Word XP freezing while editing

[Craig]

Greetings. I am using Word XP on a computer that has Windows XP Pro
on it and I have a document that I'm trying to modify, but I do not
get very far. As soon as I quit typing, Word XP freezes up on me, and
I am forced to End Task on it. I've tried MANY different scenarios,
and they all end up the same; shortly after I start working with the
file, Word XP freezes. I've even tried to open a copy of the file, as
well as save it as something else, but still no go.

On one of my attempts, after it froze and I did an End Task, but this
time the computer brought up a window that said I need to download an
Office Update. I clicked on the hyperlink and it opened IE took me to
Microsoft's Office Update page. There were a couple of updates I
needed, so I went through all of that, rebooted, opened the file and
it still doesn't work. I went back to the Office Update page, but it
told me there aren't any updates for me at this time. I have since
performed a Repair on Microsoft Office XP and it still isn't working.

On my latest attempt, before it froze, Word XP brought up some warning
windows that warns of low memory to open the document, and states that
the document is too large to modify. The file is only 159kb and I
have 320mb of RAM, but I have noticed that when I End Task on the
WINWORD.EXE process, it is showing that it is using about 40mb of
memory and it keeps increasing.

One final thing to note is that this document might have been created
in Word 97. I cannot say for sure, but I do know that this file will
open and allow editing in Word 97 just fine. The file does have some
logos that are picture objects, and it has a lot of formatting
involved, but WHY is it working in Word 97 and not Word XP? That is
ultimately what I would like to know, and immediately following that I
would also like to know how to fix this. The file currently does not
work properly on two Windows XP Pro systems, each using Word XP as
being part of the Office XP Pro Suite. I appreciate any and all help
with this one. Thanks a lot, and have a great day!

 

[Edward Teal]

You don't have to use Microsoft office just to have it work with
Microsoft Office files.

An estimated 16 million+ people have installed OpenOffice. It's now
used by several Government Agencies including NASA. And it can access
all your microsoft files.

I personally uninstalled Office 2003 last month because I wasn't using
it any longer after installing OpenOffice.

You can get it here http://on-disk.com/product_info.php?products_id=29
on a CD for $3.00

It also works on virtually every type of computer known to man.

 

[Craig]

Edward,

Thank you for you feedback on my posting! Unfortunately, changing to
something else is not an option for me. One thing to add, this same
file also freezes in Word 2003. It freezes Word XP and Word 2003, but
it does work in Word 97. I also found other files in the same folder
as this one that also are causing the computer to freeze, so I think
it's the folder or something on the network drive. I'm going to redo
these files and see what happens. If anyone has anything else to add,
please let me know. Thank you again for your help!

 

[Craig]

This suggestion was e-mailed to me:

In many cases, the deletion of normal.dot will do the trick.

That did it! It doesn't make sense to me because the problem was
occurring on three different computers with two different versions of
Word (XP and 2003), not to mention that it only worked on a fourth
system that had yet a different version of Word (97). However, I
deleted the Normal.dot on the three problem PCs and it opens,
modifies, and saves just as it should. I hope this helps anyone else
out there as well.