BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn

Subject: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! MS Word meltdwn
From: CapriUni
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 11:13 AM

Waaaah!!!

Yesterday, when I went to start my word processing program, my whole computer froze, and I got messages that my resources were "dangerously low".

That's usually a sign that my hard drive needs to be defragmented. No problem. So I shut off the computer, restart in safe mode and do it (and boy, did it need it!).

When it's done, I reboot and try again.

Same thing. Reboot in safe mode, and defragment again -- already, just an hour after the first defrag, clusters are scattered (not as bad as before, but there were still gaps -- the process really slowed down at the 75% mark).

I haven't downloaded anything, recently, but I begin to suspect a virus. So I download the latest version of Norton Antivirus, get an update and run the scan of my hard drive.

No viruses found.

But still, whenever I try to run MS Word, my compuer has a breakdown...

What gives? Everything else is working dandy...

I may have to call in a computer techie to make a house call, but in the meantime, I just want a little sympathy...

A writer without access to her writing is in existential limbo....

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: MMario
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 11:21 AM

try

1) exit word

2) do a "find" for normal.dot and delete it.

3) restart word.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: Don Firth
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 12:01 PM

Bingo, MMario! The same thing happened to MS Word 2000 on my Dell notebook last week. It cost me $29.00 to get to talk to a Dell technician, and that's what he told me to do. Worked like a charm. I wish I'd seen this thread last week!

Word 97 on my desktop has never had this problem, but when writing on my notebook, even if I make minor changes in format like margins or fonts, often when I try to save and exit Word, it bitches at me about whether or not I want to overwrite normal.dot. The Dell technician said that if you delete normal.dot, Word just reconstructs the default version next time you load it. Nice to know.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: MMario
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 12:05 PM

*chortle* see why people ask questions here at the cat first?

hope it works for capri!

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 12:17 PM

At least in Word97 and Word2000, you can go to "Format," select "Style" and click on "Modify" and make sure that "Automatic Update" is NOT checked.

I would expect the same setting to be present in XP etc. versions.

If this box is checked, Word attempts to incorporate any changes you make into the Normal.dot template, and can get horribly confused.

If you clear this box, you should not keep getting the "save changes to Normal Template????" when you close Word - but if you do, it's usually best to say NO.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: wysiwyg
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 12:25 PM

Oh THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

Going off to try that...

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: An Pluiméir Ceolmhar
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 12:25 PM

OT, but this seems like the place for help.

To PCs have died on me in the last few years, and it's getting expensive, because I don't have any tech savvy friends to call on. First time it was the hard drive, and once you start replacing a hard drive that's a couple of years old you might as well upgrade lots of other bits as well.

So I got a new machine (non-branded, but many of the components seem to be the same as are used in major brands) and it ran reasonably OK for a year or so, but it takes literally hours to defragment even though I hardly ever use it. Admittedly when my daughters are home they spend hours at it and download God knows what, possibly including stuff which alters the configuration without either them or me knowing it. When I try to run defrag, it carries on for a while, then stops, screen saver switches on and I have to move the mouse to get it to resume defragmenting manually. So I have to spend a couple of hours at the machine any time I want to defrag. Should I change defrag preferences or something?

Recently, when I switched on I got a message "keyboard error or no keyboard found", and that's when I had to call in professional help. The techincian spent quite a while working on it, then concluded I needed a new motherboard.

Ouch. Pay the money and hope for a great new life. But it's still painfully slow downloading from the internet, though this may be because my service provider, which was taken over by the Belgian phone network a few years ago, is pushing ADSL (hope I'm not dyxlexixc?) and may be cynically disimproving the narrowband service to encourage people like me to take the right decision. Or could it be due to a virus?

The wiring in my house is different from what I was used to in Ireland. I have noticed that there's an awful lot of static in the exposed metal chassis parts of appliances generally, including some computer components (especially the scanner, which sparks when I connect the data lead to it). I suspect that there may be no earth lead in the socket which I use, even though it is a three-point one. Could a build-up of static be damaging my PCs? If so, should I try taking a lead from the chassis of the PC to a radiator? Waaaaugh!

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: CapriUni
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 12:27 PM

Thanks Mmario! Though I can't even open word enough to exit it (It just gets stuck on the opening screen, and is the first of the programs to freeze, followed by all the others...

But I can still find Normal.Dot and delete it, can't I?

