Word 2002 - Can't type more than one page on a new document

S

Seth

A friend of mine is having a very odd problem with her copy of Word
2002. It just started a couple of days ago, and we can't figure out
what caused it. Here is what happens. She creates a new document, and
starts typing. When she gets to the end of the first page, Word stops
taking inpput from the keyboard. It doesn't create a new page, it just
sits there doing nothing. I thought it might have been a problem with
her normal.dot file, so I sent her a copy from my machine. She opened
that up and got the same problem. She uninstalled and reinstalled Word
yesterday, but she got the same problem. I am at a loss of words for
why this is happening. Here is her set up. I would apreciate any
thoughts or help anyone has.

Microsoft works suite 2004
word 2002 for Microsoft office XP
and I have windows ME
 
S

Seth

Nope, She got the latest virus definitions from Norton and did a full
virus scan, and it didn't find anything.
 
S

Seth

She sent me a document, and I could only see the first page. When I got
to the end, it looked like the text kept going in, but I could only see
the first page. If I typed something in the middle of the first page,
the stuff at the end disapeared.

My system is office XP on windows XP

and hers is:

Microsoft works suite 2004
word 2002 for Microsoft office XP
and I have windows ME

But it didn't affect my Word. If I create a new document, it works fine
for me.
 
B

Beth Melton

Hi Seth,

Since you have a document that exhibits the behavior, instead of
making additional suggestions, such as see if the document text is in
a text box, table, etc, why don't you email the document to me and
I'll take a look. :)

Remove 'NoSpam4Me' to obtain a valid email address.

--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
 
B

Beth Melton

Hi Seth,

Thanks for the example document. I'm surprised your replacement
Normal.dot did not rectify the problem. (Perhaps it wasn't replaced
correctly??)

Here is the advice you should give her:

Locate Normal.dot and rename it to OldNormal.dot. Word will create a
new one upon starting.

If this resolves the problem, any customizations can be copied to the
new Normal.dot via the Organizer (Tools/Templates and Add-Ins) Once
this is complete OldNormal.dot can be discarded. If the problem still
exists then you can delete the new Normal.dot and rename your
OldNormal.dot to Normal.dot.

You could also instruct her on how to rectify the problem but just in
case I missed something it's probably best she start with a fresh
Normal.dot.

Now, the underlying problem is due to the document containing two
columns, each 6" in width and the text of only one is visible when
viewing the document in Print Layout view.

You can correct the problem by going to Format/Columns and clicking
"One" in the Presets section. It is important you click "One" so the
"Equal column width" option is selected at the bottom of the dialog
box. In this case it doesn't matter, since I doubt you will keep the
document, but for a 'good' document this is important or modifications
to page margins, orientation, etc. will be limited.

I had the opportunity to troubleshoot a document which exhibited
identical behavior about three months ago. (I recognized it
immediately - I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier -
sorry!) I was able to duplicate the behavior by modifying a two column
layout using the ruler bar but I'll tell you it took some work!

I suspect it is caused by third-party but without knowing more
information, such as did she download any templates, install any new
software, etc. I really don't know. btw, did her version of Word come
installed as part of Works Suite?
--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

Thanks for reminding me, too, to add this to my arsenal of suggestions. As
soon as I saw "columns," I remembered the previous solution, but I guess I'm
stuck in text box/floating table mode!
 
B

Beth Melton

It sounded so obscure I forgot about it. It's pretty difficult to
'remove' a column using the ruler bar ~and~ keep perfect page margins.
I can see one person doing this with a little perseverance, but now
two with the same identical layout?

It has to be a third party, but who??
--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
 
S

Seth

Thank you so much for your help. That fix worked. I was asking what
she was doing right before the problem started to occur. She only
installed one thing and that didn't sound like it would have done it.
She then said that right before it started happening, she selected and
copied a whole page from Internet Explorer and pasted it into word. If
there was some table formatting on the webpage, would that have messed
with the columns in Word?
 
B

Beth Melton

Hi Seth,

I'm glad the issue has been resolved. :)

I can't say a table copied from the web would modify text columns but
you never know. This is more information than we have previously and
that never hurts.

One thing that remains a mystery is how the changes were written to
her Normal.dot.

Also, did you catch my last question? Was Word installed as part of
Works Suite?
--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
 
Top