Large file crashing (Word XP)

Topic

New Reply

I’m suddenly having trouble with a relatively large file (13MB) refusing to print – just crashes Word each time. Trying to print a single page does not cure the problem and trying to cut and paste into a new Word file also fails. Any ideas?

Reply | Quote

Replies

Most likely, the file has become corrupt… the last paragraph marker in the document is what usually corrupts, so when you are cutting and pasting to a new blank document ensure that you do not select this marker (turn on the Show/Hide next to the Zoom icon on Standard toolbar). I usually go to the top of doc (Ctrl+Home), then perform a Ctrl+Shift+End to select everything from top to bottom, then continue holding the shift key and use the left arrow key to deselect the last paragraph marker. Copy text and paste into a new blank document.

Watch for headers/footers – anything which is a property of the document (page setup, sections (which include headers/footers) – can be affected by doing this. You may have to recreate any that did not make it – they were probably corrupt!

Anyhow… hope this helped… trish

Reply | Quote

Thanks very much for your help trish. Unfortunately, even doing exactly as you say Word crashes. It’s beginning to look like I’ll have to paste the changes into an older version of the file bit by bit – not a good way to end the week!

Reply | Quote

Try one more thing to eliminate other causes… copy the entire document and paste it into a new blank document using Paste Special, unformatted text… then see if some pages will print? This will clean all corrupt code in the document – however, any formatting will be lost…

Are you using styles in the document? Word can become corrupt if there is too much direct formatting (putting formatting on top of the normal style), as well as empty paragraph markers (pressing enter twice to start a new paragraph)… for any repeatitive formatting, these items should be stored in a style, not each paragraph marker. All of this direct formatting in very large documents usually causes corruption.

Let me know if I can help out anymore… good luck… trish

Reply | Quote

Thanks once again, Trish. The file was an updated German –> English translation I had been doing for a client, so I was not involved in the original formatting. Unfortunately, it was a situation where I could not afford to lose the formatting to fix it (though your hints may well be a lifesaver in similar situations in the future), so I sent it to the client in its corrupted form. Oddly enough it worked OK for him (though slow), and on a Mac rather than a PC! Difficult to explain that one, as my PC (4-month-old Dell Dimension 3100C with 2GB RAM) and my printer HP LaserJet 2300 with, I think, 32MB RAM, should have been able to cope.

Many thanks in any case for your help.

Reply | Quote