Worried... Microsoft Word icons keep changing!

[diehldun]

I've been using my new PowerBook for over a month now, and so far, no really big problems. But just a couple of minutes ago, i noticed something really scary. In my 'documents' folder, i've got about 10 saved Microsoft Word documents. Usually, on the icon, it shows a W with an icon of a piece of paper. But now, it's acting up. It just showed a picture like this:

>

but MUCH bigger. It was grey in color, and the behind the icon was black backround.

Then, i closed the Finder, and opened it back up again. But this time, it showed the original icon (what is should be), but REALLY really fuzzy. Very unclear. I closed the window and opened it back up again, but then, it showed the AppleWorks icon (the pencil and ruler over piece of white paper)! And I don't even have Apple Works on this computer!

What is going on? I'm afraid that there's either a bug on my PowerBook or it has a mind of its own. Can anyone help me?

Thanks.

 

[telecomm]

Nothing to be too worried about.

It's probably just that some of the permissions are messed up. This happens once in a while, often after installing new software. Just go to the utilities folder in your application folder and open up Disk Utility. From there, select your hard disk icon on the left, and then the button labelled "Repair Disk Permissions". That should do the trick.

 

[diehldun]

still not working...

i reparied permissions, and after about 5 minutes, it showed a huge list of what it repaired. the only problem is that it still looks the same. is it something just cosmetically, that i can ignore, or is it a software glitch?

also, i was startled to see that i only have 57.59 MB left on my PB! I thought my PB came originally with 512 MB!
This is what is says:

Wired: 57.51 MB <Red>
Active: 204.91 MB <Yellow>
Inactive: 197.63 <Blue>
Used: 459.65 MB

Free: 52.40 MB <Green>
VM size: 3.04 GB
Page ins/outs: 68241/2420

And next to all that is a pie chart, which says 512.00 MB underneath it.

Is FileVault eating up all that memory? What is going on with my computer?

 

[telecomm]

Those RAM stats look pretty normal - I don't run VileVault, and my PB's numbers (512 MB as well) are about the same. The operating system likes to take advantage of as much RAM as it can.

Repairing permissions again might be a good idea, followed by a restart. It does sound cosmetic, but I would find that annoying regardless. If that doesn't do the trick, reinstalling office/word is another option.

Oh, and after repairing permissions you have to reopen the folder that contains your documents in order for the icons to be updated.

 

[razorme]

Re: Worried... Microsoft Word icons keep changing!

Originally posted by diehldun

Then, i closed the Finder, and opened it back up again. But this time, it showed the original icon (what is should be), but REALLY really fuzzy. Very unclear. I closed the window and opened it back up again, but then, it showed the AppleWorks icon (the pencil and ruler over piece of white paper)! And I don't even have Apple Works on this computer!

What is going on? I'm afraid that there's either a bug on my PowerBook or it has a mind of its own. Can anyone help me?

Thanks.

Did you try opening up Microsoft Word after this problem? I would get ugly looking office icons after after a major upgrade (like Panther), but the icons would return to normal after opening up the proper application once.

 

[diehldun]

wrong icon...

it's sticking to the same icon...
the 'Applications' icon that you see when you open up the Finder. That 'A' symbol.

oh well.

 

[mnkeybsness]

Re: still not working...

Originally posted by diehldun
also, i was startled to see that i only have 57.59 MB left on my PB! I thought my PB came originally with 512 MB!
This is what is says:

Wired: 57.51 MB <Red>
Active: 204.91 MB <Yellow>
Inactive: 197.63 <Blue>
Used: 459.65 MB

Free: 52.40 MB <Green>
VM size: 3.04 GB
Page ins/outs: 68241/2420

And next to all that is a pie chart, which says 512.00 MB underneath it.

Is FileVault eating up all that memory? What is going on with my computer?

i'll explain the memory usage in short:

wired: this is the amount of memory that your system takes... it's pretty much 'wired' as a bare minimum for your system to run... at all

active: how much ram is currently being accessed

inactive: how much ram has some memory in it, but not being accessed.

used: wired + active + inactive = used

free: amount of ram without any memory used up

so, YES, you DO have 512MB RAM.
hope that clears up your ram concerns.