Word 2002 now loses header (but not footer) when saved

[GerryP777]

Recently Word (2002) has started losing the header when I save a doc file. It
never used to. The footer is still ok. The Header appears fine while I'm in
the doc; I can edit + print all ok but, if I save and re-open later, the
whole header has disappeared. If I open an old file which has a header,
change some text and save, that also loses the pre-existing header!

If I start an entirely new DOC, I can create and keep the header ok, even
after a save. I've tried this on several DOCs that were working fine and
can't see any obvious pattern.

Any ideas please ? Thanks, Gerry

 

[Stefan Blom]

If the header really disappears I would suspect document (or template)
corruption. See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm.

If there's a chance it could be a display issue (which seems unlikely), see
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/WhiteSpace.htm.

 

[GerryP777]

Thanks for your help so far.

I didn't use any of Master Docs, Nested Tables, Versions, Fast Saves, Doc
Map or saving to floppy. I've tried re-adding the header when there's nothing
else going on (ie plenty of resources) but that didn't work either. It
printed fine so I think the print driver is not to blame.
I've created a NEW doc with header+footer, saved it and it comes back
intact so, hopefully, it's not Normal.dot at fault. I didn't use Format +
Bullets and Numbering.
“Auto update doc styles†is not ticked on Tools / Templates + Addins. It's
happened to several separate docs so I'm guessing not likely to be a bad disk
problem.
I tried saving as WebPage, quit then re-open + save as a doc! Now, if I
save it as the latest (2002) version, the header does stay ok BUT if I save
it as Word 6.0/95 version, the header is gone again. So it rather looks like
it's the Word 6.0/95 text converter which is causing the problem. It didn't
used to strip headers.
(I always save as Word 6.0/95 for compatibility with some
friends/colleagues who have older versions of Word and because it's more
space-efficient. I'd really like to continue doing that if possible.)
Thanks for the info -any ideas how I can avoid what looks like a
corrupting Word 6.0/95 text converter problem ? Thanks, Gerry )

ps: Except that the NEW doc is also Word 6.0/95 and that comes back ok
with the header -now I'm more confused!

 

[Stefan Blom]

Since you cannot reproduce the issue with your new document, even if you
save it in Word 6/95 format, it probably is a case of document corruption
after all.