Word 2008 crashes when embedding PDF graphic clippings

[i_lik...@officeformac.com]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

Hello,

Word 2008 crashes every time after the latest (12.1.2) update upon inserting a PDF graphic in a table and saving the document. If I convert the graphic into a TIFF before insertion, everything seems to be fine.

Is there any way to rectify this situation, as I did not have this problem with the previous Word 2008 update? Thank you very much in advance.

[CyberTaz]

Hello -

This is a known issue which has been reported to MacBU & is apparently
caused by the 12.1.2 update. I've no doubt it will be addressed but have no
idea when the fix will actually come down. Until then I don't know of any
"workaround" for actually using PDFs. What you're already doing - using a
different graphic format - is the only alternative I've found. The issue
exists with Excel & PPt as well.

In the meantime please use Help> Send Feedback to register another flag in
their database on the issue. The more it's reinforced there the sooner it's
likely to get fixed.

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

On 8/16/08 12:27 PM, in article 59b57...@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw,

[John McGhie]

I do not know of any way to fix this yet.

That seems to be a new bug...

Sorry. Stay tuned...

On 17/08/08 1:57 AM, in article 59b57...@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw,
"i_lik...@officeformac.com" <i_lik...@officeformac.com> wrote:

--

Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:jo...@mcghie.name

[i_lik...@officeformac.com]

Thank you for your help, both of you. That is unfortunate there is no remedy for my problem presently.

[Laurence]

I've also just started having this problem with Word 2008 - it's driving me
mad! Will use this Tiff workaround as there doesn't seem to be another
option, but this is very, very poor.

[Michel Bintener]

What exactly does not work? The message you quote does not really tell us
anything specific. Inserting PDF files used to be quite buggy in early
releases of Office 2008, but it was greatly improved with the SP1 update;
make sure your copy is up-to-date.

On 26/08/08 2:23, in article
502BC974-8A74-4D22...@microsoft.com, "Laurence"
<Laur...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:mac (Entourage & Word)

*** Please always reply to the newsgroup. ***

[CyberTaz]

Hi Michel -

This is a known issue following the 12.1.2 update & has already been bugged.

The original post in this thread is on the Subject:

Word 2008 crashes when embedding PDF graphic clippings

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

On 8/26/08 5:14 AM, in article C4D9962C.13DED%mbin...@NOmvpsSPAM.org,

[Laurence]

As described in the first post in this thread, the problem is with inserting
pdf images. For example, copy any image from Powerpoint, then >paste special
as a pdf image into a Word document. THen try to save, and Word crashes.
ALternatively, wait until Word tries to Autosave, and it will also crash.
THis does not affect pdf images that were already in the document (created
with 12.1.1).
I'm using 12.1.2 on OSX 10.5, with everything fully up to date. A lot of
people are having this problem (cf google), and a lot of people are mightily
annoyed.

[CyberTaz]

Hi Laurence -

Then "a lot of people" should be using Help> Send Feedback in order to
reinforce the point in a venue where MS will be most keenly aware of it. No
offense, but harping on known issues in the newsgroups does no good
whatsoever :-)

Those here are users just like anyone else & have no control over what, when
or how MS addresses matters such as this one. If we knew of another
workaround we would most certainly have posted it by now & there's nothing
we can do to implement an actual fix.

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

On 8/26/08 6:58 AM, in article
13D84CA6-0A3E-4F35...@microsoft.com, "Laurence"

[ajay...@officeformac.com]

I am having the same problem when I copy and paste an image into the Word for Mac 2008 document after the latest update. Every time I hit the save button or the document goes into auto-save the Word document crashes and only sometimes a back-up is saved.

So I am now uninstalling all of Microsoft Office and then I am going to reinstall it without uploading any updates at all.

Hope this will help because I did not have this problem before the last update.

[CyberTaz]

Just be aware that:

This isn't the "same problem",

If you use Entourage your reversion to 12.0 won't sync with the database,

You'll be reverting to a version which was more flawed than the current,

The installation will be out of sync with OS X & may not work at all,

And reinstalling probably won't resolve the issue any way.

Try repairing disk permissions, then shut down your Mac. See if the problem
persists when you start up again. If you continue to have a problem there is
quite likely an issue with OS X that needs to be resolved.

