Word Crashes

M

Mary Ellis

I am working on a family genealogy book using Word 2007, this book is at
about 467 pages now. Hopefully it is finished but I will be starting another
one soon. I have had so much trouble with the first one that I would like to
be able to avoid in the next.
When I edit the pages by moving pictures, or inserting new text, really just
about anything that makes the page move will cause the document to crash. I
have had to revert to an older copy several times because the current copy
becomes corrupted. Of course when this happens, I have to go back and make
the changes that have been made since this copy was last used. This of
course leaves this copy open to crashing and corrupting while making the
changes.
There are a 'lot' of pictures, newspaper articles or poems inserted in this
document, and also tables with census info, birth, marriage and death records
and other vital records.
Any suggestions as to what I can do to keep this from crashing?
 
H

Herb Tyson [MVP]

Are you saving the file in the new format (.docx) or legacy format
(97-2003)? How large is the file in megabytes? I find that .docx files tend
to be a lot smaller and more stable. But, for something important, I often
maintain drafts in both formats--just in case.

While I've seen testimonial from numerous users that Word can handle
enormous files, it is my experience that the larger the Word document, the
more unstable it is.

When I work with a book that large and that graphics-intense, I divide it
into multiple files (no -- I don't use the master document feature, as it
multiplies the likelihood of document corruption). Make sure that all of the
pieces use the identical document template, and that any styles that get
updated in any one piece are saved into the template so that all of the
different chunks rely on the same basic style/formatting definitions.

When working on any given chunk, save--and save often. You can also set the
automatic recovery interval to a low number to reduce the amount of work you
have to redo if there's a crash.

For the overall rendering--which I'm guessing would be paper, a pdf, or
both--I would create a "master" file with a series of includetext fields,
each referring to one of the different components. You can insert these
fields manually (but specifying folder location needs to be done using \\
instead of \), or you can use Insert - Quick Parts - Field..., or you can
use Insert - Object (dropdown arrow) - Text from File - Insert as Link.
 
M

Mary Ellis

I am saving in both formats, it is the docx file that crashes. The docx file
is 109,934 kb, the doc. is 118,605 kb. It would be nice to divide into
smaller files but then I can't create an index.
I haven't used templetes and I don't know anything about includetext fields.
I do save after every few changes but it takes at least a minute if not 2 to
save the file.
After I get the file the way I need it I save to pdf to get the final print
file. This has to be reviewed because it seems that there is a tendency for a
table or a picture to slide and cover part of the text. Thanks goodness this
doesn't seem to be many, but every page has to be checked.
Mary
 
S

S-Dogg

You probably already thought of this, but have you already compressed all
your images? What image formats are you using?
 
M

Mary Ellis

I haven't compressed the pictures but I did make them almost as small as I
needed instead of putting an 8X10 and making it 3X5. I use JPG files for the
book.

Mary
 
B

Beth Melton

Mary Ellis said:
I haven't compressed the pictures but I did make them almost as small as I
needed instead of putting an 8X10 and making it 3X5. I use JPG files for
the
book.
Click to expand...

If you mean you "made them small" by resizing the in Word then all that
changed was the viewing size. The file size is still the same. You might try
compressing the pictures. I'd also link the images instead of embedding
them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Melton
What is a Microsoft MVP? http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/gp/mvpfaqs

Guides for the Office 2007 Interface:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/HA102295841033.aspx
 
H

Herb Tyson [MVP]

Using separate smaller files won't prevent you from creating an index. If
you include the components using includetext fields, you can create an
index. Just mark the index entries as you normally would in the smaller
files, then insert the index into the "master" file that contains just the
includetext fields. Indexes work fine--as do tables of contents.

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com
 
M

Mary Ellis

I meant that I convert to a smaller picture size not just resize by dragging
them smaller.
But this includetext fields sounds like a winner. I really want to learn
this function. Where is the best place to go to read up on this.
Thanks Herb

Mary
 
H

Herb Tyson [MVP]

Easier than reading about it is to experiment with it. Start a new document,
click the Insert tab in the ribbon, then click the dropdown arrow
immediately to the right of the Object tool (in the Text section of the
Insert tab), and click Text from File.

The default behavior is Insert -- which inserts the file itself rather than
a link to the file. For your purposes, you want Insert as Link, so click the
arrow to the right of the Insert button, and choose Insert as Link. This
will insert the file, but as an includetext field. If you press Alt+F9, it
will toggle between field code and field display. If I were inserting
multiple includetext fields, I would use the interface to insert the first
one, then toggle the codes on, make a copy of that first one and edit it so
that the file name is correct for the 2nd one, then repeat the process
until I had all I needed in the file. Finally, select the whole lot and
press F9 (Update Fields) to refresh the changed file names, and the press
Alt+F9 to toggle the field display back on.

To learn more about fields in general, press F1 in Word, type includetext
into the search box and press Enter. Click on the "Insert and format field
codes in Word" link.

What you need to be careful of is NOT to edit the displayed text in your
master file. That's because the underlying text in the actual documents
won't be changed. Instead, if you need to make a change, change the original
file, then put the cursor anywhere inside the displayed file in the master
file, and press F9 to update the field display.

Good luck!

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com
 
M

Mary Ellis

Thanks so much Herb, I am going to try this, this week. I might be back for
help, but I hope that this is something I can pick up really quick.

Thanks Again
Mary
 
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