Word 2000 size limitations

[John]

I use Word 2000 under Win XP to produce online HTML help documentation with
DocToHelp. I am using a dual-core PC, 2.1 GHz, 2 GM memory. The documents are
not very big in bytes (few graphics), maybe up to 8 or 10 MB, but up to
400-500 pages within Word.

DocToHelp has its own toolbar and uses Word comments (newer versions use
tags) for compiling internal jumps in the HTML output format. I have no
unsolvable problems with DocToHelp.

My problems with Word 2000:

When opening the document, Word takes up to a couple of minutes to count the
pages (open the full document), and scrolling blocks for a while at about
page 10, and then continues. This is not so alarming at present, as long as
it still functions.

When closing a document, nothing seems to happen sometimes (not always).
This happens especially if I have more than one document open. I often need
up to 2 long and 2 short documents open simultaneously. The document is
saved, as long as I used Save before closing, but if I forget and just click
X, my changes are gone; no option to save before closing. If I Save before
closing, then I lose nothing, but Word does not close. The task manager shows
there is no response from Word, and all I can do is force closure. Lots of
memory still available (up to 1.5 GB).
This problem is more alarming, because I wonder if I am reaching some Word
limitation which is unknown to me. I found nothing in the knowledge base or
elsewhere on the Internet.

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this, and what I can do to
solve the problem.

All comments are welcome.

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hi John

I use Word 2000 under Win XP to produce online HTML help documentation with
DocToHelp. I am using a dual-core PC, 2.1 GHz, 2 GM memory. The documents are
not very big in bytes (few graphics), maybe up to 8 or 10 MB, but up to
400-500 pages within Word.

that should be fine in size: AFAIK, Microsoft specified a 32 MByte
maximum size for the text amount of the document (excluding graphics,
objects, etc.).

DocToHelp has its own toolbar and uses Word comments (newer versions use
tags) for compiling internal jumps in the HTML output format. I have no
unsolvable problems with DocToHelp.

My problems with Word 2000:

When opening the document, Word takes up to a couple of minutes to count the
pages (open the full document), and scrolling blocks for a while at about
page 10, and then continues. This is not so alarming at present, as long as
it still functions.

When closing a document, nothing seems to happen sometimes (not always).
This happens especially if I have more than one document open. I often need
up to 2 long and 2 short documents open simultaneously. The document is
saved, as long as I used Save before closing, but if I forget and just click
X, my changes are gone; no option to save before closing. If I Save before
closing, then I lose nothing, but Word does not close. The task manager shows
there is no response from Word, and all I can do is force closure. Lots of
memory still available (up to 1.5 GB).
This problem is more alarming, because I wonder if I am reaching some Word
limitation which is unknown to me. I found nothing in the knowledge base or
elsewhere on the Internet.

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this, and what I can do to
solve the problem.

It sounds like your document, or the underlying template, has become
(mildly?) corrupt somehow. If you have a computer with Word 2003 prof.
at hand for testing, try opening the document there, and do a round-trip
through its XML format. It's not a magic wand, but it has helped cure
more than one mean document in the past. If this helps, and it's an
option for you, I'd investigate moving to 2003 pro. entirely. [Or 2007,
that will just take a little longer time for you to adjust, and maybe
for doc2help as well ... ]

If you have no 2003 pro at hand, try a round-trip save through HTML or RTF.

HTH
Robert

 

[John]

Hi Robert,

What I feared finally happened. After adding a couple of new chapters in the
Word document and a couple of pages of text, I could not open the documents
again with Word 2000. They were saved, so nothing was lost.

I tried opening these documents on PCs with the following configurations:
- Win 2000, Word 2000: This worked
- Win XP, Word 2003: This also worked
- Win XP, Word 2007, dual-core PC: This also worked. This was on my own PC
after upgrading to Word 2007.

The only configuration it did not work with was my old one with
- Win XP, Word 2000, dual-core PC
So I suspect there is some incompatibility caused by dual-core together with
Word 2000 (or Win 2000).

My current version of D2H does have problems with Word 2007, and I reached
the activation limit. So that is my next problem, which I will solve together
with ComponentOne.

Many thanks for trying to help.
Regards John

Hi John

I use Word 2000 under Win XP to produce online HTML help documentation with
DocToHelp. I am using a dual-core PC, 2.1 GHz, 2 GM memory. The documents are
not very big in bytes (few graphics), maybe up to 8 or 10 MB, but up to
400-500 pages within Word.

that should be fine in size: AFAIK, Microsoft specified a 32 MByte
maximum size for the text amount of the document (excluding graphics,
objects, etc.).

DocToHelp has its own toolbar and uses Word comments (newer versions use
tags) for compiling internal jumps in the HTML output format. I have no
unsolvable problems with DocToHelp.

My problems with Word 2000:

When opening the document, Word takes up to a couple of minutes to count the
pages (open the full document), and scrolling blocks for a while at about
page 10, and then continues. This is not so alarming at present, as long as
it still functions.

When closing a document, nothing seems to happen sometimes (not always).
This happens especially if I have more than one document open. I often need
up to 2 long and 2 short documents open simultaneously. The document is
saved, as long as I used Save before closing, but if I forget and just click
X, my changes are gone; no option to save before closing. If I Save before
closing, then I lose nothing, but Word does not close. The task manager shows
there is no response from Word, and all I can do is force closure. Lots of
memory still available (up to 1.5 GB).
This problem is more alarming, because I wonder if I am reaching some Word
limitation which is unknown to me. I found nothing in the knowledge base or
elsewhere on the Internet.

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this, and what I can do to
solve the problem.

It sounds like your document, or the underlying template, has become
(mildly?) corrupt somehow. If you have a computer with Word 2003 prof.
at hand for testing, try opening the document there, and do a round-trip
through its XML format. It's not a magic wand, but it has helped cure
more than one mean document in the past. If this helps, and it's an
option for you, I'd investigate moving to 2003 pro. entirely. [Or 2007,
that will just take a little longer time for you to adjust, and maybe
for doc2help as well ... ]

If you have no 2003 pro at hand, try a round-trip save through HTML or RTF.

HTH
Robert
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