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Question
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Unable to close MS Word Document

Go Amtrak asked on

I have Office 2011 for MAC on a 365 Subscription.  I am using Yosemite Beta.  I am unable to close a certain word document.  When I close the window, I get an error message "Microsoft Word has encountered a Problem and needs to close."  I then have to option to "Recover my Work and Restart Microsoft Word."  I also have the option to "tell microsoft about this problem."  When I go to open word again, regardless as to whether or not I chose to recover my work, the same document opens again at startup.  If I make changes to the document, the changes stick the next time I open the document.

I deactivated my copy of Office, did a clean install, and it does the exact same thing with the same document, as if I never did the clean install.

Can anyone help me with this please?  Thanks

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Go Amtrak replied on

Well I'm at the Apple Store and the Genius figured out a better fix - exit full screen and close the document.  It worked perfectly.  He said that sometimes apps work different in full screen mode.  I'm not sure why, but it works, and its better than my system of emailing myself the document and then deleting the original.
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Go Amtrak replied on

OK, an update.  The error happens even when I close word without closing the document.  Also, I had two documents get "Stuck" open.

What I did was I emailed myself the document and then closed word, with the error, and chose not to restart word.  I then deleted the file for the documents that would get stuck open.

I'm curious as to what caused this and if this will happen again.

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Rich Michaels - MVP replied on

Are you a registered Mac Developer or a consumer participating in the OS X Yosemite Beta? Have you reported this to Apple?

I ask because it will help shape my suggestions.

Richard V. Michaels
Writes plug-in apps for
Office for Mac and PC
http://greatcirclelearning.com
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Go Amtrak replied on

I am a consumer participateing in the Yosemite Beta program.  I have not reported this to Apple.  I thought it would have been an Office glitch.  I will report it later today.
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Rich Michaels - MVP replied on

I am a consumer participateing in the Yosemite Beta program.  I have not reported this to Apple.  I thought it would have been an Office glitch.  I will report it later today.

Good... whether or not your issue is related to the beta OS, both Apple and Microsoft should be made aware so send the crash reports to Microsoft and follow any procedures Apple has given you.

 

From your posting I see that you have what I will kindly and gently call a general misunderstanding of processes regarding Microsoft Office functioning and related Problem Solving techniques. Here are my list of comments and questions:

  1. Reloading Office should never be your first problem solving action. If not done correctly you will cause more problems than you solve.
  2. If the problem is occurring in just one document then it might be a document corruption issue or a document feature incompatibility with the beta OS.
  3. What is your update version level of Office 2011?
  4. Your “stuck” open document is actually an auto-recovered version of the file. If Word crashes the files that were open at the time of the crash are automatically reopened when Word is started once again. That means, by design, Word is trying to help you recover your document. It does this via an AutoRecovery function and depending on how it is set on your system and the exact time interval between the crash and last auto recovery save of revisions edits you might have to only recreate a few items.
  5. So what in the document is crashing Word and why?
  6. Since you are beta testing a new OS could that be it?
  7. Your post indicates that you are an Office 365 subscription, which I believe means you also have a OneDrive account. Is this file stored on OneDrive?
  8. Word 2011 will not automatically save your document if you close Word without saving. Only some PC versions of Word have that functionality.
  9. Word 2011 should provide a message box asking if you wish to save before closing.
  10. If you are not seeing that message and you are saving to the cloud OneDrive and being that you are running a beta version of OS X... my guess would be that you'd better report this to Apple ASAP.

 

Hope this helps

Richard V. Michaels
Writes plug-in apps for
Office for Mac and PC
http://greatcirclelearning.com
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Go Amtrak replied on

Ok Rich.  I have some information for you.  In response to your tips above:

1. OK

2. It is now doing it on yet two more documents.  This is now the third and fourth times this has happened.

3. I am using Word 14.4.1

4. OK

5. That is the mystery

6. It could be

7. One of the documents is stored in OneDrive.  The other WAS stored in OneDrive and is now moved to dropbox.  I just created a test document in OneDrive and it is not hanging - at least not yet anyway

8. OK

9. Yes it does.  If I click YES, the changes do save before word crashes.

10.  I just did this.

Also, I just tried to quit the application without closing the individual documents.  Once again, it crashed.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I found a workaround.  If I copy - paste the text/content to a new document and then delete the bugged document, Word starts to act normal for a while, but eventually another document will become corrupt and we'll be back at the same place.

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The answered status icon Answer
Go Amtrak replied on

Well I'm at the Apple Store and the Genius figured out a better fix - exit full screen and close the document.  It worked perfectly.  He said that sometimes apps work different in full screen mode.  I'm not sure why, but it works, and its better than my system of emailing myself the document and then deleting the original.
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BrandyAdams98 replied on

The "Genius" fix worked for me.  Thanks for sharing.  Having same issue with Office crashing after (fullscreen mode) closing of docs.

Just a regular Mac user updating Apps on a Sunday afternoon before the week begins...

Hope this bug is updated soon, too bad its a two part close process for now.

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AndrePVinasco replied on

Thaaank you!!!! You make my day. :D
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merkmanV replied on

Thank you - you just spared me from doing a full re-install of MS Office! 
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lidzzzz replied on

I had the same problem, exiting full screen really solve my problem. Thanks a lot.
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