MS Word 2003 document text disappearing, saved file empty

Question

We are having a problem with document text in MS Word 2003 (SP2) disappearing while working on the document.   The person who was having the problem contacted me via telephone right after the problem occurred.  I'm about four hours away and was not present.   The problem occurred for the first time about three weeks ago, shortly after we received a new Dell Dimension 5100 with MS Office preloaded, containing MS Word 2003.  I walked them through it trying to recover the document with no success.  I told them to recreate the document and didn't hear any more from them, assuming it was just an operator error.   I received a second call from the person on March 1, 2006, with the same problem.  I told them to save periodically as they worked on it.  They called me back about an hour later and said it happened again.  They advised that they were typing along and text just disappeared.  They advised that there were no error messages.  I had them open the saved document and it was empty.   I came to there location and found the document.  They had saved the document prior to typing any text and continued to save the document periodically.  The document statistics display four revisions and 61 minutes of total editing time.  The .doc size is 26kb, but there is no text in the document.   I checked all the different view options, tried to pull the document up in Wordpad, and still do not see any text.  I also made sure that there were all the updates were current, which they were.   Has anyone else encountered this problem or have any suggestions that I might be overlooking?   Thanks, Cary   [edit]  I attempted to recreate the problem without success. Message Edited by cpdecuir on 03-05-2006 12:54 PM

abach · Answer

Cary

As I read your post, I thought Word was at fault. However, your last comment about trying to recreate the problem without success has me puzzled.

First, you're not present at the client's location while they are typing.

Second, this problem seems to be intermittent, happening only on a few documents.

So, I would lean toward a user problem instead of a software failure. In order to remove all text from Word, one would have to select the entire document and press the delete key. Since the user would see this on screen, I don't think this is the cause. I believe the text is hidden. In Word, you can hide text by choosing Format, Font, and checking Hidden in the property window. To see if this is the case with your client, open the problem document, press CTRL-A (to select the entire document) and choose Format, Font, then remove any check marks in hidden. If there are no checks in the Hidden property, let me know.

26KB document size is rather small, so I may be hearing from you that the text is not hidden.

cpdecuir · Answer

Thanks Allan,   It's hard to put everything in a post.  I apologize for failing to mention that  I checked to make sure the text was not hidden.   The problem is intermittent.  That is what is confusing.  The first incident pertained to a different document than the latest incident (but the same person on the same computer).  I brow beat the person, who swore that they did nothing more than type.  He went step by step showing me exactly what he had done, and there was nothing out of the ordinary.  I thought maybe it might be a hardware problem, memory failure, bad sector, etc., but everything has checked out ok with the hardware.  I'm trying to avoid uninstalling and reinstalling Office.  Virus scan has been ran without any detection.   I ran detect and repair on the document and received a .dll error regarding the detect and repair program.  It appears the original Word install may not have loaded all the help files properly.   I'm at a loss.  I told the person to contact me as soon as the problem occurs again.  This is probably going to be one of those problems that will only be remedied by testing right after it occurs.     Thanks, Cary

abach · Answer

If it is not a user issue, there might be a setting in Word that needs to be changed. Allowing Fast Saves should no be checked, and it may help to check Always Create Backup Copy. Also, make certain the Voice Recognition toolbar is not active.

cpdecuir · Answer

I'll check to make sure those settings are in place. Thanks Allan, Cary

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