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Word ballooning up to 1.5 GB of RAM

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sebseb81

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 12, 2010
88
3
I'm not sure when this started (maybe since 10.7.3 came out?) but I've noticed that Microsoft Word is rather consistently getting up to 1 GB of RAM or higher even when I'm not doing anything that complicated in Word (text files without images, etc.). Anyone else noticing similar behavior?

The only other thing I can think of outside the 10.7.3 update was a plugin that I installed (Write'N Cite from Refworks) which I ended up uninstalling after a couple of days because it kept causing crashes.

Once I restart MS Word, the RAM usage goes back to normal. If I only close all the open documents, RAM stays up high.

Any suggestions of things to look for? Or anyone else having similar issues?
 
W

Windowsrefugee

macrumors regular
Mar 14, 2011
161
7
Microsoft Land
Word problems

Yes, I have had a very similar problem with Word with both a 2010 and 2011 ultimate MBA. See link to my previous thread. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1117271/. I spent days with both Apple MS support at the local Apple and MS stores and on the phone with tech support from each. Both pointed the finger at each other and I still have the problem a year later, even with my 2011 MBA. I wish either Apple or MS would own up to the problem and address it. :mad:
 
S

sebseb81

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 12, 2010
88
3
Windowsrefugee said:
Yes, I have had a very similar problem with Word with both a 2010 and 2011 ultimate MBA. See link to my previous thread. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1117271/. I spent days with both Apple MS support at the local Apple and MS stores and on the phone with tech support from each. Both pointed the finger at each other and I still have the problem a year later, even with my 2011 MBA. I wish either Apple or MS would own up to the problem and address it. :mad:
Click to expand...

Thanks for pointing me to your thread. Forgot to say that I am also running a late 2010 MBA, which seems to be the same machine as yours (mine has 4 GB of RAM installed, fortunately, which means the problem doesn't usually fill up all my available RAM). The documents I'm working can be up to 50-70 pages long, and they do have a lot of comments and track changes in them, so maybe that is the issue. It's unfortunate neither MS or Apple have been able to come up with a solution to this.
 
W

Windowsrefugee

macrumors regular
Mar 14, 2011
161
7
Microsoft Land
So the problem is not just the MBA (also MBP) and has been seen on Lion as well as on SL, both on the original release of Office 2011 as well as after its first major update.

Apple just pointed me to the MS store down the hall in the same mall. MS actually gave me Windows and Office (I had to go buy Fusion or Parallels) and told me to just use the Windows version of Office to see if it would solve my problem. That defeats the purpose of buying a Mac!

So what has Apple or MS done or said to either of you about problem?
 
dianeoforegon

dianeoforegon

macrumors 6502a
Apr 26, 2011
907
137
Oregon
Suggestions from John McGhie, Microsoft MVP for Word. If you need help ask on Answers for Word.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac/forum/macword

Get all the tracked changes and comments out of the document, save and close, and it will be fine.

Use Compare Documents at the end if he wants markup.

If the document has corrupted, that won’t fix it and he will HAVE to go on and do a Maggie, which will resolve all the tracked changes anyway.

Tracked Changes are not stable: if you use them, eventually you will break your document. He’s been working on this document every day for at least a year, in doing so, he’s broken it.


The Maggie:

1. Create a new blank document in .docx format
2. Carefully select all of the text in the bad document EXCEPT the last
paragraph mark
3. Copy it.
4. Paste in the new document.
5. Save under a new file name and close all, then re-open.

This technique for de-corrupting is known as "Doing a 'Maggie'", after
Margaret Secara from the TECHWR-L mailing list, who first publicized the
technique.
 
A

al2o3cr

macrumors regular
Oct 14, 2009
210
0
dianeoforegon said:
Suggestions from John McGhie, Microsoft MVP for Word. If you need help ask on Answers for Word.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac/forum/macword

Get all the tracked changes and comments out of the document, save and close, and it will be fine.

Use Compare Documents at the end if he wants markup.

If the document has corrupted, that won’t fix it and he will HAVE to go on and do a Maggie, which will resolve all the tracked changes anyway.

Tracked Changes are not stable: if you use them, eventually you will break your document. He’s been working on this document every day for at least a year, in doing so, he’s broken it.


The Maggie:

1. Create a new blank document in .docx format
2. Carefully select all of the text in the bad document EXCEPT the last
paragraph mark
3. Copy it.
4. Paste in the new document.
5. Save under a new file name and close all, then re-open.

This technique for de-corrupting is known as "Doing a 'Maggie'", after
Margaret Secara from the TECHWR-L mailing list, who first publicized the
technique.
Click to expand...

You forgot the all-important step 6: delete Word, since it's horribly broken. I can find references to this exact procedure dating back to at least 2003:

http://groups.google.com/group/bit....read/thread/761fa00f5aeac3c8/6cbe5266c9c7edec

and even then it was clearly a common enough process that it didn't need to be spelled out in detail. A brand-new version of an editor that occasionally corrupts documents is "buggy"; a version that's still doing it 10 years, many releases, and a entire document format later is "broken trash" and should be treated as such.
 
W

Windowsrefugee

macrumors regular
Mar 14, 2011
161
7
Microsoft Land
Dumbfounded

"Get all the tracked changes and comments out of the document, save and close, and it will be fine.

Use Compare Documents at the end if he wants markup.

If the document has corrupted, that won’t fix it and he will HAVE to go on and do a Maggie, which will resolve all the tracked changes anyway.

Tracked Changes are not stable: if you use them, eventually you will break your document."

So, this really defeats the purpose of a 21st Century word processor! After all, we work and collaborate in virtual teams all over the globe so I need to be able to send and receive embedded comments and track changes from others who are working on the same document. I NEVER had this problem with Word on the Windows OS. Why can't MS and Apple make these critical functions work on the Apple version of Word?
 
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