Whole document disappeared

[Guest]

While working on a book I am writing, I was going back and forth between two
open documents. My entire book is formatted as a Master Document and I
access each part of it through the Master Document. I had switched over to a
large document that is approximately 19.4MB. I used the Ctrl G to find a
certain page and I went to close the box, something was highlighted and the
screen seemed to freeze. I went down to the task bar to try to unstick
everything. When the document finally reopened, everything was gone. In the
file the documents are in, the file still shows being 19.4 MB, but nothing is
there. How can I get what is there to reappear? Thanks for your help.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Word Heretic might come along and help you out, but most of the people
posting here don¹t know much about master documents, because:

Why Master Documents corrupt:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm

How to recover a Master Document:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RecoverMasterDocs.htm

Steve Hudson [Word Heretic] on how to make Master Documents work safely:
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/magazine/technical/wordhomepage.html

The cardinal rule, by the way, is *never access or edit through the master
doc, only the subdocs.*

 

[Guest]

The Master Document is not corrupted. The first sub-document has just simply
disappeared.

Word Heretic might come along and help you out, but most of the people
posting here don¹t know much about master documents, because:

Why Master Documents corrupt:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm

How to recover a Master Document:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RecoverMasterDocs.htm

Steve Hudson [Word Heretic] on how to make Master Documents work safely:
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/magazine/technical/wordhomepage.html

The cardinal rule, by the way, is *never access or edit through the master
doc, only the subdocs.*

While working on a book I am writing, I was going back and forth between two
open documents. My entire book is formatted as a Master Document and I
access each part of it through the Master Document. I had switched over to a
large document that is approximately 19.4MB. I used the Ctrl G to find a
certain page and I went to close the box, something was highlighted and the
screen seemed to freeze. I went down to the task bar to try to unstick
everything. When the document finally reopened, everything was gone. In the
file the documents are in, the file still shows being 19.4 MB, but nothing is
there. How can I get what is there to reappear? Thanks for your help.

--
Daiya Mitchell, MVP Mac/Word
Word FAQ: http://www.word.mvps.org/
MacWord Tips: <http://www.word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/>
What's an MVP? A volunteer! Read the FAQ:

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I'd call that corrupted. Unless you think you accidentally formatted all the
text as Hidden, or as white.

Master Document in all caps refers to the whole feature of using masters and
subdocs.

You can try the regular corrupt doc techniques first, if you prefer:

The first way to check for a corrupt document is to
copy the entire thing, *excluding* the last paragraph mark, into a new
document. That last paragraph mark holds a lot of information which can get
corrupted, and copying the text into a document with a fresh one keeps your
formatting, but can fix some glitches.

A paragraph mark is a ¢Ò. Click on ¢Ò on the standard toolbar to show
nonprinting characters, including paragraph marks.

See this link for further techniques:

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm

The Master Document is not corrupted. The first sub-document has just simply
disappeared.

Word Heretic might come along and help you out, but most of the people
posting here don©öt know much about master documents, because:

Why Master Documents corrupt:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm

How to recover a Master Document:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RecoverMasterDocs.htm

Steve Hudson [Word Heretic] on how to make Master Documents work safely:
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/magazine/technical/wordhomepage.html

The cardinal rule, by the way, is *never access or edit through the master
doc, only the subdocs.*

While working on a book I am writing, I was going back and forth between two
open documents. My entire book is formatted as a Master Document and I
access each part of it through the Master Document. I had switched over to
a
large document that is approximately 19.4MB. I used the Ctrl G to find a
certain page and I went to close the box, something was highlighted and the
screen seemed to freeze. I went down to the task bar to try to unstick
everything. When the document finally reopened, everything was gone. In
the
file the documents are in, the file still shows being 19.4 MB, but nothing
is
there. How can I get what is there to reappear? Thanks for your help.