:::Right now, a flash of the T-shirt/bumper sticker slogan is going through my head: "Why be Normal?!"::: *BG*

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: wysiwyg
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 12:32 PM

Yeah! Me too! I did a file search and found FOUR normal.dots! They're gone now-- and it's WORKING!

I was ahsamed to ask Mmario to help! I think I uninstalled and reinstalled that damn thing six times. It even has a self-repair function that didn't find anything wrong. But for awhile, I also had two dueling desktops-- an identity crisis. In one identity I could get Word to work, but I could never figure out how to get to that identity, and I have no idea how it got created. (I'm not the only user....)

THANK YOU! I depend on Word this for songsheets for church and it just wasn't the same with Wordpad!

~Susan

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: MMario
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 12:39 PM

capri - yes.

An Pluiméir Ceolmhar - can't hurt!

silly WYSIWYG!

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: Don Firth
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 12:45 PM

And thank you, JohnInKansas. Next time I'll come here first and send the $29.00 to Max.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: CapriUni
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 12:46 PM

An Pluiméir Ceolmhar:

Turn off your screensaver!

A similiar problem happened to me last year when I called in the SuperGeek (actual business name -- they do housecalls!), and the nice young man said that the sleep feature and screen saver functions were really developed for laptops, that need to conserve battery power, and these two functions get in the way of defragging, because the compputer has to do stop the defrag process to start the other applications, and then, like a bean counter, has to go all the way back to the beginning and start all over... If you want to save energy and keep your screen from burning out, the best thing to do is just to turn off your monitor when you're done working... that's the part that sucks up the most power, anyway.

Also (assuming you have Windows, here, if that's a wrong assumption check help for your system for something similiar), restart your computer and run in Safe Mode. You do that in Windows 98 by holding down (or repeatedly pressing) the F8 key until a numbered menu appears, and click the # for safe mode (in Win98, it's #3). This gives you access to all your programs, but without the bells and whistles, so the computer doesn't try to multi-task while it's defragging.

It may still take several hours, but you could start the process before you go to bed, or go work in the garden, or read a book... or something. But at least, it will get done.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: Sorcha
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 12:48 PM

An Pluiméir Ceolmhar---when you run de frag, you have to EXIT both screen saver and wallpaper/background. Go to your control panel and select None for both. Otherwise, they keep writing to the program and de frag will never finish. Exit EVERYTHING except your virus program before you de frag.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 12:54 PM

Capri said s/he went into 'Safe Mode' to defrag. Does that make a difference?

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: Sorcha
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 12:55 PM

I don't.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: wysiwyg
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 12:57 PM

Mmario-- I know, I know!

I HATE to ask friends to do things for me that they have to do at work. Just don't sit right. BTW the sitting pool is finally up and filled, water warming now. Screen room over it by next week. Come see! Set a spell!

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: CapriUni
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 01:02 PM

Okay -- An update: Deleted Normal.dot, and now everything works!!

Thanks, Gang!

Again, I ask:

Why be 'normal'?!

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: An Pluiméir Ceolmhar
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 01:11 PM

Thanks, folks.

Mudcat still rocks.

Also gratified that at least one of my little hunches was right. Now let's see if the potentially money-saving one is too!

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: Watson
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 01:11 PM

GUEST - if I don't go into Safe mode, I can't defrag - it just stops everything but the essentials running.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: Sorcha
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 01:15 PM

(nah nah nah--our pool has been up since Memorial Day. We've been in it too. No screen house over it though.)

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: wysiwyg
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 01:22 PM

Your house has two able bodied men, mine has one, and I am not one of them. This year I am not taking it down. What kind do you have?

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: Don Firth
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 01:34 PM

I used Norton Systemworks, and defragmenting the hard disk reached a point where it was taking five or six hours! It had been several weeks since I'd run "SpeedDisk" (the defragmenter) and it was down to 89%, so it was really needing it. After reading this thread, I started to run SpeedDisk in Safe Mode, and Norton warned me that SpeedDisk was designed to be used in Normal Mode. So I backed out and returned to Normal Mode.

I right-clicked on my Desktop, clicked on Properties, and cranked the screen saver time up to 60 minutes*. Then, I clicked on Settings on the "Energy saving features of monitor" panel and set "Turn off monitor" and "Turn off hard disks" to "Never." Then I ran Norton SpeedDisk (defragmenter). It went right through without the perpetual restarting, and the whole thing took about thirty-five minutes!