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

On 8/26/08 9:35 AM, in article 59b57...@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw,

[ajay...@officeformac.com]

CORRECTION -- I meant 12.1.2 update will NOT be permitted to be uploaded (I mis-typed that as 12.2.2 -- sorry)

> I should add that I started the uninstall almost 2 hours ago and now am emptying the TRASH CAN (securely) for the last 2 hours.
>
> When that is done, I will re-install Word for Mac 2008 -- actually as part of the Office for Mac 2008 which I uninstalled.
>
> Then, on the updates option, I will only click manually update so that the 12.1.1 update for Word is uploaded BUT will NOT permit the 12.2.2. update for Word to be UPLOADED -- hopefully this will fix the problem of pasting even TIFF files from PDF documents using Preview on my MacBook Pro.
>
> Hope this fixes the problem for now.
>
> Stay tuned. Will let you know if this works.

>
> > I am having the same problem when I copy and paste an image into the Word for Mac 2008 document after the latest update. Every time I hit the save button or the document goes into auto-save the Word document crashes and only sometimes a back-up is saved.
> >
> > So I am now uninstalling all of Microsoft Office and then I am going to reinstall it without uploading any updates at all.
> >

> > Hope this will help because I did not have this problem before the last update.

[ajay...@officeformac.com]

I should add that I started the uninstall almost 2 hours ago and now am emptying the TRASH CAN (securely) for the last 2 hours.

When that is done, I will re-install Word for Mac 2008 -- actually as part of the Office for Mac 2008 which I uninstalled.

Then, on the updates option, I will only click manually update so that the 12.1.1 update for Word is uploaded BUT will NOT permit the 12.2.2. update for Word to be UPLOADED -- hopefully this will fix the problem of pasting even TIFF files from PDF documents using Preview on my MacBook Pro.

Hope this fixes the problem for now.

Stay tuned. Will let you know if this works.

> I am having the same problem when I copy and paste an image into the Word for Mac 2008 document after the latest update. Every time I hit the save button or the document goes into auto-save the Word document crashes and only sometimes a back-up is saved.
>
> So I am now uninstalling all of Microsoft Office and then I am going to reinstall it without uploading any updates at all.
>

> Hope this will help because I did not have this problem before the last update.

[Laurence]

Thanks, CyberTaz for your very helpful reply.

FYI I immediately sent feedback when I found the problem was recurring. ANd
'harping on' in forums like this is actually exceedingly helpful, as it
prevents people like me fruitlessly searching the web for hours without
realizing this is a widespread problem, with no known fix. Not to mention the
catharsis that comes with finding others who are similarly afflicted.

If you find a fix, please post it. If you just want to write to moan about
people like me complaining about buggy software, then please keep it to
yourself and don't clog up the boards. :-)

[CyberTaz]

Thanks for having a sense of humor :-)

I full well understand the therapeutic value of a good rant now & again...
It's just surprising that so many people *do* seem to think they have an
inside track with MS product development via these newsgroups... And further
that their demands should & will receive immediate implementation :-0

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

On 8/26/08 5:25 PM, in article
C09CF740-8C5D-4097...@microsoft.com, "Laurence"

[Frust...@officeformac.com]

Help! I am running Word 2008 for Mac (v. 12.1.2) on my MacBook Pro. I am working on a Word document that has embedded pdf files (created with another graphing application). Everything was going fine, until today (suspiciously coincident with an update of my Word program) when Word decided it doesn't like to insert pdf files any more. Now, when I try to insert a pdf file (even pdf files that I successfully inserted earlier today), I get the following message:

"This application cannot open this file. This file is an unsupported graphic format or may be damaged. Try opening the graphic in another application."

I can open the pdf files just fine (with Acrobat), so the files do not appear to be corrupted. Based on the recommendations in this blog, I also tried saving the graphics as tiff files (and jpegs), and I get exactly the same error message. This unfortunate turn of events may coincide with the download of the latest update to Word (080729).

Any suggestions would be most welcome (I'm tearing my hair out!!!).

[CyberTaz]

First of all - just to be clear - this is *not* a "Blog" :-) It's a public
support news group, and there are major differences.

