Tracked Changes - Word 2008 Crashes

[Mark Harris]

We are having a heck of a time with a variety of word documents using
tracked changes - the program becomes unstable pretty quickly and crashes
when we use tracked changes. This really hinders collaboration. Has
Microsoft said anything about fixing this problem?

mark

 

[MC]

We are having a heck of a time with a variety of word documents using
tracked changes - the program becomes unstable pretty quickly and crashes
when we use tracked changes. This really hinders collaboration. Has
Microsoft said anything about fixing this problem?

mark

Are you sure the problem is with Microsoft?

I use Track Changes all the time on documents that go back and forth
between OSX and Windows and have never experienced any instability.

 

[John McGhie]

Yes, they have.

The .docx format is the fix. The old .doc format is not stable enough to
use much tracking of changes, particularly if you are sending documents
cross-platform.

However, as Matt says, the problem is often the user, not the program. You
need to work carefully and neatly when editing with tracked changes on: if
you do not, document corruption is the inevitable result.

Personally, I prefer to edit without tracked changes, then use Compare
Documents to mark up the changes when I have finished editing. It's much
more reliable, particularly if you are going cross-platform with users who
are not trained in professional editing

Cheers

We are having a heck of a time with a variety of word documents using
tracked changes - the program becomes unstable pretty quickly and crashes
when we use tracked changes. This really hinders collaboration. Has
Microsoft said anything about fixing this problem?

mark

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Mark Harris]

Are you sure the problem is with Microsoft?

I use Track Changes all the time on documents that go back and forth
between OSX and Windows and have never experienced any instability.

Pretty sure it is a word problem. Our firm uses MacBook Pros and Office 2008
and the problem is experienced by all users (at least 10 folks). Also, I
was at a scientific conference not long ago and a group of Mac users was
huddled together discussing the tracked changes stability issue (different
firms but all experiencing routine crashes with tracked changes) - pretty
sure it is an issue associated with Word 2008.

 

[John McGhie]

Yes, scientific text is almost certain to have problems, especially in .doc
format.

Anything containing tables, footnotes, cross-references, and equations is
practically guaranteed to give trouble.

Word 2007 is a lot better, but not perfect. We are hoping for an upgrade to
put the new change tracking engine into Mac Word at the next version.

We shall see...

Cheers

Pretty sure it is a word problem. Our firm uses MacBook Pros and Office 2008
and the problem is experienced by all users (at least 10 folks). Also, I
was at a scientific conference not long ago and a group of Mac users was
huddled together discussing the tracked changes stability issue (different
firms but all experiencing routine crashes with tracked changes) - pretty
sure it is an issue associated with Word 2008.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[John9999]

I am a very heavy Track Changes user for scientific documents.

One thing I noticed is that if you open the Word document directly from
Outlook, rather than saving it to your desktop, Word is much more prone to
crashing. I strongly recommend saving the file to your desktop before opening
it.

Also, when possi ble, I delete the unwanted figures and add a comment saying
I did that. To me, they seem to cause the most trouble.

Also, simply closing and reopening Word every 3 hours or so helps prevent
crashes.

I also off Track Changes before updating fields or printing, as I don't
usually need to track that information and it makes it easier to see the
changes I do need to track.

I have done detailed QC of the Compare Document results, and find that they
are not 100% reliable.

Good luck!
John

 

[John McGhie]

Hi John:

Good comments...

One thing I noticed is that if you open the Word document directly from
Outlook, rather than saving it to your desktop, Word is much more prone to
crashing. I strongly recommend saving the file to your desktop before opening
it.

So do I: Anyone who opens ANYTHING directly from ANY email program will
lose their entire computer to a virus long before they have problems with
their Tracked Changes That's just another name for suicide (Yes:
That applies to Macs too, folks: even Apple quietly suggests we should be
running an antivirus these days...)

Also, simply closing and reopening Word every 3 hours or so helps prevent
crashes.

That's much more important with Word 2000/2003 under Windows XP. Word leaks
memory, and Windows doesn't clean it up until you quit Word. Under Mac OS,
Word will run about a month before it gets seriously slow and needs to be
restarted, because Mac OS is much more efficient about reclaiming memory.

On the other hand, anyone doing serious stuff in Word with less than 2GB of
RAM in the box is asking for problems. Always remember that Outlook runs a
hidden copy of Word for its email editor, so you need twice the RAM.

