I'm guessing that something has been corrupted in her installation. From
searching this group I gather that I should delete the normal template,
preferences, and any Word startup items.

What else should I do?

Sanitize the document you have been mailed by copying all but the final
pilcrow (paragraph mark) and then pasting it into a new document.
Save-as with a new name, mail it back and see what breaks when she
edits that document.

You should analyse what is different between her environment and yours
to get to the bottom of the reason why it crashes at her place. The
first place I'd look would be general preferences->macro virus
protection.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

So I'm guessing that something has been corrupted in her installation. From

searching this group I gather that I should delete the normal template,
preferences, and any Word startup items.
What else should I do?

Just out of curiosity, how did you manage to search this group without
finding
Standard Troubleshooting Suggestions here:
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/TroubleshootingIndex.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

Which Beth and I post *all the time*? It lists all the stuff that is most
commonly known to help.

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

And, no, you shouldn't *delete* those things you list, because if the
problem persists, you'll have just deleting your customizations to no
benefit.

DM

 

[Scott Ribe]

Just out of curiosity, how did you manage to search this group without
finding
Standard Troubleshooting Suggestions here:
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/TroubleshootingIndex.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

Which Beth and I post *all the time*? It lists all the stuff that is most
commonly known to help.

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

I found them, sort of. I found many references to Word crashes in my google
searching, opened many from several different sites that looked like
possibilities, then went through them. I just closed all the ones that were
404 or didn't display in my browser (OmniWeb)--and I missed the discussion
re using IE for that site.

And, no, you shouldn't *delete* those things you list, because if the
problem persists, you'll have just deleting your customizations to no
benefit.

These users don't really have customizations to worry about. They haven't
gotten fancy yet.

FYI first thing I have tried, based on some of what I found online, was
select all but last paragraph mark, paste into a new document, and email
that back to the user. It worked. As I get more details of what has been
happening the past couple of days, it starts to sound like there was some
kind of destructive power event... One Mac has now gone completely off the
deep end with bizarro symptoms that have nothing to do with Office. The
other 2 are mostly crashing in Word, but possibly only with documents that
came from the screwed-up one.

Still seems strange that my computer had no problem with the document. But
you don't always get to understand completely what happened in these
situations. I guess it's time for a round of disk utilities, permission
repairing, and so on...

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Scott:

I found them, sort of. I found many references to Word crashes in my google
searching, opened many from several different sites that looked like
possibilities, then went through them. I just closed all the ones that were
404 or didn't display in my browser (OmniWeb)--and I missed the discussion
re using IE for that site.

Doesn't have to be IE: Firefox works perfectly, as does almost any other
browser "except" Safari and its clones. Even the first (un-updated) version
of Safari will work.

Cheers


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

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[dan7]

I had a very similar problem with a document containing a number of
pictures (TIFF and JPEG) and images from ChemDraw. After the second or
third edition on a PC it woul crash the mac (WORD X) after some time (I
could sometime print before crash). On the same mac using Word 98 in
Classic, this documnet would be more stable and allow printing and
editing. On a second mac the same problems occured.
On the PC the doicument was stable. Thus I finnally finished the
corrections on the PC and kept a PDF on the mac.
I tried all what Macopia says: removing preferences, correcting fonts
etc. Without success.

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Dan,

It doesn't sound like you tried "uncorrupting" the document. See here:
<http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/DocumentCorruption.htm>. (If using Safari,
hit refresh once or twice; otherwise switch to 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>