Word 2003 can't save .doc as .rtf

E

Ed

Hi all

I have a fairly chewy word doc in word 2003 (has images,
markup, fancy formatting, etc) and when I try to save it
as .rtf, Word 2003 just hangs.

I've replicated this problem about a dozen times in a row
now.

I have quite a few docs that are similar to this one, and
so far, this is the first that Word has been unable to
save in this format.

Am I trapped by Word's handicap, or is there something I
can do to the file or to Word to help me get past this?

Thanks for any hints,

E
 
H

Herb Tyson [MVP]

I've seen this happen any number of times. There likely is "something" in
the file that Word doesn't like. It likely will take a little bit of
detective work to figure out what the problem element is.

Here's what I would try:

1. Brute force: try opening the file in WordPad, and see if you can save it
to .rtf from there. If you can, then don't worry about what's causing the
problem. Just be glad that it was "easy" to get around.

2. Binary experimentation: If WordPad chokes on it, try splitting the file
in half, in Word. Try to save the first half in .rtf. If it chokes, then
split that half in half, and repeat. Basically, you use a process of
elimination to identify "good" and "bad" parts of the document, and drill
away at the "bad" part to try to isolate whatever's causing the problem.
Sometimes, it can be a single odd character or graphic that Word has somehow
managed to corrupt.

Good luck!
 
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