Word X/2004:horrible crashing w/ Versions feature

[alison]

I had this problem with Word v.X and it's not only still present in
Word 2004, but it seems worse: for about 9 files out of 10, when I try
to open an earlier saved version of the file (File->Versions...) the
program crashes. It happens consistently (i.e. a file that crashes
will always crash no matter how many versions I add or subtract).

This is really upsetting because I am essentially unable to access
data that is stored in previous versions. What a completely unreliable
feature!!!

P.S. I'm always always using tracking in tandem with the versions
feature, in case that might help identify the problem.

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Alison,

You won't like hearing this but ...

One of the Word features the experts say to avoid using is Versions. See
here: <http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/DisplayVersions.htm>

And as far as track changes are concerned, the advice is: "Take care not to
leave Track Changes on when you don¹t need it. Accept all changes before
beginning a new version of a document."

Assuming that you have corrupt documents, I suggest "uncorrupting" them as
follows:

1. Turn on Show/Hide formatting.
2. Carefully copy all of your document except the last paragraph mark .
3. Paste into a blank new document.
4. Save as a Word Document with a different file name.

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>

 

[alison]

Dear Beth,
thanks for your note—I'm not surprised to learn that the Versions
feature is diseased. It's basically a disaster for me, since I'm
working on a book and have important information saved in previous
versions of my files. Is there any way the data can be recovered from
the files?
Thanks,
Alison

 

[JE McGimpsey]

thanks for your note—I'm not surprised to learn that the Versions
feature is diseased. It's basically a disaster for me, since I'm
working on a book and have important information saved in previous
versions of my files. Is there any way the data can be recovered from
the files?

If you have access to WinWord02 or WinWord03, those versions have some
advanced recovery capability for corrupt files.

You may be successful using a previous version of MacXL.

I've had success recovering corrupt files with OpenOffice:

http://openoffice.org

but I don't recall whether versions are supported, right now.

There may be other methods. As a last resort, you might try opening the
file with MacWord set to Recover Text in Any File