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wy4tt · Mar 4, 2004, 10:55 PM

i'm working on a massive paper right now, and i'm getting error messages from Word, "cannot complete the operation because too many files are open." Bull! i've got 2 files open! it won't let me save to usb flash drive either. please advise.

geekwagon · Mar 4, 2004, 11:15 PM

You might try quitting any other programs that are running, or copying/pasting the text into some other program...

cpac · Mar 4, 2004, 11:16 PM

this is a crashing bug in word.

Your best bet is to copy and paste all the contents into something else and hope you can do it before everything freezes up (and or that you saved your changes recently)

tRr · Mar 5, 2004, 01:17 AM

EEEk, pretty scary bug!

wy4tt · Mar 5, 2004, 01:42 AM

thanks geekwagon and cpac. after i posted this problem, i went back into word and couldn't get anything under prefs or file. huge problem. at least i'd saved recently, but still lost some data. thanks again. now i know to save more often.

MountainMac · Mar 5, 2004, 09:14 AM

This was an issue I seem to recall in the OS 10.1 days and Office 10.0, with Word files that were originally created in Word 98 for OS 9. Have you installed the latest OS X and Office updates?

MM

wy4tt · Mar 5, 2004, 09:23 AM

i have all updates for both osx and office x. it's strange, i've worked on this current setup for days on end, and i've never experienced it before. i want to say it has something to do with the autorecover/save feature. i recently set it to 1/min. also, one of the error messages that popped up said something like "unable to complete request. try one or all of the following: 1)increase memory allocation (wc?), or 2)make sure you have permission to write to the selected drive and/or it's not full." something like that anyway. who knows. i've begun using my flash key more often as added protection.

wy4tt · Mar 5, 2004, 11:28 AM

well, it did it again, only this time word totally locked up. i couldn't highlight the text. luckily, i lost nothing. i'm beginning to wonder if the usb memory key (sandisk cruzer mini) could be part of the problem. it's been in both times this has happened-though when it did happen, i wasn't saving to the flash drive. hmm. very annoying. microsoft wasn't content with making pcs unstable, it would seem.

philzilla · Mar 5, 2004, 11:36 AM

i have to use Word, because of the Comments feature. there's always abiWord via X11, or the native Nisus and TextEdit. worth a try, depending on how many Word features you rely on

cybergoober · Mar 5, 2004, 12:45 PM

Not sure how relevant it is in your case, but see-

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/apple_os_10.htm

wy4tt · Mar 6, 2004, 05:53 PM

cybergoober, thanks for the link. the error message, "Unable to Save: Disk Full or Too Many Files Are Open" is exactly what i was getting. seems like you have a limited number of saves before this bug strikes. thanks again.

Blanchard · Mar 6, 2004, 06:10 PM

This bug may be related to the bug I have (re: this precedent post ) - word quits unexpectedly after an hour of use or so. Sometimes Word quits on me, sometimes it doesn't save my doc anymore. Sometimes I can cut-paste, sometimes I have to force-quit.

I've discovered that OS X is swapping like crazy when Word runs.

One workaround is to clean the swap file with Cocktail or Onyx once in a while, but it does not prevent the bug entirely.

cybergoober · Mar 6, 2004, 07:47 PM

Originally posted by wy4tt:
cybergoober, thanks for the link. the error message, "Unable to Save: Disk Full or Too Many Files Are Open" is exactly what i was getting. seems like you have a limited number of saves before this bug strikes. thanks again.

Yeah, I just wasn't sure of the relevancy because that link mentions an issue occurs when working with files on a server.

Wonder if Office 2004 will address this problem?

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