Why is happening with Microsoft Word?
October 10, 2022 6:33 AM Subscribe
Word fritzed out on me today and now my documents appear to have only about 5% of their original text. What is going on? What should I do?
I work on a Mac, in Word. I have a long personal project, about 100k words, open all the time. Periodically I copy and paste it into a Google doc for backup. I also frequently edit shorter documents, about 4ish pages. (I have no choice about using Word for these editorial documents, as that's what my client uses.)
Today I was working on the personal project when two lines of the text kind of fritzed and jittered and then most of the text disappeared. So it was still ~350 pages long, but most of the pages were blank except for a line or a paragraph here and there. If I search for a phrase, the gray box will show me where it is (say, page 211) but there is no actual text there.
I emailed the files to my partner and was able to open them and paste them into Google docs to prevent a worst-case scenario. I tried to save one to a new folder (so instead of downloads/editproject1, I tried to save it to documents/OlliesEditorialProjects/editproject1, but when I opened the file, it was just a single blank page. I ended up editing the docs from the downloads folder and emailing them to my client from there. I'm praying the client can open them and they aren't blank.
What is going on? How can I fix this? I need to continue working in Word as least for the professional stuff. For the personal stuff I can switch to Google docs (though I've heard horror stories about things getting lost on Drive too.) And I would like to have access to all my saved files in Word. Is this a virus? Is this fixable?
I work on a Mac, in Word. I have a long personal project, about 100k words, open all the time. Periodically I copy and paste it into a Google doc for backup. I also frequently edit shorter documents, about 4ish pages. (I have no choice about using Word for these editorial documents, as that's what my client uses.)
Today I was working on the personal project when two lines of the text kind of fritzed and jittered and then most of the text disappeared. So it was still ~350 pages long, but most of the pages were blank except for a line or a paragraph here and there. If I search for a phrase, the gray box will show me where it is (say, page 211) but there is no actual text there.
I emailed the files to my partner and was able to open them and paste them into Google docs to prevent a worst-case scenario. I tried to save one to a new folder (so instead of downloads/editproject1, I tried to save it to documents/OlliesEditorialProjects/editproject1, but when I opened the file, it was just a single blank page. I ended up editing the docs from the downloads folder and emailing them to my client from there. I'm praying the client can open them and they aren't blank.
What is going on? How can I fix this? I need to continue working in Word as least for the professional stuff. For the personal stuff I can switch to Google docs (though I've heard horror stories about things getting lost on Drive too.) And I would like to have access to all my saved files in Word. Is this a virus? Is this fixable?
Have you restarted Word? Have you restarted your computer?
How large are the files on disk?
posted by Winnie the Proust at 7:10 AM on October 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
How large are the files on disk?
posted by Winnie the Proust at 7:10 AM on October 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
Do you still have space on your hard drive, or is it full?
posted by danceswithlight at 7:53 AM on October 10, 2022
posted by danceswithlight at 7:53 AM on October 10, 2022
I'm a book editor, and I frequently work on very large docs in Word. I haven't experienced this specific problem, but when I do have problems, restarting usually fixes them.
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:07 AM on October 10, 2022
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:07 AM on October 10, 2022
Response by poster: Under “storage” it says I have 925.04 available of 1TB. My personal project is 518kb on disk. I don’t know if I’m connected to a 365 account—I installed it a few years ago and just don’t remember.
I was afraid to close and restart for fear it would save the document with all the blanks. On my partner’s computer I force quit Word, because Word froze, and reopened the document. The latest version, including changes I made today, is there.
I just shut my computer down and restarted and am trying to open the personal project from the Finder. It said something like “the alias doesn’t exist.” I tried a second time, and the document opened, but it is a version that is at least a few days if not a few weeks old. (I searched for a phrase I wrote this morning.)
Should I email the latest version from my partner’s computer to myself, rename it something like 10.10.22, and just go from there? Do you have any idea what’s going on? Is there anyway to keep this from happening again?
posted by Ollie at 9:09 AM on October 10, 2022
I was afraid to close and restart for fear it would save the document with all the blanks. On my partner’s computer I force quit Word, because Word froze, and reopened the document. The latest version, including changes I made today, is there.
I just shut my computer down and restarted and am trying to open the personal project from the Finder. It said something like “the alias doesn’t exist.” I tried a second time, and the document opened, but it is a version that is at least a few days if not a few weeks old. (I searched for a phrase I wrote this morning.)
Should I email the latest version from my partner’s computer to myself, rename it something like 10.10.22, and just go from there? Do you have any idea what’s going on? Is there anyway to keep this from happening again?
posted by Ollie at 9:09 AM on October 10, 2022
all of this emailing of files is stressing me out. i would suggest signing up for office 365 and using their cloud storage. you can still open things in the desktop version of word (at least on a pc) but things will get autosaved to the cloud. if something borks, you should be able to revert to the last autosaved version, with very little if anything lost.
for the immediate problem, i'd say emailing it to yourself (shudder) and re-saving on your machine is probably the way to go.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 11:09 AM on October 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
for the immediate problem, i'd say emailing it to yourself (shudder) and re-saving on your machine is probably the way to go.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 11:09 AM on October 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
I might have missed this, but have you been able to save the text or copy it somewhere else? When was your last backup?
I have no doubt it would be best to start a new document and paste your text there. The document may be corrupted in some way.
On the other hand, the fact that this affects all your documents is odd.
Have you tried uploading the document to Google Drive and opening it in Google Docs? You can open Word documents there, and save documents in .docx format if needed.
I second the recommendation to use Office 365 to have auto-saving and the ability to access previous versions. On the other hand, if you only need Word for the work projects using Google Docs may be more convenient for your personal project without the cost.
posted by lookoutbelow at 11:17 AM on October 10, 2022
I have no doubt it would be best to start a new document and paste your text there. The document may be corrupted in some way.
On the other hand, the fact that this affects all your documents is odd.
Have you tried uploading the document to Google Drive and opening it in Google Docs? You can open Word documents there, and save documents in .docx format if needed.
I second the recommendation to use Office 365 to have auto-saving and the ability to access previous versions. On the other hand, if you only need Word for the work projects using Google Docs may be more convenient for your personal project without the cost.
posted by lookoutbelow at 11:17 AM on October 10, 2022
Wildcard suggestion: Could you have accidentally hit a series of keystrokes that turned the text colour white? That would explain the text showing up in search but not being visible on the page.
posted by penguin pie at 1:54 PM on October 10, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by penguin pie at 1:54 PM on October 10, 2022 [6 favorites]
You are not limited to Word or Google Docs. As a Mac user you have Pages available for free and it can read and write Word files.
Please, when you get this sorted, do get Microsoft 365 and use OneDrive, and also close Word now and then and copy your files to an external drive (even a flash drive) now and then. Even better, get an external hard disk or SSD and use Apple’s Time Machine to do automatic backups.
posted by lhauser at 12:14 PM on October 11, 2022
Please, when you get this sorted, do get Microsoft 365 and use OneDrive, and also close Word now and then and copy your files to an external drive (even a flash drive) now and then. Even better, get an external hard disk or SSD and use Apple’s Time Machine to do automatic backups.
posted by lhauser at 12:14 PM on October 11, 2022
Response by poster: Thank you everyone. I seem to have got everything back. I will start using 365.
posted by Ollie at 12:42 PM on October 15, 2022
posted by Ollie at 12:42 PM on October 15, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by SPrintF at 6:59 AM on October 10, 2022