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Word 2011 document changed to all asterisks!
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<blockquote data-quote="RavingMac" data-source="post: 1249839" data-attributes="member: 45350"><p>I haven't had this problem (don't use MS Office on my Mac) but was intrigued by this thread and no real answers, so I went to the Link Chscag gave and did some searching. Below are excerpts (quotes) from what I found:</p><p></p><p>FROM John McGhie on Jan 25th 2011: "This is a serious problem. I had an email last night from someone very senior in the development team. They have a major investigation underway, but currently they can't fix it because they do not know what is causing it.</p><p></p><p>The only protection from this bug is to set Word>Preferences>Save to</p><p>"Always create backup", then hit Command + s, to manually save each time</p><p>you pause to think.</p><p></p><p>If the problem happens, you then close the document WITHOUT saving, and</p><p>you will find the backup of it labelled "Backup of..." in the same</p><p>folder as the original document. That file will be undamaged and</p><p>complete to the point where you last saved.</p><p></p><p>Of course, you could also bring back your Time Machine copy of the file,</p><p>which should be no more than 15 minutes old.</p><p></p><p>Setting "Save AutoRecover information every 10 minutes" is completely</p><p>useless.</p><p></p><p>We have been trying to tell Microsoft that for 20 years. They will not</p><p>listen.</p><p></p><p>AutoRecover does NOT save the file, it saves only the "changes" to the</p><p>file. If the file has never been saved, or if the original file cannot</p><p>be read, AutoRecover cannot work. That's the situation you are in here:</p><p>AutoRecover can't recover; because it works only if Word knows it has</p><p>crashed, and it can read the original. In this case, Word doesn't know</p><p>it has crashed, and it can't read the original, so AutoRecover is</p><p>useless, which is what we've been trying to tell them for 20 years.</p><p></p><p>OK, now the fault is not all Microsoft's. In the past few years, users</p><p>have become overconfident about their computers, and do not take the</p><p>precautions that were simply a normal part of using a computer a few</p><p>years ago.</p><p></p><p>Well; that's not a good move Computers are MORE complex than they</p><p>were 20 years ago, and therefore, they are LESS reliable. They might be</p><p>"simpler to use", but the insides are much more complicated, there is</p><p>much more to go wrong, and it does!</p><p></p><p>We need to RUN Time Machine or some other backup, and we need to turn ON</p><p>Word>Preferences>Save>Always create backup. If we don't, every now and</p><p>again, we will lose data.</p><p></p><p>Last month, I turned my main MacPro workstation on and got an error on</p><p>the Data drive. 2.5 Terrabytes of data -- GONE! It still happens.</p><p></p><p>I repaired the problem, and restored from backup. I haven't lost a</p><p>single byte. Because I had a backup. I have had a backup for 30 years.</p><p> This is about the second time I have needed it in all that time. But</p><p>when you need it, you REALLY need it</p><p></p><p>People who are not experienced with computers sometimes do not</p><p>understand that when you lose data on a computer, you lose the lot.</p><p>Normal human beings think in terms of losing documents in a fire or</p><p>flood, where you may lose only "part" of a document, but the rest will</p><p>be readable. Computer data is not like that: you can either read the</p><p>whole of a file, or none at all.</p><p></p><p>Backup is well ahead of cleanliness, and right next to godliness. Any</p><p>computer geek will tell you that. Just don't stand downwind of him</p><p></p><p>Cheers</p><p></p><p>On 26/01/11 7:33 AM, <a href="mailto:medwriter@officeformac.com">medwriter@officeformac.com</a> wrote:</p><p>> This happened to me twice and I DID have it set to automatically save</p><p>> every minute, but it did not save the file. I am not using Word 2011</p><p>> until it's fixed.</p><p></p><p>--</p><p></p><p>John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical</p><p>Writer"</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>FROM John McGhie on Feb 19th 2011:</p><p>"Hi Russ:</p><p></p><p>No, it's not a virus. It's definitely a bug.</p><p></p><p>We need to have a discussion about this: EVERYONE should offer their</p><p>thoughts in this thread.</p><p></p><p>Because currently, Microsoft has NO CLUE to what is causing this. They</p><p>can't get it to happen in the test lab. There is no evidence in the</p><p>sample documents to suggest what the problem might be.</p><p></p><p>The "before" documents are perfectly normal. The "after" documents are</p><p>full of asterisks. Nothing to indicate what might have happened.</p><p></p><p>At first, I thought it was foreign language character sets being used.</p><p>But we have samples where they weren't.