Table of Contents Hangs Word (2002)

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G’day,

I am helping a colleague with formatting of his document with a template I had created in the past. Whenever we try to update the Table of Contents (TOC) the program hangs.

File configuration Information:
About 55 pages.
Approximately 550 KB
Not much in the way of graphics.

What I have done/tried:
+ I removed all aliases that were in the heading and body text styles.
+ Tried Updating the TOC – computer hangs with the repagination style message in the bottom left hand corner.
+ Tried COpying TOC from working Template – computer hangs when trying to update with the repagination style message in the bottom left hand corner.
+ Tried Creating a new TOC – hangs
+ Tried Creating a new TOC with just Heading 1 style – hangs.

I have done all the above in page layout and normal view (dont know if this would make any difference anyway). Any help would be greatly appreciated…the document is supposed to be delivered tomorrow.

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Replies

(Edited by Phil Rabichow on 23-Sep-03 09:55. to add Additional)

Hi Claude:
Additional: Before you check for corruption, if the problem is with Word, you can start Word from Start/Run & type
winword.exe /a
& then press . This will start Word without any add-ins or normal.dot. Then open your document & try updating the TOC. If this works, you will be able to turn in the document & later work on correcting the problem. If that works you can later correct the problem by following the steps in post 197827.

It sounds like there’s corruption in the document. Since you’re pressed for time, I’d try the following on a COPY of the document.

1. Try saving the document as as web page (HTML) & then reopen & save as a doc file.
2. Try removing all the hidden bookmarks in the document. You will have to replace cross-references. This macro will help:

Sub DeleteHiddenTocBookmarks()
'
' DeleteHiddenBookmarks Macro
' Deletes all hidden bookmarks in a document.
'
   Dim i As Long
   ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.ShowHidden = True
   For i = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Count To 1 Step -1
      If Left$(ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(i).Name, 4) = "_Toc" Then
         ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(i).Delete
      End If
      Application.ActiveDocument.UndoClear
   Next i
   ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.ShowHidden = False
End Sub

3. Divide the document in 1/2 (a copy of it) by copying the first half to one new document & the second half to another document. Try to create a TOC in each. Hopefully, one won’t be corrupt. You keep dividing the corrupt part in 1/2, copying to the new document, & updating the TOC. If it works, you keep adding. If it fails, close without saving. Hopefully, you can salvage most of the document & need only redo a small portion.
Hope this helps,

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(Edited by Phil Rabichow on 23-Sep-03 09:55. to add Additional)

Hi Claude:
Additional: Before you check for corruption, if the problem is with Word, you can start Word from Start/Run & type
winword.exe /a
& then press . This will start Word without any add-ins or normal.dot. Then open your document & try updating the TOC. If this works, you will be able to turn in the document & later work on correcting the problem. If that works you can later correct the problem by following the steps in post 197827.

It sounds like there’s corruption in the document. Since you’re pressed for time, I’d try the following on a COPY of the document.

1. Try saving the document as as web page (HTML) & then reopen & save as a doc file.
2. Try removing all the hidden bookmarks in the document. You will have to replace cross-references. This macro will help:

Sub DeleteHiddenTocBookmarks()
'
' DeleteHiddenBookmarks Macro
' Deletes all hidden bookmarks in a document.
'
   Dim i As Long
   ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.ShowHidden = True
   For i = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Count To 1 Step -1
      If Left$(ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(i).Name, 4) = "_Toc" Then
         ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(i).Delete
      End If
      Application.ActiveDocument.UndoClear
   Next i
   ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.ShowHidden = False
End Sub

3. Divide the document in 1/2 (a copy of it) by copying the first half to one new document & the second half to another document. Try to create a TOC in each. Hopefully, one won’t be corrupt. You keep dividing the corrupt part in 1/2, copying to the new document, & updating the TOC. If it works, you keep adding. If it fails, close without saving. Hopefully, you can salvage most of the document & need only redo a small portion.
Hope this helps,

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Claude,

You say you don’t have much in the way of graphics, but they might be contributing to your hangs. I’ve run into docs that have hung on TOC creation because one or more of the graphics was anchored to a paragraph bearing a style that was to be picked up and indexed during TOC update.

