Inserting A Contact in a Word 2004 Table Causes Spinning Beach Ball

I'm trying to insert a contact, and/or an associated address, into a
Word table - something which I could do with alacrity in Word X (on a
good day with a following wind) - but which now causes the
multi-coloured 'pizza of death' to appear.

Dear fellow Word 2004 users, please try this for me.

Open a new blank document.
Insert a two column, to row table.
Insert the curser in the first cell.
Find a contact, using the 'Contact' Toolbar.  Click to insert.
After a short pause does the dreaded pizza appear ?
(Word is not responding, dear reader)
Or.
Try clicking on the 'Include Address' button in the 'Contact'
Toolbar.
Does the dreaded pizza appear ?

Why is this, or more to the point, how can I stop it from doing this ?
It would, then, be possible to be able to insert multiple contacts in a
label template which, incidentally, uses a table for formatting.

In article < XXXX@XXXXX.COM >,



I did as you bid. With even more spectacular results.

Word 11.3 crashed on my Mac Pro 10.4.8 with a kernel exception.
Microsoft's error reporter was either on holiday or too slow out of the
blocks, so the crash report went to Apple instead.
It died as I tabbed from the top left table entry (which worked
immediately) to the top right cell.
Note that I had but one contact in the offered list (me), because I
don't use any kind of Entourage or other contact apparatus from within
Office. I hate having all my eggs in such a rickety basket.

Looking on the bright side, it was dead before it had a chance to show
me the pizza.

It's broken Jim.

(I do my labels, form letters and envelopes using mail merge from an
Excel spreadsheet and a small bunch of templates for each purpose)

I always feel that the monolithic database Entourage uses is a disaster
waiting to happen. Address Book is also one of those, but at least it
isn't{*filter*} onto all my mail as well.

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OS 10.4.8, PPC powerbook g4, Office 11.2.6 (not updated).

No crash here, worked totally fine.  I even kept on inserting random things,
still no problem.

I would try it in a different office or OS user identity, to see if it
happens with a freshly created database--except it sounds like Elliott has
not touched his.  The difference between my results and Elliott's suggests
it could be Rosetta, or it could be Office 11.3.

Simon, what's your OS and Word version, and Intel or PPC Mac?






-- 
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Dear Daiya,

My current version of Word is 11.3.0, although it happened in 11.2.6 as
well.
Power Mac G5 Dual, OSX 10.4.8.

Also happens on my wife's G4 (OSX 10.2.8), on a '{*filter*}'
Entourage database.

Apologies to Elliot.  But I did enjoy his description of the resulting
mayhem.

Would be interesting, and fruitful, to know what differs between your
'set-up' and mine.
Or did you do something different ?
Exactly what "randon things" were you inserting ?

Best wishes,
Simon

Hi Simon,

I followed your exact directions in the first post (very helpful, by the
way)--just did it again, no problems.


To bring up the Contact Toolbar, I used View | Toolbars | Contact. When
nothing bad happened, I tried another document, a bigger table, different
cells, adding phone numbers or emails, etc.  Still nothing bad. I "found"
the Contact in the toolbar via both the drop down and typing a few letters.
I tried various tabbing and shift-tabbing around the table, still no crash.

Okay, some diagnostic tricks:

Shift-launch Word.  This launches it with no add-ins or anything, and a
fresh Normal template.  See if the same thing happens.

Shift-login to your user identity. This prevents any startup items from
loaded.  See if the same thing happens.

The chances of you and your wife having similar startup items seems high,
though I don't know about Elliott.  Those two methods should get you to a
pretty clean setup, and eliminate the possibility of third-party
interference.

Daiya

In article <C17E2D99.84C5D% XXXX@XXXXX.COM >, Daiya




Well, that was a challenge I couldn't resist. I repeated the experiment
on my Powerbook G4 10.4.8, also with Word 11.3

What was different? Very little. Both machines have almost identical
normal and global template, fonts and lack of Entourage database.

How did it behave? It crashed after almost identical operations. The
only thing that was different was that the contact field initially
opened showing the field source. So I hit opt-f9 before hitting tab.

Microsoft's error reporter won the race this time. Otherwise they
behaved identically.

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In article <C17E3866.84CAF% XXXX@XXXXX.COM >, Daiya


<snip>
Good idea.
It does. I confirmed it was running without my normal normal or my
global template.

I didn't bother with that 'cause I'd already done it on two machine.
The Mac Pro user was running as a non-priviliged, and the PowerBook
user had admin privs.