 

[Guest]

Thank you for your replys, Daiya. I am writing to you and the forum on
behalf of Jeanette because I am her computer technician. My name is Marty.
We have reached and surpassed the limits of Jeanette's knowledge of Word and
I am stepping in to try to help her. When you said 'accidently formatted the
text as Hidden', that would show up in the properties field when you right
click on the document, correct? And to format the whole docment as white
would show up on the text color palette on the toolbar, correct? I checked
both of those things and neither are what has happened. As for copying the
document, as previously stated, the document which was 19.4 MB is now 1 blank
page; the only thing on it is the footer and page number (1). The only
paragraph mark on the whole page it the one at the top where one would begin
typing. If you still think this is a corruption issue I would love to know
how to undo whatever has been done. Also I just have one other question:
Why, if Master Documents are so prone to become corrupted, are we instructed
to use them for large, complex documents in application training classes?
Thanks again for everyone's help!!

Marty on behalf of Jeanette

I'd call that corrupted. Unless you think you accidentally formatted all the
text as Hidden, or as white.

Master Document in all caps refers to the whole feature of using masters and
subdocs.

You can try the regular corrupt doc techniques first, if you prefer:

The first way to check for a corrupt document is to
copy the entire thing, *excluding* the last paragraph mark, into a new
document. That last paragraph mark holds a lot of information which can get
corrupted, and copying the text into a document with a fresh one keeps your
formatting, but can fix some glitches.

A paragraph mark is a ¶. Click on ¶ on the standard toolbar to show
nonprinting characters, including paragraph marks.

See this link for further techniques:

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm

The Master Document is not corrupted. The first sub-document has just simply
disappeared.

Word Heretic might come along and help you out, but most of the people
posting here don¹t know much about master documents, because:

Why Master Documents corrupt:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm

How to recover a Master Document:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RecoverMasterDocs.htm

Steve Hudson [Word Heretic] on how to make Master Documents work safely:
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/magazine/technical/wordhomepage.html

The cardinal rule, by the way, is *never access or edit through the master
doc, only the subdocs.*


On 5/22/05 11:25 AM, "Jeanette" wrote:

While working on a book I am writing, I was going back and forth between two
open documents. My entire book is formatted as a Master Document and I
access each part of it through the Master Document. I had switched over to
a
large document that is approximately 19.4MB. I used the Ctrl G to find a
certain page and I went to close the box, something was highlighted and the
screen seemed to freeze. I went down to the task bar to try to unstick
everything. When the document finally reopened, everything was gone. In
the
file the documents are in, the file still shows being 19.4 MB, but nothing
is
there. How can I get what is there to reappear? Thanks for your help.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I'm sorry, I don't know anything about how to deal with Master Documents
other than the links I suggested earlier. You'll have to go there and see
if there is any help. I don't know if this is a common corruption--and I
suppose it's also possible that the text got deleted and the doc size isn't
showing up properly. I haven't a clue, really.

The way I would check for hidden text would be to hit the ¢Ò icon on the
standard toolbar.

I would say that your classes have instructed you to use them because the
instructors don't really know much about Word, or because the instructors
are optimistic enough to think it will all be fine with proper instruction.
If you continue to use them, be sure to see the link that tells you how to
use them safely, in my first post.

Thank you for your replys, Daiya. I am writing to you and the forum on
behalf of Jeanette because I am her computer technician. My name is Marty.
We have reached and surpassed the limits of Jeanette's knowledge of Word and
I am stepping in to try to help her. When you said 'accidently formatted the
text as Hidden', that would show up in the properties field when you right
click on the document, correct? And to format the whole docment as white
would show up on the text color palette on the toolbar, correct? I checked
both of those things and neither are what has happened. As for copying the
document, as previously stated, the document which was 19.4 MB is now 1 blank
page; the only thing on it is the footer and page number (1). The only
paragraph mark on the whole page it the one at the top where one would begin
typing. If you still think this is a corruption issue I would love to know
how to undo whatever has been done. Also I just have one other question:
Why, if Master Documents are so prone to become corrupted, are we instructed
to use them for large, complex documents in application training classes?
Thanks again for everyone's help!!

Marty on behalf of Jeanette

I'd call that corrupted. Unless you think you accidentally formatted all the
text as Hidden, or as white.

Master Document in all caps refers to the whole feature of using masters and
subdocs.

