Word 2004 for Mac -- Do you want to save the changes?

[ZMS]

I posted this question in "Word General Questions" and was referred
here.

I am running Microsoft Word 2004 for Mac, v. 11.2, on OS 10.4.5.

When I open a document, copy some text, and then try to close the
document, I am asked, "Do you want to save the changes," even though I
have not made any changes.

I have seen this issue addressed for Windows versions, suggesting that
one turn off smart tags. As best I can tell, the Mac version does not
even have smart tags. I have turned off background repagination. I have
no fields in the document. I do have various macros, but I set up a
template without any macros, and documents created with that template
display the same behavior. I removed all items from my Word startup
folder.

I would appreciate any guidance.

ZMS

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Whatever Your name Is:

There's a multitude of things that can cause this. Among the most common
are:

1) A page number field. This will update each time the document paginates,
which it will do each time it opens.

2) Heading or paragraph numbering. This will update each time the document
opens.

3) A Date field. This will update on open.

You are correct that Mac Word 2004 does not have "user enabled" SmartTags.
(It has a few built-in SmartTags, but none that will do this).

Have a look in your headers and footers of your Normal template: the culprit
is often active content in there.

However, it can also be caused by the bookmarks function. When you "Copy"
in MacWord, Word encases the selection in hidden bookmarks. That's because
it doesn't yet know where you are going to Paste, so it can't tell what text
format will be required.

So it marks the selection and puts a link on the Clipboard. Later, when you
DO paste, if the receiving application asks for a format that is not on the
clipboard by default, the system can go back to Word and ask Word's export
filter to "make" the requested format.

It works well, but you get the annoying Prompt to Save if you close the
document before you paste. It "should" clean up the bookmark if you paste
first and then close the document.

Hope this helps

I posted this question in "Word General Questions" and was referred
here.

I am running Microsoft Word 2004 for Mac, v. 11.2, on OS 10.4.5.

When I open a document, copy some text, and then try to close the
document, I am asked, "Do you want to save the changes," even though I
have not made any changes.

I have seen this issue addressed for Windows versions, suggesting that
one turn off smart tags. As best I can tell, the Mac version does not
even have smart tags. I have turned off background repagination. I have
no fields in the document. I do have various macros, but I set up a
template without any macros, and documents created with that template
display the same behavior. I removed all items from my Word startup
folder.

I would appreciate any guidance.

ZMS

--

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

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[ZMS]

Thank you for this helpful reply. The information about the Clipboard
behavior provided the clue I needed; it turns out to be a conflict with
a utility called Shadow Clipboard, that allows multiple clipboards.
When I turned off Shadow Clipboard, I no longer got the prompt.
Apparently, Shadow Clipboard does not send Word the same message that
allows Word to delete the hidden bookmark.

I will ask the Shadow Clipboard folks about this behavior. In the
meantime, do you know if I can change a setting in Word to avoid the
hidden bookmarks? Or are there other multi-clipboard utilities I should
try?

Thanks,

Zachary Schrag

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

Thank you for this helpful reply. The information about the Clipboard
behavior provided the clue I needed; it turns out to be a conflict with
a utility called Shadow Clipboard, that allows multiple clipboards.
When I turned off Shadow Clipboard, I no longer got the prompt.
Apparently, Shadow Clipboard does not send Word the same message that
allows Word to delete the hidden bookmark.

I will ask the Shadow Clipboard folks about this behavior. In the
meantime, do you know if I can change a setting in Word to avoid the
hidden bookmarks? Or are there other multi-clipboard utilities I should
try?

Word itself has multiple clipboards, sort of. That's what the Scrapbook is
for. (Tools/Scrapbook. or Toolbox button on the Standard Toolbar. Also check
out the Spike, where you can add multiple items to aggregate on the
clipboard from several locations. Check out Scrapbook and Spike in the Word
Help.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

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