Word 2004 freezing upon saving

[punk_rawk_qween87]

Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: intel

Almost every time I save a document in Word2004, word freezes and I have to force quit it. After that, when I try to re-open my document (which obviously didn't get saved), finder freezes and I have to force quit that as well. After all that my icons disappear from my desktop and I have to force shut down my computer. This happens AT LEAST once a day and is very frustrating as I lose parts of my document and have to type them again!
Any help please???

 

[CyberTaz]

Are OS X & Office up-to-date (10.4.11 & 11.5.0 respectively)? If not that
would be the first step, followed by repairing disk permissions & restarting
your Mac. I fact, I'd suggest repairing permissions before attempting any
updates then doing so again afterward. There is information here on a
*former* problem of a similar nature, but that should have been corrected -
and was for most - by the 10.4.8 update to OS X:

http://www.word.mvps.org/mac/crash-macintel-word.html

If what's suggested above doesn't correct the problem come back with
complete version details. Also, do you have any 3rd party utilities or
haxies for font or file management? Any additional details will help, but I
strongly suspect permissions problem more than anything else.

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

 

[punk_rawk_qween87]

It worked for the first day-then started doing it again.

 

[CyberTaz]

I'm sorry, but unless you give information far more detailed & specific than
that there really isn't anything anyone can suggest.

What did you try?
What "worked"?
What exact version of Leopard?
What exact version of Office?
What about answers to the questions in my first reply?

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

 

[John McGhie]

OK.

Sorry, but if you won't provide detail of what is in the document, and what
you are doing, we really CAN'T help you.

Fault-finding a computer is a process, not an event. You have to eliminate
the possibilities one by one until you get there. Often, you have to fix
more than one problem. We can't help you do that without you supplying the
details -- we can't read your screen from here.

It doesn't do it for us: if you keep working at it, it won't do it for you
either...

Cheers

It worked for the first day-then started doing it again.

--
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]

 

[punk_rawk_qween87]

Well I didn't know exactly what info you needed from me. I did everything that you suggested, as well as what the link suggested.
I did just recently update my Word. And I don't know what "3rd party utilities or haxies for font or file management" are.
So what info do you need?

 

[John McGhie]

I am trying to track down "what changed" on that first day.

You had this working, then the fault came back.

So: Something happened on or after that first day to cause the issue.

"Freeze on Saving is normally a "Can't write the file" problem. That can
have two causes: either the file permissions are bad and you are not allowed
to, or the file itself is corrupted so when Word attempts to write it out,
it cannot read the contents.

While Word is working on a document, it has as many as 26 different files
open, any of which could be the problem.

My first thought is: "The Document". The document is subjected to lots of
war and tear while editing: if anything is likely to go bad, that is.

So I would like you to try a new clean document to see if you can
successfully work in and save that.

The link Bob sent you to told you how to find and remove your Normal.dotm
template. If you did not do that step, please do so now: the Normal
template is the model Word uses for every document it creates. If that goes
bad, every document you create is bad.

After having replaced the Normal template, THEN create a new blank document
and edit with that for a while. Do not COPY/PASTE anything into it.
Document corruptions are easily copied, and can thus spread like a virus.

If it stays good for two days, we can assume that it was document
corruption, and talk you through recovering from that.

On the other hand, if these efforts produce no effect at all, we can assume
bad preferences or software conflicts, and work through resolving those.

Hope this helps

Well I didn't know exactly what info you needed from me. I did everything that
you suggested, as well as what the link suggested.
I did just recently update my Word. And I don't know what "3rd party utilities
or haxies for font or file management" are.
So what info do you need?

--
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]

 

[punk_rawk_qween87]

I did follow the steps on the link he gave - although it was just about turning off 'show preview' of document.
So here's some more info that may help: for the 'stuff' I do on Word, I'm usually in "Notebook View', as i only use word for school (doing notes, etc), and also I am saving on a portable flash drive.
Hopefully that info helps a bit...

 

[CyberTaz]

OK - I think I see where your problem is... Do Not attempt to save files
directly to or open files directly from a "flash drive". Always use a hard
drive for any work you do. Once you save & close the file use Finder to Copy
(drag) or Move (Command+Drag) the file to the removable device. For further
work, move or copy the file back to a hard drive & revise that copy.

Contrary to what the manufacturers would have you believe, USB "sticks" are
*not* drives & do not work on the same principles. They are great for
storing files & transporting them from one system to another, but they don't
serve as a substitute for a fixed media device.

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

 

[punk_rawk_qween87]

Interesting...
Thanks for the help

OK - I think I see where your problem is... Do Not attempt to save files
directly to or open files directly from a "flash drive". Always use a hard
drive for any work you do. Once you save & close the file use Finder to Copy
(drag) or Move (Command+Drag) the file to the removable device. For further
work, move or copy the file back to a hard drive & revise that copy.

Contrary to what the manufacturers would have you believe, USB "sticks" are
*not* drives & do not work on the same principles. They are great for
storing files & transporting them from one system to another, but they don't
serve as a substitute for a fixed media device.

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

 

[punk_rawk_qween87]

Ok so I tried saving a document NOT on my flash drive and it still froze

 

[John McGhie]

OK, so we have a corrupt document.

1) Create a new blank document

2) Type two or three words

3) Save -- will it save? If yes...

4) Close the file.

5) Re-open the file and type two more words.

6) Save again -- will it save?

I am trying to find out whether your Normal template is also bad. If it's
OK all the way to step 6, then it's just the document that is bad, and we
need to Maggie it:

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 Word PC-L mailing list who first publicised the
technique.

Cheers

Ok so I tried saving a document NOT on my flash drive and it still froze

--
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]