Two big problems. Please help!

[pstatham]

I have a 115 page document with about 50 embedded pictures (drawing canvases)
made up from Microsoft Word autoshapes (primarily flowchart shapes). The
document is protected for change tracking and has gone through about 20
different editors, each making a lot of revisions to both text and the
autoshape pictures. I am using Microsoft Word 2002 (10.6612.6735) SP3 running
on Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional SP4.

I am having two problems with this document. First is that many of the
autoshapes are acting like they have linked text when they actually do not.
It does not seem to matter if the shapes are in the same drawing or not. It
definitely does not matter if it is the same shape (e.g., rectangle, circle,
etc.). I have checked the TextBox toolbar while my cursor is on one of the
shapes, and the toolbar shows the shapes as unlinked. The toolbar will not
let me select the ‘Break Forward Link’ tool. The really weird thing is, I can
delete the two questionable shapes, and insert brand new ones and they still
act like they have linked text. Also, when I delete one of the shapes, the
other looses its text and does not allow me to right-click to ‘Add Text’ from
the context menu.

The second big problem I am having with this document is that Microsoft Word
hangs with 100% CPU usage whenever I try to print it. I have tried changing
printers and even selected the ‘Print to File’ checkbox so it never gets sent
to the printer at all. The only way to recover is to use windows task manager
to ‘End Task’ the Microsoft Word task. I suspect that the problem has
something to do with the drawings because the printing works if I delete all
the drawings from the document (leaving all of the text).

I sure do hope someone can help me with this problem. I have been fighting
with it for days now and I am at my wits end. Is there some kind of utility
somewhere that can help me determine if and in which part the document is
corrupted? Is there a utility to help me fix the document if it is corrupted?
Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Perry

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Perry,

Drawing Canvas objects are a complex hosted element
of Word 2002 and Word 2003 (replacing the MS Draw
add-in).

It does sound like the document may have been corrupted
but whether it's because of the graphics objects or the
multiple editors/authors or a combination may never be
known.

Can you post a link to the file or send me an email copy?

Have you tried any of these techniques.

First -
A. Be sure 'allow fast saves is off' (permanently).

B. Turn off 'picture preview' in File=>Properties.

C. From Start=>Search/Find delete all files found with
~$*.*;*.tmp
as the search string
D. Turn on [x] Confirm Conversion at Open in Tools=>Options=>General

Possible fix scenarios.


1. Save to a new name, close Word then reopen.

2. Save as a Web page, close Word then reopen the file.

3. Turn on formatting marks (paragraph mark icon) and
copy the file except the last paragraph mark into
a new Word document.

4. Open a new blank Word document and use Insert=>File to
pull in the problem file content.

You may want to start Word in Office safe mode (hold ctrl
key down when opening Word before trying those approaches).

Use the Task Manager in Windows to be sure Winword is not
running before you start it (turn off using Word as email
editor in Outlook or shutdown outlook temporarily)

=========
I have a 115 page document with about 50 embedded pictures (drawing canvases)
made up from Microsoft Word autoshapes (primarily flowchart shapes). The
document is protected for change tracking and has gone through about 20
different editors, each making a lot of revisions to both text and the
autoshape pictures. I am using Microsoft Word 2002 (10.6612.6735) SP3 running
on Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional SP4.

I am having two problems with this document. First is that many of the
autoshapes are acting like they have linked text when they actually do not.
It does not seem to matter if the shapes are in the same drawing or not. It
definitely does not matter if it is the same shape (e.g., rectangle, circle,
etc.). I have checked the TextBox toolbar while my cursor is on one of the
shapes, and the toolbar shows the shapes as unlinked. The toolbar will not
let me select the 'Break Forward Link' tool. The really weird thing is, I can
delete the two questionable shapes, and insert brand new ones and they still
act like they have linked text. Also, when I delete one of the shapes, the
other looses its text and does not allow me to right-click to 'Add Text' from
the context menu.

The second big problem I am having with this document is that Microsoft Word
hangs with 100% CPU usage whenever I try to print it. I have tried changing
printers and even selected the 'Print to File' checkbox so it never gets sent
to the printer at all. The only way to recover is to use windows task manager
to 'End Task' the Microsoft Word task. I suspect that the problem has
something to do with the drawings because the printing works if I delete all
the drawings from the document (leaving all of the text).

