Word Continually Crashes in Large Document

Question

I am working with relatively large Word document (131 pages, 16.1 MB). It contains one large graphic, several tables, but mostly text. Whenever I try to drag/drop, copy/paste, or cut/paste, Word crashes. This happens even when I save frequently. Obviously it's very frustrating.

I'm using Word Mac 2011 with Mac OS 10.6.8. My hardware includes 2.4 GHz Intel core 2 Duo processor and 2 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 memory.

Can anyone help me figure out why and/or resolve this issue? Thanks!

Answer 1

The problem usually happens due to corruption to internal code of Word document. You can try this to solve the problem:

1. Create a new blank document in .docx format
2. Carefully select all of the text in the bad document EXCEPT the last

paragraph mark

3. Copy it.
4. Paste in the new document.
5. Save under a new file name and close all, then re-open.

For more details on this issue, see this thread

Answer 2

Oh my goodness, Bob, thank you for such a thorough response. I basically understand the valuable suggestions you made and I will attempt to do everything you listed. If you don't mind, though, let me elaborate on the specifics of the document.

For what it's worth to know: Someone else created the document years ago; it was created on a PC and definitely not in this version of Word.

-- I mis-spoke when I said there is only 1 large graphic in the document. In addition to it, there are about 20 smaller graphics (actually the same 4 graphics used multiple times). I will try to do what you suggested about reducing the size of at least the largest graphic on the front page.

-- Here is the summary of separate tables in the document: 1 table that spans 4 pages; 2 tables at 1 page each; 8 tables that span 6 pages; 3 small tables on separate pages. I don't think any of them are nested, although I'm not even sure how to make them nested or check to see if they are.

-- I don't know how much, if any, of the original content was copied and pasted from other sources. I have copied and pasted some pages from documents that I created from scratch. I didn't know about edit-paste special-unformatted text for web content. I will definitely keep that in mind for the future.

-- I actually do know how to use Styles (and I'm thankful for the day many years ago when I was introduced to them!)  but the document's creator certainly did not. I have tried to apply new Styles as I'm editing the document, but there are so many random other ones supposedly used in the document, I'm worried if I change something I'll really mess things up! However, if I do try to apply the limited number of new Styles I created to the existing content, can I then delete all the Styles that aren't in use anymore? As an aside: I had no idea that the more times I bold, change fonts, etc. (independent of Styles), the more complex the document becomes. Good to know!

-- Finally, Track  Changes has always been problematic in my opinion so I don't use it. Apparently it was used in the document before I received it. Even though I turned off Track Changes when I began editing it, every time I save or close the document I am reminded that it contains tracked changes and asks if I am sure I want to save it. If I Accept all changes as you suggested, that means it will accept everything I've done, correct?

I just had an idea...What if I open a blank document, set up the Styles I want to use, and then copy/paste a couple of paragraphs at a time? Although time consuming, do you think this will work? It would certainly clean things up for future editors of the document (which there will be because it's a procedure manual). As I said to Anax, I'm worried that it won't work to copy the entire document (minus the last paragraph mark) and paste it into a new document.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Bob, for taking the time to so thoroughly present me with options to correct my problem. I am very grateful.

Janet B.

Word Crafter

Answer 3

Thank you very much, Anax. I will give it a try. I'm a little concerned, however, that Word will crash when I try to copy the 131 page document, since copying/pasting is what has caused it to crash in the first place. I will also try what Bob Jones suggested in his reply.

Again, thank you for taking the time to respond.

Janet

Answer 4

If the problem is occurring with 1 specific document Anax is most likely correct about it being corrupt. What he suggested is one means of attempting to salvage a workable, clean copy but it doesn't prevent corruption from recurring. (See NOTE below.) Additional to what he recommended it would also be a good idea to:

1. Confirm that Office is fully updated
2. Use this procedure to correct possible font issues: **Font Weeding.**
3. Repair disk permissions using Disk Utility or comparable
4. Avoid actions in the document that contribute to corruption

There is information here on some of the possible causes ofCorrupt document issues as well as additional procedures for correcting it. If the method he suggested doesn't work perhaps one of the others will be useful.

The file size is also an indication that there is an internal problem with the document -- typically, that amount of content should not be rendering a file anywhere near 16 MB. That further suggests corruption to me. Some other considerations may be involved, such as:

• The image, itself, is excessively large in terms of resolution [pixels per inch] as well as print dimensions [total square inches]. (E.g., there's nothing to be gained by using a 1200 ppi, CMYK TIFF of EPS, 8x10 or larger in a Word document.) Scaling an image down to smaller print dimensions once inserted into a document does not reduce its bulk... it's best to process the image to the proper specs using a graphic editing program, then insert the processed copy. As a last resort, though, you can use File> Reduce File Size in Word to make the necessary reduction, but image quality may suffer.
• Be careful how you deal with Tables. Nesting tables within one another, creating excessively long tables that span multiple pages, & several other pitfalls contribute to corruption as well.
• Rely on Copy/Paste from other sources as little as you possibly can -- especially web sites. What you actually copy may be considerably more than what you see. Consider using Edit> Paste Special -- Unformatted text, then format the pasted content as necessary.
• If you aren't already doing so, learn to use Styles to format your documents rather than using direct formatting... The more times you have to click, bold, click italic, change font, change font size, etc. then change much of it again throughout a document the more complex the document structure becomes. Using Styles is not only more stable & more efficient but also insures a much greater degree of consistency from beginning to end.
• Avoid indiscriminate use of Track Changes -- There are many who would suggest it not be used at all. It can be argued that the feature itself is fairly reliable if used correctly, but it's axiomatic that if it is used improperly corruption is inevitable. NOTE: If Track Changes has been used in the document be sure to turn the feature OFF & Accept/Reject all existing changes before attempting to resolve the corruption issue. Otherwise, you'll be wasting your time.

Regards,

Bob J.