Well, I promised this post a couple of weeks ago during a webcast where I ran out of time to address thetopic. So, here goes...
For those of you who attended that session or have read my Office 2007 book, you already know my perspective on the subject ... 'corruption' is the most misused and overused term in relationship to Microsoft Word documents, bar none.
Some examples of what corruption is not:
- outline numbering that doesn't number correctly
- text that changes formatting when you paste it
- section breaks that change from 'Next Page' to 'Continuous' (or vice versa)
- tables cells that go out of whack when you split, merge, or paste some cells
- text that doesn't update when you change a style
- headers or footers that change throughout the document when you change a single header or footer's content
It's very common for someone to experience unexpected behavior in a document and blame the software or the system. But, the fact is that poor formatting and misunderstood features are far more common causes of any of the above examples and many other issues that are referred to as 'corruption'.
Take a look at some quick solutions to the first few items from the preceding list:
- when outline numbering doesn't update correctly throughout the list, the cause is almost always that the document contains more than one list ... even if the lists look the same, if you created a second outline numbered list instead of editing the first, you may have more that one list in the document. In Word 2007, for example, if you try to edit a multilevel list, you'll find that you only have access to a dialog box named 'define new multilevel list' ... Instead, to help ensure that you have a single, coherent outline list in use, use a list style - from which you can access a modify multilevel list dialog box.
- there are many reasons that text may change formatting when pasted into your document, but none of them are document corruption. You may have excess paragraph marks that store the unwanted formatting; you may be pasting text styled with a style that has a different definition in the destination document; or you may expect a different default paste method than Word uses. To manage how content is pasted ... use Paste Special (under Paste options on the Home tab or CTRL+ALT+V in Word 2007, or on the Edit menu in earlier version) instead of plain paste. Or, if you use a plain paste and don't like the results, click the Paste SmartTag that appears in the bottom-right corner of the pasted selection for other options.
- though a section break stores formatting for the section that precedes it, the type of break (such as Next Page or Continuous) is based on the way the following section starts. So, if you add or remove section breaks from the document, the start type of the surrounding sections can be changed by that action. If a section break type changes unexpectedly, place your insertion point after the break that changed, and then - in the Page Setup dialog box, on the Layout tab, change the Start Type (i.e., new page, continuous, etc). Note that, if the break type or appearance of the section doesn't change when you do this, the formatting applied in the document may not permit it (for example - even if a break that precedes an orientation change is Continuous, the new section still has to start on a new page - because you can't change the orientation of just part of a page).
If you have my Office 2007 book (Advanced Documents Inside Out), you'll find info on all of the above, including answers to the items from the first list of examples that I didn't detail here. If you have specific questions on any of these topics that you can't find in the book - send me an email with your question, using the contact link at the bottom of the page.)
Corruption can also be the result of misconstrued information ... for example - a company may tell their users that non-company paragraph styles can corrupt documents or that using track changes can corrupt documents. Neither of these statements are true, but right or wrong (and my vote is that it's definitely wrong, though I do understand the motivation) - some folks believe that to tell people the truth (such as that they should only use company styles because the company wants documents to all look consistent) simply isn't as compelling as the fear of destroying your work.
So ... then what is document corruption?
Well, file corruption is something that occassionally occurs in virtually any file type from any program and means that something about the integrity of the file is compromised ... something is broken under the hood that causes the source program to not be able to process some or all of a file's information. In Word, this is no different. If a document won't open or frequently crashes, some type of corruption may be present. When it won't open - there's most likely some corruption ... when it crashes, there may be corruption or an overload of poor formatting that's taxing the system. In either case - keep in mind that other influences (such as add-in programs) can cause problems in document behavior as well (in which case, neither the document nor Word is the culprit).
For example - if you have an add-in program for blacklining documents (this is common in legal firms) and the blacklining consistently fails on a given document, that doesn't mean the document is corrupt ... it only means that the add-in program doesn't understand something in the document. So, the key there is to find out what Word formatting the add-in can't handle.
And please keep this in mind ... when document corruption actually does occur in Word, it's also much more likely to be an individual element in the document than the document as a whole. So, retyping a document from scratch is almost certainly a waste of time.
So, how do you determine if there is corruption and then fix it?
In Word 2007, this is sometimes done for you. A damaged document may automatically open as a copy, with Word providing a message box that tells you a problem was found and repairs were automatically made. Thanks to many advances, including the new Office Open XML file formats, Word's self-healing skills are much improved in 2007.
In Word 2007 (or 2003 or XP), you can also open the document using Open and Repair. Often, this action will even open a document that won't otherwise open at all. To use this feature, go to File, Open and select your document. But, instead of clicking Open, click the arrow beside the Open button and then click Open And Repair.
In 2007, your document will open automatically as a copy when you use Open and Repair - so be sure to save changes with the correct filename once you check to see if you're happy with any fixes. In previous versions, you may want to save or print a copy before doing this, because certain fixes (such as a corrupt numbered style or a corrupt table) may cause unwanted formatting changes that you'll need a reference in order to most easily fix in the repaired version of the document.
In any version that has Open And Repair, you will most likely see a dialog box of repaired elements if actual document integrity errors were found.
Also in 2007, because of the new file formats, fixing corruption is substantially easier ... if one element becomes corrupt (such as comments, for example), Word can simply remove the problem element without affecting the rest of the document. If you're familiar with Office Open XML and editing document ZIP packages, you can do this yourself as well.
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If you have my Office 2007 book, you can find more information on all of the topics mentioned above in that book. For more information about what the book covers, click the my books link here or at left for a link to the complete table of contents and more information.
For additional learning resources on Office 2007 at all levels ... click the genius resources link here or at left.
Happy Monday everyone!
