Trouble with Word v.X

macsackbut

Hi all,

I'm trying to open a fairly large Word file (24 MB) that was sent to me in the mail on a CD, and Word v.X chokes on it. The first page or so opens up then I get an endless beachball and the rest of the document doesn't load. The document is format- and graphics-heavy, and I need to preserve this. It's not a question of merely extracting the text. For the record, Word is otherwise working normally for me.

The weird thing is that it opens fine in Word2000 in Windows98 on VPC5.04. It also opens fine (albeit with some loss of formating) in Pages. It opened AppleWorks, but the MacLink Plus translator took forever and in the end, there was significant formatting loss.

I got it to open once in Word v.X. I saved it with another file name, but the new file chokes too, and the original file has gone back to playing beachball. (I stupidly closed the opened file.)

Here's what I've tried so far:

1) Repair permissions and re-boot. (Word chokes.)
2) Open Word first before clicking on the file. (Word chokes.)
3) Re-transfer the file from the CD. (Word chokes.)
4) Open in VPC, save the document under a different name then transfer it from VPC to my OS X desktop. (Word chokes.)
5) Open in VPC, copy and paste the content from the VPC file to a v.X Word file. (Works except all formating is lost.)
6) Copy and paste the content into a new Word file in VPC and transfer that to OS X. (Word chokes.)

I also thought it might be a font problem, so I transferred the font that Pages said was missing from Windows over to OSX (Tempus Sans ITC). Still no go.

Any ideas, or am I stuck working on this file in VPC?

__________________
MBP C2D 2.2/120GB/2GB (10.5.0)
G4 1.42 mini 80GB/1024/Combo/AP/BT (10.4.10); 20" ACD; miniStack+300GB; iSight; AirPort Express
G3 600 iBook 30GB/640/DVD-ROM/AP (10.4.10)
4G iPod (40GB) | 2G iPod nano (4 GB-red) | My Mac blog: Singing the Apple

Vexel

Hey MacS, I did a little digging.. and I came up with a document on "Document Corruption" for Word X and Word 2004.

Maybe give it a shot... http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/DocumentCorruption.htm

__________________
2.0Ghz '09 Mac Mini

www.radioaddix.net

MacDoc

Oddly enough TextEdit may handle it. Give it a try.

__________________
Are you backed up??? if not why not? - Superduper is FREE!!
Find out more here
Support Green- buy Bullfrog Power http://www.bullfrogpower.com/

krs

These MVP sites are terrific. I remember struggling with a relatively small Word document (on Windows), about 60 pages, where the pagination would change when the document was transmitted as an attachment via email. People just wouldn't believe that could happen.
But the MVP site (took me a while to stumble on it) actually knew about the problem.

macsackbut

Vexel, you humble me every time. THANK YOU for pointing me to this site (which didn't open properly in Safari, BTW--figures I guess )

I ended copying all but the last page into a new Word file on VPC and dragging that to my OS X desktop. Halleluia! It opened. I managed to cut and paste the last page into that new document from an older version.

This is the second time in recent weeks you've saved my butt, Vex. You truly rock, mf, both literally and figuratively.

MacS

PS. MacDoc, TextEdit choked on the file, but opened other Word files remarkably well, so I'll definitely keep that app in mind for the future.

krs, rest assured, I'm bookmarking that MVP site.

Thank you all for your help and suggestions.

MacS

__________________
MBP C2D 2.2/120GB/2GB (10.5.0)
G4 1.42 mini 80GB/1024/Combo/AP/BT (10.4.10); 20" ACD; miniStack+300GB; iSight; AirPort Express
G3 600 iBook 30GB/640/DVD-ROM/AP (10.4.10)
4G iPod (40GB) | 2G iPod nano (4 GB-red) | My Mac blog: Singing the Apple

MacDoc

Glad you got it sorted out - TextEdit surprises me and it's really the only word processor I want or need.
Thought it worth a shot.

__________________
Are you backed up??? if not why not? - Superduper is FREE!!
Find out more here
Support Green- buy Bullfrog Power http://www.bullfrogpower.com/

krs

And the MPV site of course explains that as well
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm

macsackbut

Yeah, I saw that afterwards. I must say, those guys do seem to have a sense of humour. Refreshing. Looks like a great project.

__________________
MBP C2D 2.2/120GB/2GB (10.5.0)
G4 1.42 mini 80GB/1024/Combo/AP/BT (10.4.10); 20" ACD; miniStack+300GB; iSight; AirPort Express
G3 600 iBook 30GB/640/DVD-ROM/AP (10.4.10)
4G iPod (40GB) | 2G iPod nano (4 GB-red) | My Mac blog: Singing the Apple

krs

I wish they were a bit more specific with the problem in Safari.
Right now I use Firefox, but I was going to switch to Safari when I finally go with Tiger.........now I'm not so sure, maybe Firefox is a safer bet at this time.

macsackbut

I use both: Safari for most browsing and FF for the odd page that doesn't open in Safari. FireFox is a great browser, as you know, but I find Safari launches and loads pages faster, especially in Tiger. I suggest you give Safari a chance. Now, where's MacDoc, telling us to try Shiira

__________________
MBP C2D 2.2/120GB/2GB (10.5.0)
G4 1.42 mini 80GB/1024/Combo/AP/BT (10.4.10); 20" ACD; miniStack+300GB; iSight; AirPort Express
G3 600 iBook 30GB/640/DVD-ROM/AP (10.4.10)
4G iPod (40GB) | 2G iPod nano (4 GB-red) | My Mac blog: Singing the Apple