word just quits

[alexandr]

sometimes when working in Word the app just quits with the message "word has just unexpectedly quit". it seems to occur when things get a little "heavy" on the machine, not just in the word-app. although it just quits it seems the application saves everything the split-second before it quits..

is this some wellknown bug, easy to repair...?

the machine is a new iBook 12", 800Mhz, 30GB, 256 RAM etc..
thanks for all help!

alex.

 

[Cat]

Try ditching your prefs (~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft), reinstalling the app or updating with the latest patch.

Reinstalling worked for me, and I have no idea why ...

If Word keeps balking, try OpenOffice, KOffice or Abiword.

 

[senne]

Can these alternatives save documents into .doc ?

 

[toast]

Happens to me on very big docs (with metafiles, 100+ pages etc.) Words quits ? Good riddance !

 

[billbaloney]

Since you're in the Microsoft paradigm here, the usual support instructions are, "Do your work until something crashes, then restart." Since you're in OS X you don't have to restart the machine, luckily, but expect Word to be less than robust in general.

My approach: I type about five words and then save. I save like the wind. I save when I think about changing something.

And reinstalling never hurts!

 

[OzBert]

Some times fonts can cause word to crash on start up.

Temporarily Remove all recently added fonts, start Word and hopefully it will work. Then copy them back in one by one till you find the one preventing wordd from loading.

 

[Cat]

Can these alternatives save documents into .doc?

OpenOffice even saves into a variety of .doc formats, new (Office 97/2000/XP) and old.
AbiWord saves into .doc and will be made available natively for OS X, KOffice saves into WordPerfect ...

Morreover there is NisusWriter Express (discussed elsewhere on the board IIRC) which opens and saves in Word .doc format.

That's a lot of options!

All of the above and moreover TextEdit too are able to save and read .rft documents which every Word user should be able to read. Moreover with OS X it is a breeze to save douments in PDF format, which also every windows user should be able to read.