Word doc locks up on page 12 of report

[wisgro]

I have been using a master copy of an inherited multi page report for about a year. I enter text, insert photos, excel tables & charts & text boxes. Check box areas are marked as sections. Today I inserted a photo and descriptive text box on page 12 of the report. When I clicked the text box border for the shortcut menu an hour glass appeared and the document locked up. "Not responding" was visible in the status bar. I closed then re-opened the file. Everything is fine until I get to page 12. Merely moving from page 11 to 12 locks up Word. I can neither select anything on page 12 nor move to page 12. If I ctrl F and type a word that is on page 12 or beyond, Word immediately locks up. I have deleted all temp copies and tried again and again to get onto or past page 12 without success. I tried to copy the first 11 pages and paste into a blank doc but nothing pasted into the blank doc can be changed. Example: I can't hide grid lines in a table. Objects can't be selected and moved. I can start over but about 5 hours work would go down the drain. This happened about 6 months ago and I fixed it but don't recall how. (Next time I'll write it down.) Any advice greatly appreciated. I use version 2002 a.k.a. XP.

 

[macropod]

Hi wisgro,

I suspect the document has become corrupt. Try saving it as an RTF file, then exit/restart Word and re-open the RTF version - you may find the problem's been fixed. If so, save as a doc file again.

Cheers

[MS MVP - Word]

 

[wisgro]

Thanks for responding. The fix didn't work. I tried printing the rtf and doc versions but neither would print. I then tried to print pages 1 through 11 that seemed okay but they wouldn't print either. Looks like I'll have to start over. I will attempt to open a blank doc next to the corrupt doc and mimic the new entries as best I can. Copy and paste won't work. I tried it a paragraph at a time without success. Have a great day.

 

[macropod]

Hi wisgro,

OK, try opening the document in WordPad. That app might not choke so easily. Alternatively try opening the document in Word 2003/7 - Word 2002/XP never was the most robust Word app around.

BTW, is your copy of Word fully patched?

Cheers

[MS MVP - Word]

 

[wisgro]

Thanks for all of your help. I had to get the report finished so I opened a blank doc today. Couldn't copy and paste whole pages but I discovered I could copy and past one paragraph at a time and objects one at a time. I copied the first good 11 pages, saved the new copy, deleted the corrupted file then finished the remaining 6 pages of the report in the fresh copy. All I have is 2002 and it is patched up to date. I truly believe MS Office Xp is out to lunch. I encounter weird problems with excel too. I use a master copy of a spreadsheet that contains tables and charts. Table columns of cells are formatted as number with 1 decimal and accounting with 2 decimals. Sometimes when I enter a number value say... 123.2 the formatting changes the decimal setting to 2 or more. One time it formatted to 6 decimals. Other times the alignment settings change on their own. All numeric columns are aligned right. Sometimes I enter data and it is centers itself. Very, very frustrating having to reformat cells each time I use the spreadsheet. Bummer first class.