I also off Track Changes before updating fields or printing, as I don't
usually need to track that information and it makes it easier to see the
changes I do need to track.

Very good advice!

I have done detailed QC of the Compare Document results, and find that they
are not 100% reliable.

They will be under Word 2007, provided that neither document contained
tracked changes before the compare was done. Word 2007 is much more
reliable with both Tracks and Compares. We're still waiting for that new
module over on the Mac side.

Cheers

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Si789]

Dear John McGhie,
I have been battling with Mac 2008 crashing since I bought it about a month ago (I have updated to the latest version 12.1.9 but makes no difference). I work extensively exchanging documents (generally quite complex in terms of figures, tables and content; for example multiple text formats and fonts in the same document) between Macs and PCs. The documents do not need to be very large (1 MB is generally sufficient). Whether tracking changes is on or off makes little difference, Word hangs. This always happens when the original document is generated on a PC.
I have tried your suggestions on the following link:

<http://word.mvps.org/Mac/DocumentCorruption.html>

As I am using word 2008 I used procedure 2 as you suggest. However, when I tried to save the new document Word HUNG.

I also tried procedure 1 and found a new problem. All the text disappeared from the document.

However, I suggest that users when they open Word go into the preferences and select <spelling and grammar>. Then deselct the following: <check spelling as you type>; <always suggest correction>; <check grammar as you type>; and <check grammar with spelling>. Give an OK to the changes then you should be able to open and use your problematic PC word documents.

It's not a good fix to the problem as these functions are very useful. But really its shocking that Microsoft hasn't corrected this problem that was reported almost immediately after office 2008 was launched.

 

[John9999]

Hi John,

I found your explanations for why Word behaves the way I noticed very
helpful.

I will now stop opening pdf attachments directly from emails. I hadn't
realized that increased the risk of viruses. So, I am glad you mentioned that.

I really appreciate your insights.

Best Regards,
John

 

[John McGhie]

Hmmm...

I do the same kind of work, and it's a month or two since I had a crash or a
hang ion Word 2008 (or 2004, for that matter...)

Would you like to zip up one of your problem documents and email it to me?
I'd like to take a look and see if I can see what's going wrong...

Cheers

Dear John McGhie,
I have been battling with Mac 2008 crashing since I bought it about a month
ago (I have updated to the latest version 12.1.9 but makes no difference). I

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Jonathan Duke]

Dear John McGhie,
I have been battling with Mac 2008 crashing since I bought it about a month
ago (I have updated to the latest version 12.1.9 but makes no difference). I
work extensively exchanging documents (generally quite complex in terms of
figures, tables and content; for example multiple text formats and fonts in
the same document) between Macs and PCs. The documents do not need to be very
large (1 MB is generally sufficient). Whether tracking changes is on or off
makes little difference, Word hangs. This always happens when the original
document is generated on a PC.
I have tried your suggestions on the following link:

<http://word.mvps.org/Mac/DocumentCorruption.html>

As I am using word 2008 I used procedure 2 as you suggest. However, when I
tried to save the new document Word HUNG.

I also tried procedure 1 and found a new problem. All the text disappeared
from the document.

However, I suggest that users when they open Word go into the preferences and
select <spelling and grammar>. Then deselct the following: <check spelling as
you type>; <always suggest correction>; <check grammar as you type>; and
<check grammar with spelling>. Give an OK to the changes then you should be
able to open and use your problematic PC word documents.

It's not a good fix to the problem as these functions are very useful. But
really its shocking that Microsoft hasn't corrected this problem that was
reported almost immediately after office 2008 was launched.

I think they resolved a number of Track Changes/Compare bugs in 12.2.0
as I'm seeing increased reliability in those areas.

Give it try and post with your results.

Thanks.

Cheers,
Jon

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Jonathan:

Yes, that's my experience too.

However, some people are suffering major issues with PPTX and XLX files
created in early versions of Windows Office 2007.

Apparently, they won't open at all in Mac Office 2008 unless they are first
sent back to Windows Office and re-saved.

Cheers

I think they resolved a number of Track Changes/Compare bugs in 12.2.0
as I'm seeing increased reliability in those areas.

Give it try and post with your results.

Thanks.

Cheers,
Jon

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]