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J. Paul Kent reports: <<Documentum/Word strikes again... A colleague
has a 300 page document with about 7 hours of edits in it that is
refusing to open. I have a copy and yep, it's corrupt all right.>>
I don't know from Documentum, but here are a few things to try.
First, if you're using Word XP or later, there's an "open and repair"
feature. To access it, open the File menu, select Open, then select
the problem file. Before you do anything else, look at the bottom
right of the dialog near the OK button: there should be a popup menu
of options, one of which is "Open and Repair". I've used that
approach to recover files that crashed faster than I could open the
File menu to select Save As.
Second, try this: Open a new document, open the Insert menu, select
File, then select the problem file. Immediately save the problem
file, then for extra peace of mind, copy the entire file except the
final paragraph marker and paste it into yet another new document.
Save _that_ and use it as your working copy. Sometimes Word can
insert a file it can't open. Makes no sense, but there you have it...
it's Word.
Last but not least, if all else fails you can try InDesign. No,
really. <g> In my experience, InDesign CS does a better job of
opening problematic Word files than Word does. Adobe saved my bacon
big-time once, and I immediately wrote them a fan letter. <g> (And
yes, they read these things... got a personalized "thank you" letter
back a couple hours later.) Once the file is safely in InDesign, you
can export it as RTF (or copy and paste) to return the text to Word.
A couple other thoughts: If Documentum uses Word's "Versions" feature
(under the File menu), open that and delete any versions saved in the
file. Also check to ensure that Fast Save isn't enabled (in the
Options/Preferences dialog, deselect this bug-ridden feature in the
Save tab). Both can cause file corruption.
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-- Geoff Hart
ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
www.geoff-hart.com
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