I sure do hope someone can help me with this problem. I have been fighting
with it for days now and I am at my wits end. Is there some kind of utility
somewhere that can help me determine if and in which part the document is
corrupted? Is there a utility to help me fix the document if it is corrupted?
Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Perry>>
--
Let us know if this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

Office 2003 Editions explained
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/office/editions.mspx

 

[pstatham]

Bob,

Thanks for the quick reply. I have emailed you a chopped down version of the
document that exhibits the hang when printing. I sent it to your email
address without the "(At Beautiful Downtown)", so please let me know if it
does not get to you soon.

Other comments inline below..

Hi Perry,

Drawing Canvas objects are a complex hosted element
of Word 2002 and Word 2003 (replacing the MS Draw
add-in).

It does sound like the document may have been corrupted
but whether it's because of the graphics objects or the
multiple editors/authors or a combination may never be
known.

Can you post a link to the file or send me an email copy?

Have you tried any of these techniques.

First -
A. Be sure 'allow fast saves is off' (permanently).

B. Turn off 'picture preview' in File=>Properties.

C. From Start=>Search/Find delete all files found with
~$*.*;*.tmp
as the search string
D. Turn on [x] Confirm Conversion at Open in Tools=>Options=>General

Possible fix scenarios.


1. Save to a new name, close Word then reopen.

I did this and it did not help.

2. Save as a Web page, close Word then reopen the file.

When I save it as a web page, close Word, start Word, then open the web page
in Word, the graphics are all on top of each other instead of lined up
properly in the text. However, it now prints without hanging.

3. Turn on formatting marks (paragraph mark icon) and
copy the file except the last paragraph mark into
a new Word document.

This makes Word hang with 100% CPU when I press the Ctrl-V to insert the
clipboard.

4. Open a new blank Word document and use Insert=>File to
pull in the problem file content.

Word hangs with 100% CPU when I click the 'Insert' button, even when I have
Word running in Safe mode.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Perry,

You may want to try sending the file again. I didn't
get it.

The behavior you're getting would seem to indicate either
a corrupt document or an excessive use of graphics resources
on the computer.

=========
Bob,

Thanks for the quick reply. I have emailed you a chopped down version of the
document that exhibits the hang when printing. I sent it to your email
address without the "(At Beautiful Downtown)", so please let me know if it
does not get to you soon.

Other comments inline below..>>

 

[pstatham]

I have resent it. Please let me know if you get it.

I have tried the 'Open and Repair' option on the document and it makes the
graphics all wierd and it still hangs when printing the 'repaired' document.
Are there any other tools or methods that I can use to repair the document?

Thanks -
Perry

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Perry,

I received the sample document you sent.
It opened and printed without problems in
Word 2000, 2002 and 2003.

The issue could be in the versioning removed
from the sample or it could be an issue with
a template you would normally have attached.

Have you tried using a different printer/driver
installation (print to file if not physically available)?

What version of Word was used to create this in
originally? It appears to have been saved from Word 2002,
but the compatability options in Tools=>Options show
settings for Word 2000.

Are the two macros included the only ones running
when you work on this document?
Are there any add-ins/COM Add-ins also active when
you run Word?

=========
I have resent it. Please let me know if you get it.

I have tried the 'Open and Repair' option on the document and it makes the
graphics all wierd and it still hangs when printing the 'repaired' document.
Are there any other tools or methods that I can use to repair the document?

Thanks -
Perry >>
--
Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

Office 2003 Editions explained
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/office/editions.mspx

 

[pstatham]

Hi Bob,

Thanks again for your help. Comments inline below.

-Perry

Hi Perry,

I received the sample document you sent.
It opened and printed without problems in
Word 2000, 2002 and 2003.

That is interesting. I just tried printing the sample file from another
computer with Word 2002 and it hung there as well. This computer is brand new
and has a fresh copy of Office XP SP3 installed on it.

The issue could be in the versioning removed
from the sample or it could be an issue with
a template you would normally have attached.

The only template I am using is normal.dot. I do not have any add-ins
installed.

Have you tried using a different printer/driver
installation (print to file if not physically available)?

Yes. I have tried a generic postscript printer (to file). It still hangs
Word with 100% CPU.

What version of Word was used to create this in
originally? It appears to have been saved from Word 2002,
but the compatability options in Tools=>Options show
settings for Word 2000.

I have used the same copy of Word 2002 SP3 throughout the life of the
document. I have been the only editor, but I change my user name in
Tools->Options->User Information in order to reflect the different versions
of the document (e.g., Perry [v0.1 change], Perry [v0.2 change], etc.).

Are the two macros included the only ones running
when you work on this document?

Yes. I do not have any macros in normal.dot

Are there any add-ins/COM Add-ins also active when
you run Word?

Not as far as I know.