</p><p></p><p>Then I thought it might be Equations, Footnotes, Endnotes, Tables or</p><p>Bibliography, due to the high number of complex academic documents we</p><p>were losing. Then we had two samples with none of those.</p><p></p><p>For my next crazy idea: Fonts. This could be a "font" problem. Has</p><p>everyone "weeded" their fonts? <a href="http://word.mvps.org/Mac/fontweeding.html" target="_blank">Word:mac - Font Weeding</a></p><p></p><p>It may also be an interaction with other software! What's everybody</p><p>running (apart from Word...)?</p><p></p><p>If you're coming into this thread new, there is only ONE work-around to</p><p>this problem: BACKUPS.</p><p></p><p>1) Set Time-Machine to run every 15 minutes.</p><p></p><p>2) Go to Word>Preferences>Save and turn ON "Always create backup".</p><p></p><p>3) Hit Command + s every time you pause to think. If the bug hits,</p><p>your previous save is in a file labelled "Backup of " in</p><p>the same folder.</p><p></p><p>If you haven't hit Command + s, neither Time Machine nor "Always create</p><p>backup" can save you, because there's nothing on the disk to save.</p><p></p><p>Forget "AutoRecover": it's useless. If you HAVEN'T turned on Time</p><p>Machine and Backup, and the bug hits, do this:</p><p></p><p>1) IMMEDIATELY Quit Word. You have to get to this BEFORE the</p><p>AutoRecovery Save fires.</p><p></p><p>2) When Word offers to save YOU MUST say "NO". At this point, the</p><p>memory is full of asterisks, if you allow it to Save, you've lost your</p><p>document, there is no way to recover.</p><p></p><p>3) Reboot the machine. We have no idea what is causing this, but it</p><p>may be memory corruption: restart the OS and clear things out.</p><p></p><p>4) Re-open the document. If you were quick enough, you will get your</p><p>document back. If not, Word will offer you one full of asterisks</p><p>labelled "Recovered save of..."</p><p></p><p>5) Close the Recovered Document (it's useless, it's full of asterisks,</p><p>and DO NOT SAVE IT).</p><p></p><p>6) Re-open your document. If you prevented Word from saving, you will</p><p>get your original document back undamaged.</p><p></p><p>Note: The key to this is to prevent Word saving the document or the</p><p>auto-recovery file after the bug hits. If you can, the original file is</p><p>on the disk, undamaged.</p><p></p><p>Don't pfaff around wondering: if you're too slow, it will save and you</p><p>have lost it</p><p></p><p>Now: if ANYONE has ANY ideas as to what might be causing this, PLEASE</p><p>post them here.</p><p></p><p>We now have Microsoft Engineers closely studying this forum, looking for</p><p>anything that might give them a clue as to how the bug is happening.</p><p>They can't fix it until they FIND it</p><p></p><p>So PLEASE post your thoughts</p><p></p><p>Hope this helps"</p><p></p><p>This is getting long, so I will continue in another post if warranted, still reading the threads.</p><p></p><p>Link to the thread for anyone interested</p><p><a href="http://www.officeformac.com/ms/ProductForums/Word/12752" target="_blank">Office for Mac Product Forums</a></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="RavingMac, post: 1249839, member: 45350"] I haven't had this problem (don't use MS Office on my Mac) but was intrigued by this thread and no real answers, so I went to the Link Chscag gave and did some searching. Below are excerpts (quotes) from what I found: FROM John McGhie on Jan 25th 2011: "This is a serious problem. I had an email last night from someone very senior in the development team. They have a major investigation underway, but currently they can't fix it because they do not know what is causing it. The only protection from this bug is to set Word>Preferences>Save to "Always create backup", then hit Command + s, to manually save each time you pause to think. If the problem happens, you then close the document WITHOUT saving, and you will find the backup of it labelled "Backup of..." in the same folder as the original document. That file will be undamaged and complete to the point where you last saved. Of course, you could also bring back your Time Machine copy of the file, which should be no more than 15 minutes old. Setting "Save AutoRecover information every 10 minutes" is completely useless. We have been trying to tell Microsoft that for 20 years. They will not listen. AutoRecover does NOT save the file, it saves only the "changes" to the file. If the file has never been saved, or if the original file cannot be read, AutoRecover cannot work. That's the situation you are in here: AutoRecover can't recover; because it works only if Word knows it has crashed, and it can read the original. In this case, Word doesn't know it has crashed, and it can't read the original, so AutoRecover is useless, which is what we've been trying to tell them for 20 years. OK, now the fault is not all Microsoft's. In the past few years, users have become overconfident about their computers, and do not take the precautions that were simply a normal part of using a computer a few years ago. Well; that's not a good move Computers are MORE complex than they were 20 years ago, and therefore, they are LESS reliable. They might be "simpler to use", but the insides are much more complicated, there is much more to go wrong, and it does! We need to RUN Time Machine or some other backup, and we need to turn ON Word>Preferences>Save>Always create backup. If we don't, every now and again, we will lose data. Last month, I turned my main MacPro workstation on and got an error on the Data drive. 