Todd sent me a sample: Here's the reply I sent him:
Hi Todd:
Thanks, I have sent that one off to Microsoft, they will be interested in
that.
That document is about as corrupt as you can get a document and still have
Word open it
The formatting of a Word document is not stored in the
text, it's a structured data table addressed by pointers, and stored in the
default section break, which resides below the last paragraph mark in the
document. The problem with that document is that the Style Table is well
and truly shattered
This is not a "Word 2008" issue per se, it's an issue that goes back to the
invention of the .doc format and all versions of Word are susceptible to it.
In other words, it's a bug, but the fix is to work in .docx
Whenever
you change the format from .docx to .doc or back again, you run the risk of
bad things happening, because the conversion between two completely
different object models is never perfect. In the latest versions of Word
(2007 and 2008) whenever you open the document you convert "into" .docx
format, and whenever you save, you convert back to .doc. A complex document
such as yours will stand a limited amount of this before it goes bang.
It has never been a good idea to merge cells in Word tables: having done so,
you need to treat the document very carefully because it is inclined to
corrupt.
It's also a good idea to customise the built-in styles rather than use your
own. If you do want to create extra styles, it's a good idea not to begin
their names with an underscore, because of course underscores have special
significance in computers.
You will be able to fix the document with either a "Save as Web Page" or a
"Maggie" Before you do either, you may wish to delete your Normal template:
the formatting in that document is so corrupt I am suspicious that the
original from which it was created is also corrupt. By deleting your Normal
template, you can guarantee that any new blank documents you create will
have known good defaults. Sadly that means re-constructing your headers and
footers. If you copy one of the existing ones, you will copy the problem
and the document will go bang again {sigh!}.
Save as Web Page
1. Open the document
2. File>Save As... And choose Web Page
3. In the bottom of the dialog, make CERTAIN ³Save entire file² is checked.
4. Save the file and close the document
5. Quit Word and re-start it
6. Open the Web Page version of the file
7. File>Save as and this time choose ³Document²
8. Give the file a different name, so you have the old one to go back to.
9. Check the file for missing bits.
If you choose ³Save Display information only² you strip out the code in the
file that enables Word to re-create a document from it later. By forcing
Word to re-express the file in a different format, you cause it to discard
any code it cannot understand. That fixes the problem, but it can lead to
missing text.
The Maggie:
1. Create a new blank document
2. Carefully select all of the text in the bad document EXCEPT the last
paragraph mark
3. Copy it.
4. Paste in the new document.
5. Save under a new file name and close all, then re-open.
This technique for de-corrupting is known as "Doing a 'Maggie'", after
Margaret Secara from the TECHWR-L mailing list, who first publicised the
technique.
Hope this helps
John,
Attached is a smallish sample of the problem I'm having with Word tables.
....
This only seemed to crop up for me lately.
I'm curious why you mentioned in a reply that you guessed I had merged row 2.
Is this a know "feature" by the MacBU that they've shared with you MVPs?
Todd
--
John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:
[email protected]
I'm seeing the same issue.
Screen shot of the table in layout view:
<
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/4274/tablemissingtextlayout1.png>
Screen shot of the table in draft view:
<
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/7066/tablemissingtextdraft.png>
I have a small sample document if John McGhie is reading and wants it (saw
your email but didn't want to hit you with it before an invite).
Todd
--
Don't wait for your answer, click here:
http://www.word.mvps.org/
Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.
John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:
[email protected]