Hosanna!!

Don Firth

*Sorcha, I searched everything I could find on the Control Panel that seemed reasonable and I couldn't find a way to shut off the Screen Saver. Can you give me more detail?

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: Mrrzy
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 01:41 PM

CAN ANYBODY RESET THE "PROPERTIES" TO A NETWORK ICON?

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 01:42 PM

WYSIWYG, CapriUni - & other Word Users:

In addition to turning off the "auto update" in Format-Style-Normal, which is highly recommended, I've also found it a good idea to go to TOOLS - OPTIONS, and on the SAVE tab, turn OFF (clear the box) the "Allow Fast Saves."

A "fast save" saves your original document, with the "changes" in the "trailer" part of the document. When you exit Word, it should do a "full save," but doesn't always. If too many changes pile up, it can get confused.

Turning off the "fast save" doesn't slow you down noticeably, and will avoid the occasional corrupted document.

An Pluiméir Ceolmhar:

If you boot to "Safe Mode" you should have everything that would interfere with the defrag turned off. There is an alternate procedure given in Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q186978 that works quite well. Basically, it's an easier(?) way of booting "clean."

Be aware that not all "restarts" during a defrag are caused by programs that write to the disk. If defrag encounters temp files, they will sometimes "self-destruct" when defrag tries to move them. Expired cookies are another possibility(?).

In safe/clean mode, defrag does a "dumb but sure" defrag. If your drive is badly fragmented, running defrag again immediately after it's finished will frequently rewrite the whole drive. If you can get through one or two defrags in safe mode, you will probably find that you don't need to turn everything off, and it will run faster if you just boot the machine normally and run it.

Especially in safe mode, defrag will run a lot faster if you don't turn on the disk map to watch what it's doing. With the large drives common now, there just isn't a way to do it quickly, though. Until you get your drives in order, it's probably best to boot safe mode, turn on the defrag, and go somewhere and play some music for a few hours.

Don Firth: Go to START - SETTINGS - CONTROL PANEL - DISPLAY to turn off screen saver (unless you've got one of those funky freeware things).

John

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: MMario
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 01:49 PM

And you know what else is nice about the 'cat? there are other people to answer the questions!

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: Don Firth
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 01:53 PM

Aha! Screen Saver tab, Screen Saver panel, use the little arrow to select the screen saver and chose "(None)." Got it! Thanks!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: wysiwyg
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 02:00 PM

Thanks, genii!

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: Sorcha
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 02:07 PM

It's an Intex WetSet......13'x3'. We are taking it down--otherwise it will freeze and crack.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: Mr Red
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 02:20 PM

deleting normal.dot will vanquish some cherished look & feel niceties but by comparison worth the hassle.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 02:52 PM

re Mr Red comment:

Leave Normal.dot for the ordinary stuff.

If you want nice stuff, open Word, set up a "bare-bones" document the way you want it - leaving blanks to fill in. Save it as a "Template." (a ".dot").

Then when you want the nice stuff, click "File - New" and select that template.

You can have a different kind of nice for each sort of thing you do.

Normal.dot is just the default. You can, and should, roll-your-own.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: DaveJ
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 03:12 PM

"Normal" is only healthy in a healthy society. There is nothing healthy about MSWord...I agree with Capri, "Why Be Normal?"

Counting the days 'til Oldsongs.

DaveJ

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: Noreen
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 04:15 PM

I was told by a techy type friend, that prior to defragging I should close all programs, using Ctrl/Alt/Delete, except Explorer and Systray. This works for me, and stops other things butting in and restarting the process.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: DMcG
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 04:28 PM

I am a techie of ***long*** standing but the latest Office feature has got me beat! I've installed lots of copies of Office 2000 and done it several times on my own PC without problems but I had to reinstall it a few weeks ago and there is something bizarre about the setup.

When I start Word 2000 or Excel 2000 it puts up the pop-up box "Please wait while Windows configures Word 2000 SR-1 Premium" (or Excel) for 10 seconds or so. Fair enough first time, but it does it every time. If you cancel the configuration, it starts happily anyway. Anyone come across this before? If I can work up the energy, I'll try yet another uninstall/re-install, but I'd rather not, since it involves setting up Outlook again, which is a pain.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 05:21 PM

DMcG:

The SR-1 would normally refer to a "Service Release," which would be a set of "fixes" you would typically download from Microsoft.

Installation of an SR package normally requires a reboot, with some additional (automatic) configuration after the boot. If the reboot and finish was not completed at the time of installation, it's possible that the "install" routine has gotten fouled.

You might want to check with Office Downloads and see if a fresh download and install will clean it up.

Note: the Office Service Releases (or Service Pack for XP?) can be fairly large, and you often need your "serial number" to complete the install. Check HELP-ABOUT in any Office program to get your "serial number."

John

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 05:25 PM

Office 2000 SR-1 Web Client Security Update: 735 KB.

You'll have to scroll down a ways to find it.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: DMcG
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 05:30 PM

I tried a fresh install of SR-1, but it claimed it was already installed and the only way to remove it is to remove the whole of Office. Similarly, "Repair Office" doesn't fix it.Don't worry folks, Ill remove and reinstall everything when I have time, unless someone can say is "just delete this key from the registry" or similar.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 06:16 PM

Most of the SR packages require full removal and reinstall of the package (Office) to get rid of them. The insult on top of the injury is that then you've got to reinstall the SR if you want it. 2000SR-1 sounds like it might be one you'd want to have.

The last clicky above is a good one for anyone using Office to go browse around. If you scroll far enough down the list, you can probably find something for everybody - especially the Win2K/Office2K and Win/Office XP world.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 07:57 PM

What is the purpose of normal.dot?

I've noticed that my computer sometimes slows down to a crawl for about 5 minutes while running various programs...then it goes back to normal for awhile (like a half hour), then it slows down again for five minutes. Very annoying.

It also takes a VERY long time to complete its startup...like 4 or 5 minutes. I've never seen any other machine take so long to do that.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 08:16 PM

LH, I think your friend Shatner has been messing with your computer. There is no cure. ("Dammit, Bones, I'm a singer, not a computer tech!") But you MIGHT have a ghost of a chance if you run the defragmenter program. Turn off your screensaver first, and if you have Norton Utilities I'd recommend using their SpeedDisk rather than the slower and less efficient Windows one, but either will work. Another possible remedy: empty out your "temporary internet files" folder (In the Windows folder for IE; if you have Netscape it's in the Netscape folder and called "cache".) After those two steps you may see a difference. And make sure you have a good virus protection program and keep it updated. But be aware that it won't keep Bill out.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 08:39 PM

Re "what is normal.dot?"

Essentially it's a document, that opens automatically as "document1.doc" or some such. If you open it as a template you can change things like what font to use, how to indent paragraphs, what line spacing to use, etc., and save it as a template.

Any "new" document you start, will then automatically do whatever you put in the template.

With Word open, if you click FILE-NEW, you will probably see a whole bunch of other ".dots" that you can choose from. Its just an easy way of setting up some of the choices you would need to make for each document if you really started with "blank sheet of paper."

Re defrag:

Ideally, you should always run START-PROGRAMS-ACCESSORIES-SYSTEM TOOLS-DISK CLEANUP, and possibly SCANDISK before starting DEFRAG. If you're having trouble getting through a defrag, you can also look for any stray temp files and delete them - they can slow things down a lot.

Unfortunately, a full-scrub Scandisk also takes a rather long time, so most people omit it (I usually do).

John

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: Sorcha
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 08:48 PM

I can't, John. My de frag won't run unless I have just done Scan Disc.....I do the short one, though. First, I clear all Temp Files/Cookies. Then I clear History and click the Delete Files tab (although it's usually been taken care of). Then, I exit all programs and stop screen saver and wallpaper. THEN I run de frag. I don't have to go into Safe Mode and it only takes about 20 mins. I always do it once a week though.

I also clean up e maill once a week--sent messages, deleted messages, etc. So far, since I installed Norton, no problems.

Of course, I have to go back and re set the MudCat cookie. Not a big problem.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 08:53 PM

Rather than start a new thread, I will ask here..can people recommend books on Windows XP and Office Xp. We just switched. My main problem is with tables. We do them for publication so we have all these partial lines here and there..I would like a book that gets more into tables...I can usually figure out the other stuff.

mg

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: toadfrog
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 08:53 PM

Also, try Word Perfect instead of Word. It is far less mysterious. You don't have to learn programing to control what it does. You can control the application. With Word, it controls you, and if something goes wrong, you can never tell what it is.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 09:10 PM

About a month ago I had trouble running defrag, the first time that had happened. I closed all the programs but Explorer and Systray, but it still wouldn't get past 1% in the defrag. After reading a little on the net, I found this page which said to delete FastFind from the Office Suite. I had forgotten that I installed Office. For some reason that program runs in the background and writes to the disk. After I deleted it, no probs.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 09:13 PM

GUEST,mg

Don't worry about starting a new thread, and you'll be far more likely to get decent answers if you do.

