Quark - Word - Mac/PC problems Thread poster: Sheila Hardie
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Sheila Hardie 
Spain
Local time: 01:01
Member
Catalan to English
+ ...
I am working on a rather long project right now that involves dealing with hundreds of small Word files. I am having problems opening these files and wonder how I might be able to avoid this.
The original files were in Quark and my client converted them to Word. According to my contact, these new files didn't have a file extension (they were converted by someone else in the company on a Mac and she has a PC) but despite this
they still opened as Word files, and could then be r... See more I am working on a rather long project right now that involves dealing with hundreds of small Word files. I am having problems opening these files and wonder how I might be able to avoid this.
The original files were in Quark and my client converted them to Word. According to my contact, these new files didn't have a file extension (they were converted by someone else in the company on a Mac and she has a PC) but despite this
they still opened as Word files, and could then be re-saved with the
right extension, with no problems. She then gave all the files the appropriate file extensions, and they seemed fine (to her)
after that.
I am opening them on a Mac - a PowerBook G4 using OS 9.1 and Microsoft Word 98. In most cases I can open the files first time and then copy the contents into another document and rename it. However, at some point or another in the process my computer either crashes totally or Word closes down. I am not sure there is anything I can do about this but hope so as it is causing me to waste a lot of time.
Many thanks in advance for any ideas!
Sheila ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Is Word 98 stable otherwise? | Mar 24, 2004 |
Hi Sheila
Is your Word 98 rock solid otherwise?
After a crash, it's worth making sure everything's pristine by quitting all Office programs then trashing the Normal template (from Templates folder) and the PPC Registration Database (in the System/Preferences folder).
Trashing that Preference file starts a "first run" and any damaged files should be replaced with fresh ones, so will the Normal template - spring cleaning for the Mac  ... See more Hi Sheila
Is your Word 98 rock solid otherwise?
After a crash, it's worth making sure everything's pristine by quitting all Office programs then trashing the Normal template (from Templates folder) and the PPC Registration Database (in the System/Preferences folder).
Trashing that Preference file starts a "first run" and any damaged files should be replaced with fresh ones, so will the Normal template - spring cleaning for the Mac 
If that doesn't solve the problem then my guess would be that a corrupted or incompatible font is to blame. But see how you go with a purge of the Normal template etc. first. Good luck with all the files!
All the best, Deborah ▲ Collapse
| | | | Ken Cox
Local time: 01:01
German to English
+ ...
| more comments | Mar 24, 2004 |
I fully second Deborah's comments. From my experience, Word 98 for the Mac is not wonderfully stable (2000 is significantly better), and sad to say, Word on a PC is generally (but not always) more tolerant of corrupted files than Word on a Mac.
A corrupted or incompatible font is a very real (and often unsuspected) possiblity. You might try changing the document font(s) to something else and see if that helps (or better yet, just temporarily make the font unavialable in order to force Word... See more I fully second Deborah's comments. From my experience, Word 98 for the Mac is not wonderfully stable (2000 is significantly better), and sad to say, Word on a PC is generally (but not always) more tolerant of corrupted files than Word on a Mac.
A corrupted or incompatible font is a very real (and often unsuspected) possiblity. You might try changing the document font(s) to something else and see if that helps (or better yet, just temporarily make the font unavialable in order to force Word to use a substitute font instead). I was forced to ban the new MS version of Times New Roman (with the Euro symbol) from my system because it consistently caused application crashes if a certain character (one of the numerals if I rember correctly) was present in the text in bold face (not only Word, but also Internet Explorer).
Another thing that sometimes helps with corrupted files is to open them using OpenOffice (freeware) and then save them again in Word format. OpenOffice is generally more tolerant of corrupted files than is Word (remarkably enough), and it has quite a few elegant features that put Word to shame, but unfortunately it is not fully file-compatible with Word (which means you may have to clean up the formatting afterwards for things such as autoformated text, bullet lists and tables).
Good luck!
[Edited at 2004-03-24 23:25]
[Edited at 2004-03-24 23:26]
[Edited at 2004-03-24 23:34] ▲ Collapse
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If I understood correctly, these files have undergone three conversions: QXP on Mac to Word Mac, Word Mac to Word win, Word Win to Word Mac.
Along the lines something may have happened to corrupt the format.
If you work on the Mac anyway, the best thing would be to request that the 1st batch of files were sent to you (i.e. prior conversion to Word Win - what version of Word Win was used?).