You can try the regular corrupt doc techniques first, if you prefer:

The first way to check for a corrupt document is to
copy the entire thing, *excluding* the last paragraph mark, into a new
document. That last paragraph mark holds a lot of information which can get
corrupted, and copying the text into a document with a fresh one keeps your
formatting, but can fix some glitches.

A paragraph mark is a ¢Ò. Click on ¢Ò on the standard toolbar to show
nonprinting characters, including paragraph marks.

See this link for further techniques:

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm

The Master Document is not corrupted. The first sub-document has just
simply
disappeared.

:

Word Heretic might come along and help you out, but most of the people
posting here don©öt know much about master documents, because:

Why Master Documents corrupt:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm

How to recover a Master Document:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RecoverMasterDocs.htm

Steve Hudson [Word Heretic] on how to make Master Documents work safely:
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/magazine/technical/wordhomepage.html

The cardinal rule, by the way, is *never access or edit through the master
doc, only the subdocs.*


On 5/22/05 11:25 AM, "Jeanette" wrote:

While working on a book I am writing, I was going back and forth between
two
open documents. My entire book is formatted as a Master Document and I
access each part of it through the Master Document. I had switched over
to
a
large document that is approximately 19.4MB. I used the Ctrl G to find a
certain page and I went to close the box, something was highlighted and
the
screen seemed to freeze. I went down to the task bar to try to unstick
everything. When the document finally reopened, everything was gone. In
the
file the documents are in, the file still shows being 19.4 MB, but nothing
is
there. How can I get what is there to reappear? Thanks for your help.

 

[Guest]

Thank you again for all your help. Is there any other way to get someone who
might know just that little bit more that might be able to help. Not that
you haven't been wonderful, but I'm still struggling with what to do. Thanks.

I'm sorry, I don't know anything about how to deal with Master Documents
other than the links I suggested earlier. You'll have to go there and see
if there is any help. I don't know if this is a common corruption--and I
suppose it's also possible that the text got deleted and the doc size isn't
showing up properly. I haven't a clue, really.

The way I would check for hidden text would be to hit the ¶ icon on the
standard toolbar.

I would say that your classes have instructed you to use them because the
instructors don't really know much about Word, or because the instructors
are optimistic enough to think it will all be fine with proper instruction.
If you continue to use them, be sure to see the link that tells you how to
use them safely, in my first post.

Thank you for your replys, Daiya. I am writing to you and the forum on
behalf of Jeanette because I am her computer technician. My name is Marty.
We have reached and surpassed the limits of Jeanette's knowledge of Word and
I am stepping in to try to help her. When you said 'accidently formatted the
text as Hidden', that would show up in the properties field when you right
click on the document, correct? And to format the whole docment as white
would show up on the text color palette on the toolbar, correct? I checked
both of those things and neither are what has happened. As for copying the
document, as previously stated, the document which was 19.4 MB is now 1 blank
page; the only thing on it is the footer and page number (1). The only
paragraph mark on the whole page it the one at the top where one would begin
typing. If you still think this is a corruption issue I would love to know
how to undo whatever has been done. Also I just have one other question:
Why, if Master Documents are so prone to become corrupted, are we instructed
to use them for large, complex documents in application training classes?
Thanks again for everyone's help!!

Marty on behalf of Jeanette

I'd call that corrupted. Unless you think you accidentally formatted all the
text as Hidden, or as white.

Master Document in all caps refers to the whole feature of using masters and
subdocs.

You can try the regular corrupt doc techniques first, if you prefer:

The first way to check for a corrupt document is to
copy the entire thing, *excluding* the last paragraph mark, into a new
document. That last paragraph mark holds a lot of information which can get
corrupted, and copying the text into a document with a fresh one keeps your
formatting, but can fix some glitches.

A paragraph mark is a ¶. Click on ¶ on the standard toolbar to show
nonprinting characters, including paragraph marks.

See this link for further techniques:

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm


On 5/22/05 3:11 PM, "Jeanette" wrote:

The Master Document is not corrupted. The first sub-document has just
simply
disappeared.

