unexpectantly quit

[Chewbaka1]

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

I started working on a Word brochure (Word v.X, Mac OS 10.3). I then e-mailed it to my computer (Word v.X, Mac OS 10.5). When I open it the "unexpectedly quit" message appears. I've tried e-mailing again and using a usb flash drive. I've also tried deleted the MS Word preference (.plist) file from the library on the 10.5 mac. I still get the same error message.

 

[John McGhie]

I would say the document is corrupt. I assume you have applied the latest
update for Office v.X, on both machines? If not, those updates are
essential to getting v.X to run at all in OS 10.5.

However, getting Word v.X working on OS 10.5 is very hit-and-miss. Word X
was designed for OS 10.1, and relies on Classic, which is not available in
OS 10.5.

You should probably take the document back to OS 10.3 and try to de-corrupt
it. However: The complex formatting with lots of floating objects that is
common in a brochure means you may not be able to rescue the document.

You can try three techniques:

1) Save the Document as RTF and try that.

2) Save the document as a Web Page (you will lose lots of layout
formatting, but you will keep your character formatting).

3) Do a Maggie:

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.

You may not lose much formatting at all, but you will lose whatever it was
that corrupted (maybe a table).

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.

Try and live with Word v.X until Office 2010 appears before you upgrade ‹
Office 2010 will be a major improvement.

Cheers

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

I started working on a Word brochure (Word v.X, Mac OS 10.3). I then e-mailed
it to my computer (Word v.X, Mac OS 10.5). When I open it the "unexpectedly
quit" message appears. I've tried e-mailing again and using a usb flash drive.
I've also tried deleted the MS Word preference (.plist) file from the library
on the 10.5 mac. I still get the same error message.

--
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]

 

[Chewbaka1]

I've tried doing all of the things you've suggested, and I still can't read the file. If you know when Office 2010 is expected to ship, I would appreciate that information. If it is not soon, I'm afraid that I'll have to upgrade to 2008 since most of my schoolwork includes sharing files with other computers, including IBM's at school, which I've also experienced problems with.

 

[CyberTaz]

Not to steal John's thunder, but *nobody* here has any idea what MS may
release when other than what is public knowledge based on releases by MS. To
date that information has been quite vague -- something to the effect of
"early 1010". Anyone who knows more specific details is under strict NDA
preventing them from disclosing that confidential info.

I also agree with John that you may be dealing with a corrupt document... at
least you make no mention of having similar problems with any other files.
If that's the case it's unlikely that upgrading will make a difference in
the first place. If you have access to a PC running Win Office 2003 or 2007
you might try opening the file there. Win Office has more built-in capacity
to recover problem files than does Mac Office.

As another thought not yet voiced: Is your installation of Office fully
updated (10.1.9), and have you repaired disk permissions recently?

Additionally, did you actually *install* Office X on the 10.5.x Mac or did
you in some way try to migrate or copy it from another system?

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Chewbaka1]

The latest version of v.X is installed on my computer. Also, this copy of v.X was transferred from an old iMac running on Mac OS 10.2.8. Strangely, I e-mailed the file to another user of the same computer and they COULD open it.

 

[Chewbaka1]

Today I discovered the 30-day trial of 2008. I downloaded it and was able to open the document. Thanks for the help.

 

[John McGhie]

Just to reinforce what Bob said...

"Those who know (The ship date for Office Next) are not allowed to tell us.
Those who tell us; don't know."

If you want my "guess": it's the same as Bob's ‹ I think Microsoft is on
schedule to ship at their stated date of "early 2010".

Normally, you would expect that to mean the product would appear in the
shops just before Christmas this year. However, everyone in America is
broke right now, so it would make sense for any large company to delay its
product releases until people have the money to buy them.

I also agree with Bob that if Word v.X won't open the document, neither will
Word 2004 or Word 2008.

I suspect that that document is irreparably broken. You may have to use
"Recover Text from Any File" to rescue the text out of that file and start
again.

Hope this helps

I've tried doing all of the things you've suggested, and I still can't read
the file. If you know when Office 2010 is expected to ship, I would appreciate
that information. If it is not soon, I'm afraid that I'll have to upgrade to
2008 since most of my schoolwork includes sharing files with other computers,
including IBM's at school, which I've also experienced problems with.

--
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]

 

[John McGhie]

Oh! Good idea

Before the trial expires, make sure you save the document out to RTF and
bring it back in again to .doc format. Otherwise, you may discover you get
into the same problem again.

The document's internal structure is damaged: Word 2008 will do some fixes,
but you then need to save back to a format Word v.X will open.

Cheers

Today I discovered the 30-day trial of 2008. I downloaded it and was able to
open the document. Thanks for the help.

--
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]

 

[CyberTaz]

Again, not disagreeing with John, but I believe you've revealed the true
source of the problem -- migrating any version of Office from one Mac to
another typically results in performance issues. It's fine to migrate your
user files & some of the less complex programs, but it doesn't work for more
sophisticated & involved suites such as Office... At least not with any
appreciable degree of reliability.

My guess is that if you perform a Remove Office on the problem Mac then do a
full install of Office v.X & update it that you won't have a continuation of
the problem. You'll find excellent guidelines here:

http://www.entourage.mvps.org/install/index.html

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac