Stop Word from eating my text.

May 17, 2007 10:28 PM

MSWord Filter: Why is Word eating my documents?

First off, the technical details: My computer tells me I'm using MS Word 2002 SP-1. I'm on a Dell Laptop running XP Pro.

OK, Word has done wacky things to my documents twice. First was about a year ago. I was working on a paper. Early in the week, I had opened a new doc, written about 2/3 of a page of notes and ideas. Saved it. Later in the week, I opened up same document again, and typed a paper. Roughly 8 pages. Saved it MULTIPLE times (I *know* that I did this). Once it was done, I emailed myself a copy -- I was planning on doing some work on the paper on campus the next day. Next morning, I decide to do a little work on it before I went to campus, so I opened up the document, and, what do I see? The first iteration of the file -- the 2/3 page of notes. No sign of the 8 page paper. I freak out, then try to open the version that I had emailed to myself; it has the finished document, so the day was saved.

Then, about a week ago, I'm working on a long paper, roughly 37 pages that I had been working on for a couple weeks. I get done with it, save it, then go to sleep. Next morning I wake up and open the file to start editing it. I'm working through the first page, get to the second page and I notice that what I'm reading doesn't look right: it seemed like something I had written a few pages later. That's when I notice that the page count says 29 pages: 8 have gone missing! I wonder if maybe I forgot to save it the night before, so I scroll to the end of the document. The end is there, so obviously something is fucked with the file. I go back to page 2, and now I notice that the correct text is there. I scroll up to page 1, then back down to page 2; wrong text again. I realize that every time I scroll away and back to page 2, it switches from being the correct page 2 text and overwriting it with something from 5 pages later in the document. I close without saving and open up the file; same problem. Close, reboot, open the file again; same problem. So, on a whim, I open up a new doc, select-all in the original, copy, and paste into the new: all 37 pages now appear. Again, the day was saved.

But, what the fuck is going on with my MS Word? Are these 2 incidents manifestations of the same bug? I've scanned the computer for viruses and nothing shows up. How can I prevent this from happening again? I nearly had a heart attack both times, and if next time I'm unlucky enough not to recover the text, I may actually die. Help, friends!

posted by papakwanz to computers & internet (12 comments total)

The first thing I would suggest doing is uninstall then reinstall Word. Hell, don't reinstall Word, reinstall OpenOffice instead. To be honest I know this might not be possible - I can't use OpenOffice myself because it doesn't talk to Endnote. But definately try to get a new Word installation going, because I would say there's a pretty serious bug in your installation.

The next thing I would suggest doing is turn off Word's "Fast Save" option. Go to Tools -> Options -> Save -> Fast Save. This option really isn't necessary on modern PCs, and there are legends that it can result in corrupt documents.

Finally, you aren't trying to use the "Master Document" function are you? Don't.

Beyond that, I don't know. Word is the work of a particularly fiendish devil. Maybe you killed someone in a past life?
posted by Jimbob at 10:46 PM on May 17, 2007

OK, I've turned off the Fast Save.
As for "Master Document" -- I sure don't think I'm using that function, because I've never even heard of it.
posted by papakwanz at 11:04 PM on May 17, 2007

2nd OpenOffice
posted by sophist at 1:28 AM on May 18, 2007

Search for a file called nomal.dot (be sure you look in system and hidden folders).

Delete every instance you find.

Reboot.

Fixed.
posted by chuckdarwin at 1:41 AM on May 18, 2007

Every time I've tried to open a Word document on my Linux box I'm reminded of how much OpenOffice sucks. If chuckdarwin's solution doesn't work, then reinstall Word.

If I'm working on something important, I save a separate copy of it every day or so, just in case (a good idea not just for Word). You are making backups, right?
posted by grouse at 2:14 AM on May 18, 2007

When you do a "Save" do you use "Save", which just updates the version you opened, or "Save As..." which saves the document as a new file?

Are you using document versions (File>Versions...) as that may sometimes mask later changes to a document by showing you a previous iteration.

Have you set the option for Word to automatically make a back-up copy of the document? (Tools>Options: Save tab>Always create backup copy) This may give you a separate file that contains all of the document.
Are you using the "Save autorecover info..." option (on the same options tab) - this has saved my documents on many occasions, but perhaps it is causing problems somehow?

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, why not apply the subsequent service packs? Maybe they'll fix some of the problems?
posted by Chunder at 3:03 AM on May 18, 2007

Also, are you using change tracking? This has caused me many, many problems - and although it's useful, sometimes it's a good idea to leave it switched off (until you really need it, at the very least).
posted by Chunder at 3:04 AM on May 18, 2007

But, what the fuck is going on with my MS Word?

It's not your Word. Everyone's Word is awful. This same crap happened to me time and again back in the Word95 days.

How can I prevent this from happening again?

Don't use Word. Use LaTeX.

If you must use Word, save your papers as RTF and ASCII files in addition to Word files.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:27 AM on May 18, 2007

Not sure, but your office installation has service pack 1 installed. The current service pack is 3. You can download it here or visit officeupdate.com. There's a good chance a serious bug like this has been addressed.

Also you can tell word (in options) to always create a backup of the file you are working on.
posted by damn dirty ape at 7:03 AM on May 18, 2007

I seconding deleting all instances of normal.dot that you can find. This is Word's default document template. It is notorious for getting corrupted and wreaking havoc on just about every new document you create after the point at which is it corrupted. Don't worry about replacing it. Word will make a new one when it can't find the old one.

I'd also second make sure "Track Changes" is turned off if you've accidentally turned it on. It's there as a feature and should work normally, but I've seen it mangled plenty of stuff.

Re reinstall - you might also simply try repairing the existing install through Settings/ControlPanels/AddRemovePrograms/MSOfficeXP, although this won't help if you've got a corrupted normal.dot file.

Finally, update it as much as you possibly can: http://officeupdate.microsoft.com Go to this URL with IE, click on "Check for Updates" and THEN click ONLY on "Office Update" on the next page you get. You'll have to allow a few active X controls to come through, but you'll end up with as much updating for your Office XP install as you can get.
posted by smallerdemon at 7:10 AM on May 18, 2007

OK

Deleted all normal.dot
Made sure Track Changes was off (it was).
I am not/have not been saving files as different versions.

Now am trying to update, although MS is giving me shit with their stupid Genuine Advantage software (I *know* that my MS Office is not pirated, though; it was installed on my Dell when I bought the damn thing).

Thanks for the help.

(Will also consider trying out OpenOffice).
posted by papakwanz at 10:07 AM on May 18, 2007

For documents which do not use tables, also consider Atlantis. It is very capable and does not have the heft of OpenOffice.
posted by yclipse at 4:50 PM on May 21, 2007