2.5 Terrabytes of data -- GONE! It still happens. I repaired the problem, and restored from backup. I haven't lost a single byte. Because I had a backup. I have had a backup for 30 years. This is about the second time I have needed it in all that time. But when you need it, you REALLY need it People who are not experienced with computers sometimes do not understand that when you lose data on a computer, you lose the lot. Normal human beings think in terms of losing documents in a fire or flood, where you may lose only "part" of a document, but the rest will be readable. Computer data is not like that: you can either read the whole of a file, or none at all. Backup is well ahead of cleanliness, and right next to godliness. Any computer geek will tell you that. Just don't stand downwind of him Cheers On 26/01/11 7:33 AM, [email]medwriter@officeformac.com[/email] wrote: > This happened to me twice and I DID have it set to automatically save > every minute, but it did not save the file. I am not using Word 2011 > until it's fixed. -- John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer" FROM John McGhie on Feb 19th 2011: "Hi Russ: No, it's not a virus. It's definitely a bug. We need to have a discussion about this: EVERYONE should offer their thoughts in this thread. Because currently, Microsoft has NO CLUE to what is causing this. They can't get it to happen in the test lab. There is no evidence in the sample documents to suggest what the problem might be. The "before" documents are perfectly normal. The "after" documents are full of asterisks. Nothing to indicate what might have happened. At first, I thought it was foreign language character sets being used. But we have samples where they weren't. Then I thought it might be Equations, Footnotes, Endnotes, Tables or Bibliography, due to the high number of complex academic documents we were losing. Then we had two samples with none of those. For my next crazy idea: Fonts. This could be a "font" problem. Has everyone "weeded" their fonts? [url=http://word.mvps.org/Mac/fontweeding.html]Word:mac - Font Weeding[/url] It may also be an interaction with other software! What's everybody running (apart from Word...)? If you're coming into this thread new, there is only ONE work-around to this problem: BACKUPS. 1) Set Time-Machine to run every 15 minutes. 2) Go to Word>Preferences>Save and turn ON "Always create backup". 3) Hit Command + s every time you pause to think. If the bug hits, your previous save is in a file labelled "Backup of " in the same folder. If you haven't hit Command + s, neither Time Machine nor "Always create backup" can save you, because there's nothing on the disk to save. Forget "AutoRecover": it's useless. If you HAVEN'T turned on Time Machine and Backup, and the bug hits, do this: 1) IMMEDIATELY Quit Word. You have to get to this BEFORE the AutoRecovery Save fires. 2) When Word offers to save YOU MUST say "NO". At this point, the memory is full of asterisks, if you allow it to Save, you've lost your document, there is no way to recover. 3) Reboot the machine. We have no idea what is causing this, but it may be memory corruption: restart the OS and clear things out. 4) Re-open the document. If you were quick enough, you will get your document back. If not, Word will offer you one full of asterisks labelled "Recovered save of..." 5) Close the Recovered Document (it's useless, it's full of asterisks, and DO NOT SAVE IT). 6) Re-open your document. If you prevented Word from saving, you will get your original document back undamaged. Note: The key to this is to prevent Word saving the document or the auto-recovery file after the bug hits. If you can, the original file is on the disk, undamaged. Don't pfaff around wondering: if you're too slow, it will save and you have lost it Now: if ANYONE has ANY ideas as to what might be causing this, PLEASE post them here. We now have Microsoft Engineers closely studying this forum, looking for anything that might give them a clue as to how the bug is happening. They can't fix it until they FIND it So PLEASE post your thoughts Hope this helps" This is getting long, so I will continue in another post if warranted, still reading the threads. Link to the thread for anyone interested [url=http://www.officeformac.com/ms/ProductForums/Word/12752]Office for Mac Product Forums[/url] [/QUOTE]
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Word 2011 document changed to all asterisks!
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