word freezing when trying to save

[kate]

My Mac freezes everytime I try to save a Word document using "Save" or
"Save As". It freezes Word, the cursor becomes this rainbow circle,
and I have to force quit and lose my work. Any ideas on how to fix
this? It used to work fine.

Thanks.

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Kate,

There are several possible answers, in part depending on your OS and
Office/Word version numbers (and whether or not your version of Office is
fully updated). If you'll post back with this information, we'll try to
help.

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>

 

[kate]

Hi Beth,

My OS is X and Word is X for Mac. I hope that makes sense. Also,
I've discovered my computer will also freeze when I attempt to open
any Word document!

Thanks for your help.
Kate

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Kate,

You didn't specify if your OS is 10.1.5, Jaguar or Panther. And you didn't
say if your version of Office/Word X is fully updated. You should install
the 10.1.2, 10.1.4 (includes 10.1.3) and 10.1.5 updaters. They are
available here: <http://www.microsoft.com/mac/download/>

Then repair disk permissions:

For OS 10.2.x or 10.3:
Go to Macintosh HD/Applications/Utilities. Open up Disk Utility. Select
your hard disk, then click the First Aid tab. Click the button to "Repair
Disk Permissions".

For OS 10.1.5:
Download the Repair Privileges utility, free from Apple, and run it:
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106900>

If you get to this point and you're still having problems, try these
procedures:

1) Quit Word and navigate to your Normal template which should be in
/Applications/Microsoft Office X/Templates/. Rename Normal to something else
(like OldNormal), then relaunch Word. If this fixes the problem but you
have customizations, etc, in OldNormal that you want to maintain, you can
use Organizer to transfer those from OldNormal to the newly-created Normal
template. Then you can trash the old renamed file. To learn how to use
Organizer, see here (use IE not Safari to view this site):
<http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/MacWordNormalTemplate.htm>

If this doesn't fix the problem, quit Word again, trash the new Normal and
rename OldNormal back to Normal.

2) To test your Preference files, quit *all* Office Applications.
Navigate to your ~/library/preferences/Microsoft folder. Rename the
Microsoft Component Preferences, Word Settings (10), and Microsoft Office
Settings (10) files. When you restart Word, these files will be recreated.
If all is well, you can trash the old files. You will have to reset some
Preferences and AutoCorrect settings.

If this doesn't help, you can trash the new files and rename the old ones
back.

If you're still having problems, post back.

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>

 

[mps38]

Hi Beth,


Same thing was happening to me too. And i'm more than a little
annoyed.
Running Panther OS X. Office V.X for teachers and students
Computer is a g4 laptop with 768MB or ram

Office WORD keeps quitting on me while i'm trying to save. The file
i'm trying to save is big, 7.0MB big with pictures etc.

I've reinstalled office and all the relevant updates in sequence but
this is still happening. I tried your suggestion of renaming some
files and starting word all over again.

Could this be because i'm using the teacher's and student's version?

Please help!

Melvin Soh
(e-mail address removed)

 

[mps38]

Hi Beth,

I'm encountering similar problems while saving a 7mb word document.
While saving, word fails to save and instead crashes with the
unexpected application error message.

I'm running panther osx, office v.x student's and teacher's edition,
g4 powerbook with 768mb ram.

I've tried completely reinstalling office and all the relevant updates
but it still does not remedy my problem. I've also tried your
suggestions, renaming some files and seeing if they recreate them
properly, the problem persists.

Please help... I'm completely frustrated.

Thank you

Sincerely,
Melvin Soh

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Melvin,

The fact that you're using an educational version of Office should make no
difference.

It's possible that the document is corrupt. Try this: Turn on Show/Hide
formatting and carefully copy all but the last paragraph mark of the
document. Then paste it into a brand new Word document. Does that do it?

If not, it's also possible that there is a corrupt element (a table perhaps)
in the document. Copy the first half of the document into a new document
and see if you can save that. Do the same with the second half. If one
half saves okay but the other doesn't, then it stands to reason there's a
corrupt element there. Continue dividing the problematic half of the
document until you narrow it down. Depending on what the corrupt element
is, it may be possible to fix it or it might have to be recreated.

Hope this helps.

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>

 

[Beth Rosengard]

See the answer to your other post.

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>