I can’t say for sure that’s your problem, but you might like to take a quick patrol through to make sure that your few graphics are all pegged to non-indexed paragraph styles. I’d pay special attention to the paragraphs bearing Heading 1, since you report that TOCs indexing only that level cause the problem.

Kim Salazar, Proposal Drone

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Claude,

You say you don’t have much in the way of graphics, but they might be contributing to your hangs. I’ve run into docs that have hung on TOC creation because one or more of the graphics was anchored to a paragraph bearing a style that was to be picked up and indexed during TOC update.

I can’t say for sure that’s your problem, but you might like to take a quick patrol through to make sure that your few graphics are all pegged to non-indexed paragraph styles. I’d pay special attention to the paragraphs bearing Heading 1, since you report that TOCs indexing only that level cause the problem.

Kim Salazar, Proposal Drone

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Claude

If the document can repaginate happily then this is a tricky problem. You could follow Phil’s suggestions to discover the source of the problem but a couple of other suggestions might allow you to create the TOC as a quick fix.

1. Turn off spell checking – in case it is using up needed memory
2. Check whether you have any graphics inside tables in the header and footer. This can sometimes cause continuous repagination issues.
3. Save the file out as RTF and see whether that can be re-opened and worked with.

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Andrew, Phil and Kim,

Thanks for all your inputs. I tried a number of your recommendations this morning which did not work:

Phil’s suggestions: Tried start /run did not work but this is probably due to me removing word from start menu. I postponed suggestion 1,2 & 3 until trying Kim and Andrew’s suggestions.

Kim’s suggestions: I deleted all graphics and it still hung during TOC update.
Andrew’s Suggestions: Turned off spelling and confirmed no graphic in the header table.

When I tried the table update following Andrew’s suggestion, I noticed that the repagnation was getting stuck on page 48 (checked later no graphics on pg 48 just text with a couple of headings) and word also had the instruction ‘hit ESC to discontinue’ or words to that effect. I hit ESC and ‘Hey Presto’, the TOC was updated…for what reason I am not sure. COnfused, I went to the original document removed the style aliases as I had done before, turned on the spell checking etc, left all the graphics in and hit the TOC update and it worked#!#@$!!

I dont understand why but it is working now so I, and my colleague, are happy. Thanks for all your assistance. Wish I could advise why the problem fixed itself.

Reply | Quote

Andrew, Phil and Kim,

Thanks for all your inputs. I tried a number of your recommendations this morning which did not work:

Phil’s suggestions: Tried start /run did not work but this is probably due to me removing word from start menu. I postponed suggestion 1,2 & 3 until trying Kim and Andrew’s suggestions.

Kim’s suggestions: I deleted all graphics and it still hung during TOC update.
Andrew’s Suggestions: Turned off spelling and confirmed no graphic in the header table.

When I tried the table update following Andrew’s suggestion, I noticed that the repagnation was getting stuck on page 48 (checked later no graphics on pg 48 just text with a couple of headings) and word also had the instruction ‘hit ESC to discontinue’ or words to that effect. I hit ESC and ‘Hey Presto’, the TOC was updated…for what reason I am not sure. COnfused, I went to the original document removed the style aliases as I had done before, turned on the spell checking etc, left all the graphics in and hit the TOC update and it worked#!#@$!!

I dont understand why but it is working now so I, and my colleague, are happy. Thanks for all your assistance. Wish I could advise why the problem fixed itself.

Reply | Quote

Claude

If the document can repaginate happily then this is a tricky problem. You could follow Phil’s suggestions to discover the source of the problem but a couple of other suggestions might allow you to create the TOC as a quick fix.

1. Turn off spell checking – in case it is using up needed memory
2. Check whether you have any graphics inside tables in the header and footer. This can sometimes cause continuous repagination issues.
3. Save the file out as RTF and see whether that can be re-opened and worked with.

Reply | Quote