The exact crasher is to open a new document (default operation on start
with the PB, after dismissing the project gallery (recent) on the Pro).
Then I create a 2*2 table as the only object in the document. I then go
to view toolbars to bring up the contacts toolbar. I click on the box
to display the drop down list of contacts, choose the only one there.
That fills in the table cell. Typing a tab crashes Word.
>> 
>> The chances of you and your wife having similar startup items seems high,
>> though I don't know about Elliott.  Those two methods should get you to a
>> pretty clean setup, and eliminate the possibility of third-party
>> interference.
>>>> 
>>>> Apologies to Elliot.  But I did enjoy his description of the resulting
>>>> mayhem.
Heh! I have a reputation to protect!

It would be useful if more than one of us could repeat a simple crasher
recipe. Then we'd hand that over to the maintainers at MS for their
delectation.

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Hi Elliot




>>> Shift-login to your user identity. This prevents any startup items from
>>> loaded.  See if the same thing happens.
>> I didn't bother with that 'cause I'd already done it on two machine.
>> The Mac Pro user was running as a non-priviliged, and the PowerBook
>> user had admin privs.

I think you should try it. The question is whether something like a menu bar
utility to give you the weather might be interfering--that's what
shift-login will test without.  I don't see how admin privs or not is
relevant to that. And I would expect that you have the same menu utilities
on both machines.  Unless you have no startup items at all--is is possible
to run a Mac like that?  :)
>> 
>> The exact crasher is to open a new document (default operation on start
>> with the PB, after dismissing the project gallery (recent) on the Pro).
>> Then I create a 2*2 table as the only object in the document. I then go
>> to view toolbars to bring up the contacts toolbar. I click on the box>
> to display the drop down list of contacts, choose the only one there.>
> That fills in the table cell. Typing a tab crashes Word.

Same same, just tried it again, still no problems on choosing the contact or
tabbing. Simon, are you sure this used to happen in Office 11.2.6?>
> >
> It would be useful if more than one of us could repeat a simple crasher>
> recipe. Then we'd hand that over to the maintainers at MS for their>
> delectation.

It would be.
-- 
Daiya Mitchell, MVP Mac/Word
Word FAQ:  http://www.**--****.com/ 
MacWord Tips< < http://www.**--****.com/ ;l>
What's an MVP? A volunteer! Read the FAQ:  http://www.**--****.com/ 

In article <C17E423C.84CD8% XXXX@XXXXX.COM >, Daiya




>> 
>>>>> Shift-login to your user identity. This prevents any startup items from
>>>>> loaded.  See if the same thing happens.
>>>> I didn't bother with that 'cause I'd already done it on two machine.
>>>> The Mac Pro user was running as a non-priviliged, and the PowerBook
>>>> user had admin privs.
>> 
>> I think you should try it. The question is whether something like a menu bar
>> utility to give you the weather might be interfering--that's what
>> shift-login will test without.  I don't see how admin privs or not is
>> relevant to that. And I would expect that you have the same menu utilities
>> on both machines.  Unless you have no startup items at all--is is possible
>> to run a Mac like that?  :)

You were wise to insist. After both a shift login and shift doubleclick
to start Word my procedure does not crash my Powerbook, but does crash
the Mac Pro.

I didn't expect that.
I have no common menu bar utilities between the Pro and the PB except
the .mac sync thing, bluetooth and spotlight. Shift login does not
inhibit them.

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FWIW - My experience echoes what I've seen here so far:

PM G5 Dual 2GHz (1.5 GB), OS X 10.4.8, Office 11.3 - Basically the same
config as Simon's.

Launch Word & create 2 x 2 table, activate Contacts TB, insert contact from
list to any cell causes immediate "Word Not Responding" SBBoD. Note: It
isn't necessary to tab or anything else after inserting the contact. The
insertion point immediately evaporates & I need only wait a few seconds for
the SBBoD to appear. Doesn't matter whether the table is first, last or only
item in the doc, behavior is the same. Force Quit is the only resolution.

Interesting Observation - This only happens if inserting the contact in a
table cell. I can insert contacts, addresses, email addys with no problem as
long as they *aren't* going into a cell.

I also launched Activity Monitor while Word was hung up & found both
processors bouncing between 60-99.7%