:

Word Heretic might come along and help you out, but most of the people
posting here don¹t know much about master documents, because:

Why Master Documents corrupt:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm

How to recover a Master Document:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RecoverMasterDocs.htm

Steve Hudson [Word Heretic] on how to make Master Documents work safely:
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/magazine/technical/wordhomepage.html

The cardinal rule, by the way, is *never access or edit through the master
doc, only the subdocs.*


On 5/22/05 11:25 AM, "Jeanette" wrote:

While working on a book I am writing, I was going back and forth between
two
open documents. My entire book is formatted as a Master Document and I
access each part of it through the Master Document. I had switched over
to
a
large document that is approximately 19.4MB. I used the Ctrl G to find a
certain page and I went to close the box, something was highlighted and
the
screen seemed to freeze. I went down to the task bar to try to unstick
everything. When the document finally reopened, everything was gone. In
the
file the documents are in, the file still shows being 19.4 MB, but nothing
is
there. How can I get what is there to reappear? Thanks for your help.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

When Daiya said "Hidden," she was referring to a font property, not a file
property. And the font color at the insertion point is NOT reflected on the
Font Color toolbar button; the color it shows is just the most recently used
one (the one that will be applied if the button is pressed while text is
selected); and it applies only to colors applied using that button: if you
change font color through the Font dialog, the Font Color button is
unaffected.

From your description, though, I suspect that at some point Jeanette had the
entire document selected and pressed the spacebar or backspace or something
else. When "Typing replaces selection" is enabled (as it is by default), it
is all too easy to overwrite text. Provided the user doesn't panic and save
and close the document, it can be closed without saving, or Undo can be used
to bring back the deleted content.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

Thank you for your replys, Daiya. I am writing to you and the forum on
behalf of Jeanette because I am her computer technician. My name is Marty.
We have reached and surpassed the limits of Jeanette's knowledge of Word and
I am stepping in to try to help her. When you said 'accidently formatted the
text as Hidden', that would show up in the properties field when you right
click on the document, correct? And to format the whole docment as white
would show up on the text color palette on the toolbar, correct? I checked
both of those things and neither are what has happened. As for copying the
document, as previously stated, the document which was 19.4 MB is now 1 blank
page; the only thing on it is the footer and page number (1). The only
paragraph mark on the whole page it the one at the top where one would begin
typing. If you still think this is a corruption issue I would love to know
how to undo whatever has been done. Also I just have one other question:
Why, if Master Documents are so prone to become corrupted, are we instructed
to use them for large, complex documents in application training classes?
Thanks again for everyone's help!!

Marty on behalf of Jeanette

I'd call that corrupted. Unless you think you accidentally formatted all the
text as Hidden, or as white.

Master Document in all caps refers to the whole feature of using masters and
subdocs.

You can try the regular corrupt doc techniques first, if you prefer:

The first way to check for a corrupt document is to
copy the entire thing, *excluding* the last paragraph mark, into a new
document. That last paragraph mark holds a lot of information which can get
corrupted, and copying the text into a document with a fresh one keeps your
formatting, but can fix some glitches.

A paragraph mark is a ¶. Click on ¶ on the standard toolbar to show
nonprinting characters, including paragraph marks.

See this link for further techniques:

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm

The Master Document is not corrupted. The first sub-document has just simply
disappeared.

:

Word Heretic might come along and help you out, but most of the people
posting here don¹t know much about master documents, because:

Why Master Documents corrupt:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm

How to recover a Master Document:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RecoverMasterDocs.htm

Steve Hudson [Word Heretic] on how to make Master Documents work safely:
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/magazine/technical/wordhomepage.html

The cardinal rule, by the way, is *never access or edit through the master
doc, only the subdocs.*


On 5/22/05 11:25 AM, "Jeanette" wrote:

While working on a book I am writing, I was going back and forth between two
open documents. My entire book is formatted as a Master Document and I
access each part of it through the Master Document. I had switched over to
a
large document that is approximately 19.4MB. I used the Ctrl G to find a
certain page and I went to close the box, something was highlighted and the
screen seemed to freeze. I went down to the task bar to try to unstick
everything. When the document finally reopened, everything was gone. In
the
file the documents are in, the file still shows being 19.4 MB, but nothing
is
there. How can I get what is there to reappear? Thanks for your help.