Word 2003 unexpectedly shuts down when opening a file

[Aaron M. G. Zimmerman]

I received a Word document in an email attachment from a friend (this one
happened to come from someone using a PC in Mexico, but it has happened with
docs from the US as well). When I saved it on my hard drive and opened it in
Word 2003, it stayed open for a few seconds then shut down with no warning or
error message. This has happened many times. I then went back to the email
and opened the document in HTML, then copied and pasted (as unformatted text)
into a NEW word document. Again, Word stayed open for about 2 seconds, they
just shut down.
When I open Word and create a new document of my own, I have no problem.
I have installed all the Office 2003 updates and I have also removed the
handwriting recognition feature explained in kb555169.
I am using Windows XP.
Thanks,
AZ

 

[DaveH]

Hi

I am suffering the same problem with a few files from one of my work
colleagues - any explanation as to the cause would be much appreciated.

I have manage to retrieve files by firstly using the Open and Repair
feature; this usually identifies a few problems with numbered lists,
however as soon as I start to edit the file it invariably crashes out
again. Immediately after the Open & Repair I now save as an RTF file,
this sometimes gives warning message that hyperlinks, text colour,
vertically merged cells etc. will be lost.
I then resave the rtf file as a Word file - this seems to cure the
problem but usually adds considerably to file size, possibly because
the original was created in Word 2000 & I'm using XP?.

Its a bit of a pain repeating this procedure each time - any better
ideas would be welcomed.

Thanks
Dave

 

[Aaron M. G. Zimmerman]

Thanks, Dave. This provides a helpful work-around. But I wish Microsoft would
respond and tell me 1. Why this is happening, and 2. What I can do to fix it.
Micorsoft, are you listening?
Thanks for your input, Dave.
-AZ