Word Bug? Actions corrupt document.

J

Jim

IL'm running Word 2003 under WinXP and just wondering if anyone has come
across this before.

I'm working on an instruction manual that is running about 70 pages. It has
a lot of 'tables' formatting because I put key-word subheads in a virtual
column to the left of the body of text.

The document has quite a few photos, which wind up both in the right-hand
side of the table as well as in normal paragraphs. These are all formatted:
Layout/Square, and with whatever other formatting tricks that allow me to
place them properly and makes them hold still... that's another story, but
there always seems to be a workaround.

Because of the photos, I enter text in the Print Layout view. Today I did
two operations in succession that 'crashed' the document. I had just
formatted a short paragraph of text inside the right-hand column of a table
and added a border around that text... bordered paragraph inside a table.
Then I inserted a photo nearby in much the same way that I have many times
before. Well, the keyboard and mouse froze, but this was not unexpected
because the little pen was writing in the book down in the bottom of the
screen. Well, the little pen kept writing and writing and I had to close the
program through Task Manager.

When I reopened the program, the document was okay up to the point where I
had last worked. But the same two pages, pages 28 and 29 kept reappearing as
I hit the PgDn button. It's as though everything beyond that point was lost
and the display was in some sort of loop. I could go back toward page 1, but
could not go past page 29. But all the text was still there because in the
Normal View mode I could go all the way to the end of the document; it just
would not show past a certain point in the Print Layout view.

Fortunately I was able to copy and paste pages 1 to 29 from the corrupt
document, and had a previous version that I copied for the rest of it. So
it's not a terrible Tale of Woe, but I am wondering what one should avoid
trying to keep from losing a lot of work.
 
R

Robert M. Franz (RMF)

Hello Jim
IL'm running Word 2003 under WinXP and just wondering if anyone has come
across this before.

I'm working on an instruction manual that is running about 70 pages. It has
a lot of 'tables' formatting because I put key-word subheads in a virtual
column to the left of the body of text.

(document) long tables are a real hazzle for Word. In your case, they're
not necessary. You can either indent your bodytext styles and don't use
the indent with special styles, or (more likely) use the below approach:

Marginal Text -- Placing text in the margins (by Suzanne S. Barnhill)
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/MarginalText.htm

The document has quite a few photos, which wind up both in the right-hand
side of the table as well as in normal paragraphs. These are all formatted:
Layout/Square, and with whatever other formatting tricks that allow me to
place them properly and makes them hold still... that's another story, but
there always seems to be a workaround.

Unless you really, really need text to run around picutres, use "inline
with text" exclusively and a lot of your troubles will go away.

I suggest you revise your setup. And then look at the following article
to save what you can of the existing document:

How can I recover a corrupt document or template – and why did it become
corrupt? (by Dave Rado and John McGhie)
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm

Greetinx
Robert
 
J

Jim

Many thanks, Robert;

I especially appreciate your reference to Suzanne's suggestions,
especially "outdenting." I'm fairly committed to my table approach to the
layout, but when this gets revised either the outdenting or the frames
approach might be a far better choice. Actually, the tables are not as long
as the document; once I finish a right-hand paragraph I revert to a style
that gives the same appearance without the table. Next left-hand callout
starts a new table, but the document is about 1/3 tables and 2/3 normal
paragraph formatting.
But you're right about Word's trouble dealing with photos that are not
inline. Calling out specific placement in inches seems to work far better
than dragging pictures to a desired location. Sometimes dragged photos will
jump to other pages or disappear entirely... that's what may have corrupted
the file.

Thanks again,

Jim
 

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