Word 98 corruption

[Gerry Rigney]

We have a word doc created on word 98 for macintosh. When we open it on a
mac now it just freezes and when we open it on pc word 2000 it just freezes
too. This has happened more than once and we have the office 98 update
installed.

Is there any way of retrieving this doc ? There is no error message given
when I open it. I know i can use the "recover text from" option in word but
I loose all the formatting (and there's alot in this doc!)

I'd appreciate any help on the topic. I'm not holding out alot of hope but
I have a very upset user on the other end of my phone.

Cheers for any assistance.
Best regards
Gerry Rigney

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Gerry,

If Word 98 freezes on a document, chances are pretty good you need to
increase the preferred memory setting using Finder's Get Info feature. Add
at least 10000 to the number that's there. Done be afraid to add up to 40000
to the number in 10000 increments.

On the other hand, the document may be really messed up. If you know someone
with Word 2002 or 2003 for Windows, there's an obscure feature that attempts
to repair damaged Word documents. They need to use File > Open and click a
hard to find tiny triangle next to the Open button in the File Open dialog
box. There's an option there to repair a damaged document.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

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[Gerry Rigney]

Hi Gordon

The add memory didn't do the trick, will try word 2002 as soon as we get a
copy (shouldbe today as it happens.)

Cheers for the reply
Gerry

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Gerry,

(That should have been "Hi Jim" not "Hi Gordon" by the way ).

You might also try "uncorrupting" the Word 98 document by copying all but
the very last paragraph mark and pasting into a blank new document.

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
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