Word bug

G

georgesv

In certain word documents, oftentimes complex lay-out with
tables, when printing, the whole system breaks down (blue
screen). This is not a one-time event and appears to be a
typical MS word bug. Oftentimes, again, the solution is to
re-create the whole document from scratch, copying and
pasting non-formatted text or tables. This takes a lot of
time in case of big documents. I would hope this could be
solved with changing some settings or downloading an
update. Does this exist?
Anyone an answer to this kind of problem?

Thanks for helping.
Georges
 
J

Jay Freedman

Hi Georges

A blue-screen error is almost always a driver problem, not an application
program. Since it appears to be associated with printing, try (a)
reinstalling your printer driver or (b) checking the printer manufacturer's
website for an updated driver.

In my experience, there is no such thing as a "typical MS Word bug". There
are dozens, possibly hundreds :) and they're often (but not always)
different from one version to another. However, far more often the errors
are caused by external problems -- bad drivers, poorly written add-ins,
problems with antivirus programs, and the occasional (!) operator error.
 
G

georges

Hi,


Thanks for your reply. I'll check with our IT if they can
look for a printer drivers update. It is true that on
certain priters there is no problem, on others there is.
Curiously enough, when "printing" to acrobat (pdf format),
there is no blue screen but the pdf document doensn't open
and the message is that the document (pdf) is corrupted.

Is there a way to know where in a word document are
corrupted tables or corrupted bits of text? Is there a way
to look at the codes that are used for setting up the
document?

Thanks.
Georges
 
J

Jay Freedman

Hi Georges,

Sometimes it's possible to isolate corruption to a particular table or
section break (the most common locations). Take a copy of the document and
delete half of it, and see whether the problem still occurs. Delete half of
the portion containing the corruption, and so on until you're down to one
table or one paragraph containing a section break. Often, though, it isn't
worth the effort.

The page at http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm describes
several ways of "fixing" corrupted documents, even if you don't know exactly
where the problem is.
 
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