Word X Wobbly on Panther?

[JD]

Hil folks,
I've been working with Word X on Panther for about 2 months now and am
having some real problems with crashes, particularly working with
tables.

The manual I'm working on now has a short table of values introducing
each section and it seems almost impossible to cut and paste data from
the new large data table into the old ones without crashing. In the
last 5 hours of work, I've sent 8 crash notes to Apple. I really don't
think I should have to retype the data to get it from the new value
tables into the manual.... copying and pasting is supposed to work
isn't it? I've tried various different methods:

(doc A=the new data document doc B=the manual I'm updating)

1. Cut from new table in doc A, insert cursor at beginning of cell in
old table in doc B, paste. New row appears above old row. Delete old
row.
2. Copy (not cut) from new table in doc A, highlight whole row in old
table in doc B, paste. New row appears above old row. Delete old row.
3. Move whole new table into doc B. Select and cut row from new table.
Insert cursor at beginning of cell in old table in doc B, paste. New
row appears above old row. Delete old row.
...and so on, trying various ways to cut/copy/insert/select.

None of them seem to help. The crashes seem to come at two particular
points: 1) when I select a row or text and 2) immediately following
the paste operation.

The error report text seems pretty consistent, stating:
Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS (0x0001) AT 0XFF9FF000

Virtually all autocorrecting features are turned off, no
autonumbering, no smart selections, etc. I've replaced the Normal
template twice (once with a backup and once with a brand new one,
importing the custom toobars and keystrokes from the old one) and
pulled out Word prefs.

I'm down to saving every time I paste at this point, just assuming
that every third paste is going to crash the app.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?
JD

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi JD,

Cutting and pasting in tables will always lead to table corruption (and
crashing) sooner or later, so try this (and repeat as often as necessary as
you work): With the cursor in the table, go up to the Table menu and select
Convert> Table to Text. Then without moving the cursor or changing
anything, immediately select Convert> Text to Table. Note, however, that
nested tables are particularly prone to corruption. You will have less
trouble in general if you don't cut and paste table cells, but rather cut
and paste their contents.

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Beth's right about tables, but also make sure you are updated to Office
10.1.5, since you don't specifically mention it.

I would think such a consistent crash could be corrupt prefs, but you
checked that....but you will find some other prefs files it may be worth
testing as well listed here [follow the Damaged Preferences and Settings
link, and the Update Office link if necessary to check your version]
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/TroubleshootingIndex.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

DM