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones 
[MVP] Office:Mac



On 11/13/06 6:39 PM, in article C17E423C.84CD8% XXXX@XXXXX.COM ,




>> 
>>>> Shift-login to your user identity. This prevents any startup items from
>>>> loaded.  See if the same thing happens.
>>> I didn't bother with that 'cause I'd already done it on two machine.
>>> The Mac Pro user was running as a non-priviliged, and the PowerBook
>>> user had admin privs.
>> 
>> I think you should try it. The question is whether something like a menu bar
>> utility to give you the weather might be interfering--that's what
>> shift-login will test without.  I don't see how admin privs or not is
>> relevant to that. And I would expect that you have the same menu utilities
>> on both machines.  Unless you have no startup items at all--is is possible
>> to run a Mac like that?  :)
>>> 
>>> The exact crasher is to open a new document (default operation on start
>>> with the PB, after dismissing the project gallery (recent) on the Pro).
>>> Then I create a 2*2 table as the only object in the document. I then go
>>> to view toolbars to bring up the contacts toolbar. I click on the box>>>> to display the drop down list of contacts, choose the only one there.>>>> That fills in the table cell. Typing a tab crashes Word.>
> >
> Same same, just tried it again, still no problems on choosing the contact or>
> tabbing. Simon, are you sure this used to happen in Office 11.2.6?>>>> >>>> It would be useful if more than one of us could repeat a simple crasher>>>> recipe. Then we'd hand that over to the maintainers at MS for their>>>> delectation.>
> >
> It would be.

On 11/13/06 1:55 PM, in article 131120062155190464% XXXX@XXXXX.COM ,





What total nonsense.

-- 
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: < http://www.**--****.com/ ;
AppleScripts for Entourage: < http://www.**--****.com/ ;

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X  or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

In article <C17E919C.EBBFC% XXXX@XXXXX.COM >, Paul Berkowitz





Perhaps I said it it with too much colour, but I can't have all my mail
(>20,00 items) in a closed proprietary database for which I have no
knowledge of the internal structure. I much prefer having individual
unix mailboxes with individual messages inside that I can back up and
use with any unix mail client. I like having my contact program
separate from my mail program. Apple could have done address book far
better than they did, but at least it will live through a mail
disaster, and can't possibly be affected by a Word disaster.
Remember how Entourage screwed up Word v.X autocorrect and the problem
was not fixed for over a year?

The idea of a monolithic Office is poor. What if this crasher in Word
we are talking about was scribbling over the closed format contact
database?

I am looking forward to Office having more open data structures in
future incarnations.

That's far from total nonsense surely?

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First, thank you all for your posts, comments, and advice.

Sorry for the delay in responding, but us British folk have been
pushing out the zeds for the last few hours !

I am replying directly to Daiya's post (no.6).

I tried Shift/Opening Word and, low and behold, the problem goes away.
So, bearing in mind Daiya's suggestion of menu bar interference, I
noted that the Formatting Toolbar is not present.  You know what I'm
going to say next.  Re-introducing the Formatting Toolbar (after
Shift/Opening Word) reintroduces the problem.

So, it would appear, dear Word programmers, that you may have to do a
bit of re-programming here to prevent this happening in future.  Daiya,
can you escalate this to Microsoft ?


In reply to {*filter*} Taz (post no.10), my experience concurs.  It is only
trying to insert a contact in table cell that causes a problem.
Inserting directly into the text of a document, or into a text box or
column, causes no difficulties.

There is a work around, but a little clumsy.  That is to create the
contact information in a place other than in a table cell and then copy
and paste it across - or, perhaps, temporarily dismiss the Formatting
Toolbar ?

My good wishes to you all.

 Here's an update from this end:


How utterly incongruous! I've just confirmed that, Simon - and without using
Shift-Start. It appears that just having the Formatting TB turned OFF
resolves the problem. The Contact data inserts with no hesitation or crash.
In the same doc, same table, displaying the Formatting Toolbar & inserting
any contact flames the program.
 

Have you tried doing the insertions, then selecting the resulting "list" &
using Table>Convert>Convert Text to Table?

It also produces no error if you launch the Address Book & Insert from there
- regardless of whether the Formatting TB is displayed. I doubt this to be
acceptable if inserting multiple Contacts, though, as the Address Book
closes automatically after each insertion.


Thanks for the follow-up.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones 
[MVP] Office:Mac
 

In article <C17F10E6.18ABC% XXXX@XXXXX.COM >, {*filter*}Taz




Mine still crashes without the formatting palette.
One thing I did notice was that after inserting the contact, the
insertion point moves to the beginning of the line after the table. If
I type a tab from there it crashes. If I reposition the insertion point
anywhere, even putting it back to where insert contact left it and then
type tab, it does not crash. (even a left right arrow sequence is
sufficient to save it from crashing)

I think in my earlier shift-start testing, the contact buttons were
inside a monster toolbar (I normally run with every toolbar off except
for one pixel of the most reduced formatting palette peeping shyly from
the corner of the screen (to work around a different misfeature)

Under those circumstances, the insertion point did not move to the
first line after the table after inserting a contact. I tried to
reproduce that by adding contact buttons to a custom toolbar but the
insertion point always strayed to the end.

In my very stylised test, the first line after the insertion point
contains nothing but the document's final paragraph mark.

Lets keep working on this. It would be good for the product's future
quality if we could send a 100% reproducible crasher back to MS.

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