Word '97 File that I've been using for years is suddenly not working

D

Dinesh

I've got a certain Word document that I've been adding to
on a weekly basis for almost 6 years, and as of last week,
it has started to crash my computer whenever I open it. It
is now at about 122 pages in length- has it got something
to do with the possibility that it is now too big (in
terms of memory)? Or is there some other potential issue
that can be fixed?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!
 
T

Tsu Dho Nimh

Dinesh said:
I've got a certain Word document that I've been adding to
on a weekly basis for almost 6 years, and as of last week,
it has started to crash my computer whenever I open it. It
is now at about 122 pages in length- has it got something
to do with the possibility that it is now too big (in
terms of memory)? Or is there some other potential issue
that can be fixed?
Click to expand...

122 pages is large, but not too large, unless you are using
nbothing but Normal style, heavily modified.

Open any Word Document and DISABLE fast saves for Word.

If you can get the flawed file open, SAVE AS RTF and then reopen
it with Word. This clears out all kinds of hexes.

Word97 has a serious bug: any time you re-generate the TOC, it
leaves the old entries hanging around, invisible. And if you
allow fast saves, an amazing amount of crud accumulates in the
files.



Tsu Dho Nimh
 
B

Beth Melton

I suspect the 'serious bug' you may have encountered in the past not
updating the TOC correctly. :)

If you recreate a TOC you should do so by updating the TOC field
(right-click and select "Update Field" or select the field and press
F9) rather than deleting the TOC and inserting it again. In doing so
the hidden bookmarks used for the TOC are not deleted. If you do this
enough times then you could encounter ~16,000 limitation for the
number of Bookmarks in a document. The same scenario applies in all
versions of Word.

--
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

It could be that the document is corrupt. Here are a few things to
try:

If the document contains graphics then in Word go to
Tools/Options/View and turn in "Picture Placeholders" and "Draft
Font".
If the document contains links then on the General tab make sure
"Update automatic links at Open" is turned off.

Try using a document link to retrieve the corrupt document:
- Create a new document
- Copy some text from another document
- In the new document use Edit/Paste Special and select "Paste Link"
- Go to Edit/Links and change the source of the link to the document
you can not open

If this works then return to Edit/Links and break the link to the
source document.

For additional troubleshooting steps/methods take a look at this
article:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm

You also try a recovery utility such as those from
http://www.officerecovery.com/, however they aren't free downloads.
:)

--
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/
 
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