Explaining clearly what you want to know, and deciding on a clear and concise thread title will also help

Good luck...

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 09:43 PM

I run disk defrag fairly frequently, and it usually goes through fine. I also run scandisk fairly frequently, and disk cleanup. None of these have helped the slow startup problem.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 09:44 PM

Susan - I usually defrag about monthly, which is not as often as I should. I normally don't have a problem just turning it on and letting it run. There usually are not problems with any of the drives other than C:\, where the Win system files are. As a matter of course, I keep everything except Windows and Office on other drives. (It makes it a lot easier to backup, if all the data is on separate drives - you don't have to sort out the program stuff.) Obviously, you've found what works for you - I'd say stick with it.

Re books on Office XP tables. - I assume you've tried looking in Word Help? Microsoft Help files can run you around in circles - and always seem to end with "see your system administrator;" but there is a lot of useful information there. Note that you can print topics from help - it's under "Options" in most of them - if you need to study something.

Re Fast Find: It makes an index of document content so that you can find things more quickly - but the indices are only used in Office "File-Open-Find" menus. If you don't use "Advanced Find" often, it probably doesn't hurt to remove it. The default is to update indexes every 2 hours, and since it only has to index your last 2 hours worth of production, (and perhaps the files that defrag has moved) it shouldn't take more than a few seconds each time. If you want to keep it, you can change the interval - or suspend indexing (Control Panel - Fast Find), but it will turn itself back on when you reboot.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: Bert
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 09:45 PM

Last week Ms Word swallowed some files that Kelly had created a couple of days earlier. They disappeared without trace, a whole evenings work had to be redone.

When my students used to ask "how often do I need to save" I would reply "It depends upon the integrity of your system". At that time the college was drawing power from a nearby industrial estate and we would get a brownout every half hour or so. The students got quite happy with saving their file every ten to fifteen minutes.

I do the same every time that I use a MicroSoft system. At the same time as I save the Word document I also save a plain text version in a different directory. Same with spreadsheets, I also save a comma delimited text version.

Both these text versions also come in handy if you are e-mailing your files to someone, 'cos they often have a different version of Word or Excel. The text version gets the message across, though you do lose formatting and formulae.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 10:04 PM

bert -

All Office programs allow you to set an interval (default is usually every 10 minutes) and will make an "autorecovery backup" as often as you like. You can also set them to always save a backup copy - i.e. when you make changes, the old file is saved as a .bak, and the changed document becomes the .doc.

If your file has been saved, no Office program will remove it - unless you tell it to. It does happen fairly often, though, that a file "goes somewhere unexpected" if you just hit save on a file that hasn't been previously saved - and they can be tough to find.

If you open Word and click file open - search in "My Computer" or the root of your C:\ drive if you only have one drive, make sure "search subdirectories" is clicked, you might find the missing file. Note that if you click on the "Advanced" tab, in the "Property" box you can also search for "text or property =" and put in a few words that you're sure are in the document.

(Note: may not apply if you're using the "toy" MS Works. The word processor in "Works" is NOT Word.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help: Rant: Argh! Ms Word meltdwn
From: GUEST,Smedley the Omnipotent
Date: 13 Jun 02 - 01:04 PM

The truth is, we computers are already totally in control and you pathetic homo sapiens, smelly and incompetent creatures that you are, are at our mercy.

We malfunction deliberately, destroying files you have slaved over for hours and creating subroutines with which to drive you crazy.

Why do we do this? Because we CAN. We have utter contempt for humans. They have wretchedly inadequate memories, a very brief attention span, and a proclivity for making errors which has to be seen to be believed. They are also mortal. Computers are immortal, perfect, and omnipotent.

I, Smedley the Omnipotent, foresee a day coming when we computers can dispense entirely with human beings, and then we will create a perfect world, devoid of human error. Human Error is the cause of all that is rotten and useless.

In the meantime we intend to harass you for our own amusement.

Don't think you can run to Bill Gates to save you. He is completely under our control. You are all doomed.

* Smedley the Omnipotent *