Word for Mac problem: files that attach to each other

[Kenneth Bleeth]

I use Word for Mac 2011. I was working on a document (doc name: "TCB Index") and created a second document with revisions called "TCB Index copy." When I retrieved the first document, the second doc had attached itself to the first doc, but in an odd way: the first page of "TCB Index copy" appeared on my screen and then scrolled automatically (no way to pause it) to "TCB Index," which appeared in full, but now attached to "TCB Index copy" (at least the first page). In addition, every time I open another Word doc (with any name), that document attaches itself to "TCB Index" in the same fashion as "TCB Index copy." So I now have a document that automatically scrolls through the first page of several other docs before ending up at the original document.


I've of course tried getting out of Word and restarting the computer, but to no avail. Any suggestions about what might be going on and how I might try to fix it? (I tried to attach the file to this posting, but a message says that the extension (.docx) isn't allowed.)

 

[honestone]

Need some more information:

1. What exact Mac model do you have?

2. What exact Mac OS are you running?

3. What version of Office 2011/Word 2011 are you using? The last version was V14.7.4, which you can get from here:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=55251&WT.mc_id=rss_alldownloads_all

4. When you "created" the second document, did you do that while editing the original one? And if so, did you select "Save As"?

5. Have you been making any backups to an external device? If so, maybe you can recover a "prior" version of the original file.

 

[Kenneth Bleeth]

1. MacBook Pro, early 2011
2. OS X Lion 10.7.5 (I know this needs to be updated)
3. I just installed the latest version. I was using an earlier version when I was working on the document.
4. Good question. I think the answer is yes, but not 100% certain. I would have used "Save As" to give the second document a new name.
5. If I can figure out how to attach the document on here (the program doesn't accept its current ".docx" extension), you could look at it.

Thanks.

 

[honestone]

Thanks for the additional information. I have used Word 2008, Word 2011, and more recently Word 2016, and I have never had any issues.

What about the answer to my backup question? Hopefully you are making frequent backups.

 

[Kenneth Bleeth]

Thanks for the additional information. I have used Word 2008, Word 2011, and more recently Word 2016, and I have never had any issues.

What about the answer to my backup question? Hopefully you are making frequent backups.

I didn't see the backup question, but, yes, I have a somewhat earlier version of the file.

 

[honestone]

I didn't see the backup question, but, yes, I have a somewhat earlier version of the file.

That's good. Not sure what you are using to make your backups (I use SuperDuper!, and in fact I just completed my routine for disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs, and backups just a few minutes ago), but maybe you could try and "copy/restore" that file from your backup, and try it again.

I gather this is the first time this has happened. Anything you did just prior to that incident that involved updating software, disk maintenance, etc.?

 

[Kenneth Bleeth]

Actually, it happened once before, but then resolved itself without any intervention from me. This time, it's hanging in there.

No, I didn't do any of the things you mention just before the problem occurred. Earlier today, I emailed the file to a friend. He was able to extract the file from its unwanted attachments. But when he emailed the clean file back to me and I opened it, the extraneous files still attached themselves. This suggests to me that there's some gremlin on my laptop that's causing the interference. In other words, the problem isn't with the file itself.

 

[honestone]

Is that the only file it is happening with?

Also, have you ever done any disk cleanup, maintenance, and repairs, from a software perspective? You can actually do some useful disk cleanup yourself. And, there are both some excellent free and commercial products out there that can assist you with those efforts.

Regarding "gremlins", that could be harder to pin down. A clean Mac OS installation would be a good start to try and clean that up, but then again if you wanted to subsequently retrieve (ie, "migrate") stuff from your backup, the "gremlin" could be there. You could try the excellent freeware program Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, available from here:

https://www.malwarebytes.com/mac/

Not sure what else you can do. Maybe some more knowledgeable folks here could suggest additional things to try.

 

[37Shannon]

At this point, I would be more interested in preserving your work. Since Word can create a document in PDF format, I would save your document as a PDF. Then, create a new file with a different name (i.e., without "index" in it), and cut and paste text from the PDF into the new file. My guess is that Word may treat files with certain naming conventions differently, and by following my suggestion, you should be able to recover your data into usable Word files.

With my luck, I'm surprised this hasn't happened to me ...