On many documents that I open, Word XP goes into a loop of recalculating the
word count, even if I don't select word count. This continual loop prevents
me from doing many things, e.g., selecting a format like italics (either the
toolbar button or Ctrl-I) and then typing in italics. I have to type in
normal format, select the words I want to italicize, and then apply the
formatting. Some documents are not affected by this. It doesn't seem to
matter how long the document is. Any ideas how to stop this?

Hi ?B?Sm9obm55IEFwcGxlc2VlZA==?=,

On many documents that I open, Word XP goes into a loop of recalculating the
word count, even if I don't select word count. This continual loop prevents
me from doing many things, e.g., selecting a format like italics (either the
toolbar button or Ctrl-I) and then typing in italics. I have to type in
normal format, select the words I want to italicize, and then apply the
formatting. Some documents are not affected by this. It doesn't seem to
matter how long the document is.

My first thought is that the file structure of these documents is damaged.

If you
- hold Ctrl when starting Word (to go into Safe Mode)
- open one of these "problem" documents
- select everything EXCEPT the last paragraph mark
- copy
- paste into the new document

Can you then work normally in this new document?

And if you save it, exit Word, then start Word normally and open the new
document can you continue to work in it normally?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

Oddly enough, when I first got your response, I opened Word and everything
worked perfectly. I couldn't duplicate my problem with any file. Then another
issue caused me to reboot, and now the Word problem is back. Go figure. I
tried your suggestion below, which makes sense, but the new document
immediately exhibits the same word count loop problem. I opened another
simple, one-page document I created earlier today when all was well, and it
is looping now, too. The cut and paste method didn't work on it, either. Any
more ideas?

"Cindy M -WordMVP-" wrote:

My first thought is that the file structure of these documents is damaged.

If you
- hold Ctrl when starting Word (to go into Safe Mode)
- open one of these "problem" documents
- select everything EXCEPT the last paragraph mark
- copy
- paste into the new document

Can you then work normally in this new document?

And if you save it, exit Word, then start Word normally and open the new
document can you continue to work in it normally?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

I should add that I just transferred one of my documents to my laptop where
it opened in Word with no problems. The issue then would seem to be that
either Word itself is corrupted somehow or some other program or driver is
affecting it.

Hi ?B?Sm9obm55IEFwcGxlc2VlZA==?=,

Oddly enough, when I first got your response, I opened Word and everything
worked perfectly. I couldn't duplicate my problem with any file. Then another
issue caused me to reboot, and now the Word problem is back. Go figure. I
tried your suggestion below, which makes sense, but the new document
immediately exhibits the same word count loop problem. I opened another
simple, one-page document I created earlier today when all was well, and it
is looping now, too. The cut and paste method didn't work on it, either. Any
more ideas?

You are in Safe Mode when you see the problem?

In that case, if you start WINDOWS in Safe Mode, is it still happening?

If it does not happen when Windows is in Safe Mode, then there's something
loading with Windows that's doing this... Since you say the problem returned on
a re-boot, that would give this hypothesis some support.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)