I had hoped to have the new Controlled Marbling Tutorial in the shop by midnight tonight, but I'm afraid it is not going to happen. I have shot all the photos and edited them for size.
I got up at 4:30 this morning to start writing it in my Word program. I meticulously saved it every few sentences on my laptop and on a flash drive.
When I was about five paragraphs into the text part of the tutorial, I tried to insert an image, and my Word program froze. I watched that filmy screen and the little circle going round and round for an hour, hoping it would resolve itself; but I had to turn the computer off to get out of the program. I turned the laptop back on and tried to open the file, but could not. All I saw was one of those "file corrupt" error messages. I plugged in the flash drive and the same thing happened.
I switched to my desktop and could not open there, either. I started typing the tutorial from scratch again, only to have the Word program freeze on my desktop at the same point. As soon as I tried to upload the photo, it froze up and I could not save it. Now, these are different versions of Word, and the pc runs on windows 98 and the laptop on Windows 7.
I was so frustrated, I threw up my hands and walked away for a little while. An hour later, I decided to go looking for my Word program disc. Unfortunately, there isn't one. My laptop came programmed with the free trial version, which I later converted to the full length program, complete with key number. I tried everything I could think of, even called a computer-savvy friend, who said it should be compatible due to some program built into Windows 7 that makes all things previous versions of programs compatible. Right, researched that and found out I don't have that program and it would cost $200 for one that would do that.
I decided to purchase another Word program, and $130 later, I got a new key code and thought that would fix the problem. Halfway through installation, installation stopped and I received another error message, this one something about a conflict between 32 bit and 64 bit. I have no idea what that means, and at this point, I don't know what to do. I ordered a backup cd with the new Word program, but it will be 3-4 weeks until it arrives. Is it going to work if the digital version didn't? With my luck, it won't. I can't wait that long on this tutorial anyway. My customers are waiting patiently for it, and I want to get it finished and in the shop.
I have Word Perfect on the old desktop. I think I'm going to try typing the tutorial again in it and then saving it to Word, but I'm not at all sure I can get it from WP to Word to CuteWriter, which is the PDF conversion program I use. My brain is just too frazzled at this point to think about doing any more tonight.
I am open to suggestions if anyone has any they think will help. To my loyal customer friends waiting for the new tutorial, I am so sorry for the delay. Hopefully, someone can help me figure out something soon and it won't be too much longer.
I got up at 4:30 this morning to start writing it in my Word program. I meticulously saved it every few sentences on my laptop and on a flash drive.
When I was about five paragraphs into the text part of the tutorial, I tried to insert an image, and my Word program froze. I watched that filmy screen and the little circle going round and round for an hour, hoping it would resolve itself; but I had to turn the computer off to get out of the program. I turned the laptop back on and tried to open the file, but could not. All I saw was one of those "file corrupt" error messages. I plugged in the flash drive and the same thing happened.
I switched to my desktop and could not open there, either. I started typing the tutorial from scratch again, only to have the Word program freeze on my desktop at the same point. As soon as I tried to upload the photo, it froze up and I could not save it. Now, these are different versions of Word, and the pc runs on windows 98 and the laptop on Windows 7.
I was so frustrated, I threw up my hands and walked away for a little while. An hour later, I decided to go looking for my Word program disc. Unfortunately, there isn't one. My laptop came programmed with the free trial version, which I later converted to the full length program, complete with key number. I tried everything I could think of, even called a computer-savvy friend, who said it should be compatible due to some program built into Windows 7 that makes all things previous versions of programs compatible. Right, researched that and found out I don't have that program and it would cost $200 for one that would do that.
I decided to purchase another Word program, and $130 later, I got a new key code and thought that would fix the problem. Halfway through installation, installation stopped and I received another error message, this one something about a conflict between 32 bit and 64 bit. I have no idea what that means, and at this point, I don't know what to do. I ordered a backup cd with the new Word program, but it will be 3-4 weeks until it arrives. Is it going to work if the digital version didn't? With my luck, it won't. I can't wait that long on this tutorial anyway. My customers are waiting patiently for it, and I want to get it finished and in the shop.
I have Word Perfect on the old desktop. I think I'm going to try typing the tutorial again in it and then saving it to Word, but I'm not at all sure I can get it from WP to Word to CuteWriter, which is the PDF conversion program I use. My brain is just too frazzled at this point to think about doing any more tonight.
12 comments:
I've used the online help provided by micrsoft MS support and had good results one time. I don't think you can use the old version of word with 7, I would google the question befor trying. You don't need more frustration. Goodluck! There is not much more frustrating than trying to fix computer problems. A thought have you tried 2 documents -stop before you get to that point and start new. Also check pictures in case one of the files looks funny and is causing the problem,
Yes, Libra Office is a free office suite that works as good as (and is compatible with) MS Office. http://www.libreoffice.org/ I just used it to write my tutorial and it handled 33 pages and 65 images just fine. It also has an "export to pdf" function so you don't need another program to convert to pdf.
Also, could there be a problem with your images being too big? What software are you using to reduce the file sizes of the jpgs? What size are they? Big images and Word are an iffy combination. Freeze ups are common even with a fast computer. When I told my husband what I was doing, he looked gravely at me and said, "Save often."
Try Libre Office and if you have any questions email me. Between my IT guru husband and me, we ought to be able to get you fixed up. Good luck!
Thank you both for your very helpful suggestions. Ginger, I will definitely give Libra Office a try, and thank you for the offer of help. I will take you up on it, for sure!
The photos are not big files, which is why I was confused at first. I changed the setting on my camera to the smallest 640x480 picture.
Sent you an email...
I use Open Office at home. Like Libra, it is free online. It's very similar, and in some ways better than Word, and all the documents are compatible with Word. In fact, you can save them as Word docs, which is what I do.
I also would suspect that the photos may be too much for Word to handle in terms of size.
Are you good in PowerPoint? I would use that before Word, since it's meant to have lots of photos in it. Or Publisher.
I would be happy to help in any way I can, as well.
Poor you - you must feel soooooo frustrated. Showed your post to my hubby who's work is fixing pcs and he too suggests open office http://www.openoffice.org/ - you never know!
Woah Lynda, Sorry I can't help with tutorial problems, it's all Greek to me.
However, two things in your post caught my eye. "customers patiently waiting" and "loyal customer friends". THAT WE ARE!!!
And will still be no matter how long the tut takes. Maybe you should just take a break and refocus. It might all fall into place with the solution. Making yourself crazy won't do that.The problem is not your fault.
Good Luck,
John(SC)
Thank you all so much. I truly don't know what I would do without all your great advice.
Ginger, thank you for the email. I will get back on this tomorrow and implement your suggestions. Thank Gary for me, too!
Laurel, you are so good to me. Thank you, my friend!
Thank you, John. You are a sweetheart!
Are you going to have this tutorial for sale soon, Linda? I am practically foaming at the mouth for it! Okay, I exaggerate, but not by much! Hope you got your computer problems sorted out!
Very soon, Becky. It is being proofed today. I'll post here when it's listed in the shop! Thanks so much!
Yay, Linda! Come on fast, Payday!
Post a Comment