Re: Word crashes on large documents

In article <59b5c2b9.-1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
<ahostmadsen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

First let me congratulate Mac BU with Mac Word. I find it a delightful
program to work with. The user interface is nicely done, and I prefer it to
the previous windows versions I worked with (have not worked much with Word
2007 for windows). The toolbox works very well (better than the inspector in
Apple programs) and makes work very efficient.

I just wished it was more stable (and faster). I work with a big document,
about 50 pages, 7 MB, with equations, jpegs and pdfs inserted. The document
started out as a windows .doc. Ever so often, perhaps every half hour, word
crashes when I save (.docx). After that, I have to restart the computer
(restarting word is not always sufficient), and then word can work another
half hour on the same document. So, it's not an endemic problem with the
document, its just appears that word gets exhausted working with the big
document after some time.

Any suggestions? My guess is that it is just some bugs in word that will be
corrected with time. I let word send a crash report to Microsoft after every
crash, so I hope Microsoft uses these.

All I can say is that you are easily pleased. I'll leave aside all the
UI and lack of functionality reasons I have for hurling Office 2008 to
the floor and concentrate on the crashing.

Firstly, 50 pages and a few equations and pictures is a tiny document.
Several regular posters here work on documents with thousands of pages.

Secondly, almost without exception (pun only partly accidental), the
only valid reason for OS X becoming unusable after an application
software mishap is faulty hardware.

A possible exception is your network environment. Sometimes OS X is a
little less than perfect when dealing with some bits of network
protocols and their timeouts. Mexican standoffs are not unheard of. A
network operation may not complete, and the OS may stall a process
forever, pining for a reply. (Finder and Mobile Me have left their
scars on me f'rinstance)

So, if you are saving your .docx to your company or college network
when it falls over, try working locally. Slurp the file from the server
to your own machine with Finder, work on it there, save it there, and
copy the work back to the server using the Finder. Don't give Office a
chance to use your network file system. If anything can break it,
Office can.
I don't use Word 2008, but earlier versions were famous for getting
cranky across networks, not least because they chose cross-network
locations for some temporary files.

Try chopping your problem in half in other ways too. Does the crash
occur with one particular document and not others of the same general
flavour?

In the old days, it was not unheard of for Word documents to gradually
corrupt themselves, accreting more and more evil detritus with every
change. docx was supposed to clean all that up, but colour me cynical.
The old folk remedy, known as a "Maggie" was to select and copy all but
the final paragraph mark, create a fresh document, and paste.
Paragraph marks appear as pilcrows when invisibles are displayed
(toggle that setting with cmd-8) The final pilcrow is the outward and
visible sign of Microsoft's inward and spiritual grace, where divine
knowledge of the screwed up data structures surrounding your text is
held. Somehow you can leave all that behind and by some astounding
magical process, create a perfect uncorrupted representation of the
same inner grace in a new copy. If Microsoft can pull that off, why
can't they stop the damn thing screwing itself up in the first place?
Anyway, try it on your crashy document.

Word should not crash. Ever! You do well to send in those crash reports.
Furthermore, if OS X ever needs a restart as a result of Word falling
over, that is also, if not primarily, Apple's problem. Please send them
a full report too. An operating system in perfect working order should
never be harmed by a userland application crashing. Apple will be very
interested.

Two closing remarks:-
1. Hardware really OK?
2. http://word.mvps.org/mac/troubleshootingindex.html

--
To de-mung my e-mail address:- fsnospam$elliott$$
PGP Fingerprint: 1A96 3CF7 637F 896B C810 E199 7E5C A9E4 8E59 E248
.

Relevant Pages

  • Beware FileVault and MS Office on the Mac (Was: Office 2004: Accessing a network share causes Word,
    ... > Office 2004 for the Mac. ... So far I have experienced this with Word, Excel ... > applications will crash if they try and access the network drive under ... > network share Excel will crash when Open is selected from the File menu ...
    (microsoft.public.mac.office)
  • Re: Microsoft offers downgrade from Vista to XP
    ... what an operating system can do. ... and a dozen Mac OSX units used in our art departments and the ... Macs are way more problematic in terms of network integration than any ... because Apple dropped it. ...
    (alt.games.video.xbox)
  • Office 2004: Accessing a network share causes Word, Excel and Powerpoint to crash
    ... Office 2004 for the Mac. ... So far I have experienced this with Word, Excel ... If you have a network drive mounted that is the same name as the home ... network share Excel will crash when Open is selected from the File menu ...
    (microsoft.public.mac.office)
  • Re: Accessing a Word file from Mac and Windows at the same time
    ... You need to speak to your network administrator about that: ... Word calls the operating system to handle files for it. ... my Mac and somebody else tries to open it on Windows while it's open on ... my Mac they get error messages that the file can't be opened and may be ...
    (microsoft.public.mac.office.word)
  • Re: MAC Address
    ... the operating system. ... They come from the network ... interface card. ... it isn't such a good idea to modify MAC ...
    (microsoft.public.security)
Loading