Or: ask the person who sent you the Word Win files to save them all again, ... See more If I understood correctly, these files have undergone three conversions: QXP on Mac to Word Mac, Word Mac to Word win, Word Win to Word Mac.
Along the lines something may have happened to corrupt the format.
If you work on the Mac anyway, the best thing would be to request that the 1st batch of files were sent to you (i.e. prior conversion to Word Win - what version of Word Win was used?).
Or: ask the person who sent you the Word Win files to save them all again, by using Save As (not Save) and choosing explicitly either the Word 6.0/95 (*.doc) format or the RTF format.
Should this not be possible, try and open the files you have with a simple text editor, like SimpleText on the Mac. This may allow you to access its contents and copy/paste in a new file. However, you will lose its formatting in so doing.
Another possibility: if you are able to open all your files and the crashing occurs when you copy/paste into a new file, then try a Save As (not Save) as soon as the file has been opened, choosing a different name and RTF format. This may also allow you to flush any corrupted data from the file.
I hope some of this will work for you.
Roberta ▲ Collapse
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Sheila Hardie
Spain
Local time: 01:01
Member
Catalan to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Many thanks! | Mar 25, 2004 |
Roberta Anderson wrote:
If I understood correctly, these files have undergone three conversions: QXP on Mac to Word Mac, Word Mac to Word win, Word Win to Word Mac.
Along the lines something may have happened to corrupt the format.
If you work on the Mac anyway, the best thing would be to request that the 1st batch of files were sent to you (i.e. prior conversion to Word Win - what version of Word Win was used?).
Or: ask the person who sent you the Word Win files to save them all again, by using Save As (not Save) and choosing explicitly either the Word 6.0/95 (*.doc) format or the RTF format.
Should this not be possible, try and open the files you have with a simple text editor, like SimpleText on the Mac. This may allow you to access its contents and copy/paste in a new file. However, you will lose its formatting in so doing.
Another possibility: if you are able to open all your files and the crashing occurs when you copy/paste into a new file, then try a Save As (not Save) as soon as the file has been opened, choosing a different name and RTF format. This may also allow you to flush any corrupted data from the file.
I hope some of this will work for you.
Roberta
Many thanks to you all for your advice.:-)
Word 98 does appear to be stable otherwise, Deborah. However, I will try trashing the Normal template and the PPC Registration Database to see if this makes a difference. I suspect a corrupted or incompatible font is to blame, as you say.
I will also investigate the OpenOffice system you mention, Kenneth. It sounds very interesting.
If all else fails, I think I will do as Roberta suggests and ask the client to either send me the first batch of converted files or to save them again in a more compatible format.
Up to now I have been opening them (sometimes with difficulty) and quickly copying/pasting them information into another files and I have used the Save As option (choosing a new name and doc format). However, sometimes Word closes before I even get that far. On other occasions the whole screen freezes just after I have saved the file and I have to reboot. My computer just doesn't like these files:-(
In any case, I am very grateful to you all for helping me out. I'll let you know how I get on solving this problem. My client is also trying to find a solution and hopefully their technical experts will have some news for me today. It wouldn't be so bad if I were only dealing with a couple of files - but this is a 150,000-word book and there are literally hundreds..:-(
Sheila
[Edited at 2004-03-25 09:31]
| | | | | contact the client first | Mar 25, 2004 |
As the problems you are describing apply to all or most of the files, and you seem to have already spent considerable time trying to solve them, I would contact the client _first_, and request both the original export batch from the Mac (delivered as .sit or .zip archive) and a batch saved in a different format (Word 6.0/95 and RTF work best, in my experience of cross-compatibility).
| | | | Sheila Hardie
Spain
Local time: 01:01
Member
Catalan to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Thanks again! | Mar 25, 2004 |
Roberta Anderson wrote:
As the problems you are describing apply to all or most of the files, and you seem to have already spent considerable time trying to solve them, I would contact the client _first_, and request both the original export batch from the Mac (delivered as .sit or .zip archive) and a batch saved in a different format (Word 6.0/95 and RTF work best, in my experience of cross-compatibility).
Thanks, Roberta, I shall do what you suggest and see if that works. So far they have been sending the files by e-mail and today I am going to receive the rest (hundreds of individual files) on a CD-ROM. It may make a difference, but I doubt it. I don't think sending the files by e-mail had anything to do with my problem.
Thank you so much for your help:-)
Sheila
P.S.
3 P.M. Problem solved!!! I asked the client to save the Quark files again in Mac format and I can now open them all without any problems. I am *so* relieved! Thanks again for all your ideas:-)
Sheila
[Edited at 2004-03-25 14:57]
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