The PDF issue is a known bug introduced by 12.1.2 for which there is no fix
or workaround as yet. It affects all Office 2008 programs, not just Word. It
has no impact on Office files containing PDFs or the PDFs themselves - only
the ability to insert them is hampered. The only option is to open the PDF
in a compatible program & save them in a different format, then insert the
new files into the document.

The PDF insertion bug has nothing to do with other graphics formats,
however. If you're having difficulties with TIFF & JPEG it is an unrelated
issue - at least I've seen no indication of a connection. If you didn't do
so after updating I'd recommend that you run Disk Utility - Repair Disk
Permissions, then shut down your Mac & do a cold restart.

If you continue to have a problem start a NEW thread stating all details
about your specific situation including OS update level, image file settings
used, insertion method, etc.

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

On 8/30/08 11:13 PM, in article 59b57...@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw,

[JP]

Same problem here.

Inserting a pdf and than saving gives an emmeidate crash as a result. NEver
had this before. I must say that I got many issues with tabels in word as
well but that seems to be cleared by MS.

Why are custoemrs used for beta testing??? I am very unhappy with this buggy
shit.

[AT]

On Aug 31, 8:32 am, CyberTaz <onlygeneralt...@com.cast.net> wrote:
> First of all - just to be clear - this is *not* a "Blog" :-) It's a public
> support news group, and there are major differences.
>
> The PDF issue is a known bug introduced by 12.1.2 for which there is no fix
> or workaround as yet. It affects all Office 2008 programs, not just Word. It
> has no impact on Office files containing PDFs or the PDFs themselves - only
> the ability to insert them is hampered. The only option is to open the PDF
> in a compatible program & save them in a different format, then insert the
> new files into the document.
>
> The PDF insertion bug has nothing to do with other graphics formats,
> however. If you're having difficulties with TIFF & JPEG it is an unrelated
> issue - at least I've seen no indication of a connection. If you didn't do
> so after updating I'd recommend that you run Disk Utility - Repair Disk
> Permissions, then shut down your Mac & do a cold restart.
>
> If you continue to have a problem start a NEW thread stating all details
> about your specific situation including OS update level, image file settings
> used, insertion method, etc.
>
> Regards |:>)
> Bob Jones
> [MVP] Office:Mac
>

> On 8/30/08 11:13 PM, in article 59b5712f...@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw,

>
> "Frustra...@officeformac.com" <Frustra...@officeformac.com> wrote:
> > Help! I am running Word 2008 for Mac (v. 12.1.2) on my MacBook Pro. I am
> > working on a Word document that has embedded pdf files (created with another
> > graphing application). Everything was going fine, until today (suspiciously
> > coincident with an update of my Word program) when Word decided it doesn't
> > like to insert pdf files any more. Now, when I try to insert a pdf file (even
> > pdf files that I successfully inserted earlier today), I get the following
> > message:
>
> > "This application cannot open this file. This file is an unsupported graphic
> > format or may be damaged. Try opening the graphic in another application."
>
> > I can open the pdf files just fine (with Acrobat), so the files do not appear
> > to be corrupted. Based on the recommendations in this blog, I also tried
> > saving the graphics as tiff files (and jpegs), and I get exactly the same
> > error message. This unfortunate turn of events may coincide with the download
> > of the latest update to Word (080729).
>
> > Any suggestions would be most welcome (I'm tearing my hair out!!!).

I don't want to sound too negative, but come on! PDF is the primary
graphics format in OSX and you guys have problems inserting it into
word documents and this does not warrant and emergency fix!

[jo...@officeformac.com]

Strange: This problem has now be reported for more than two months and no reply from the clever Microsoft people. This problem is really making things more complicated for a lot of users - and I really hope that is will be fixed soon.

[CyberTaz]

Not Quite :-) the bug was introduced by the 12.1.2. update which was not
released until 12 August & wasn't available via AutoUpdate [IIRC] until at
least 1-2 days later. Most folks actually have had it applied for no more
than ~35 days.

Unfortunately it isn't usually feasible to issue a singular fix, nor is it
common for any developer to reply "directly" on such issues. It also
fascinates me that many people seem to believe that a bug in a multi-million
line code package can be identified - let alone corrected - the minute the
*symptoms* of that bug are reported.

No doubt about the inconvenience caused, but I would expect to see it
corrected in the next update... And before you ask :-) No, I can't say when
that will be. My *guess* would be prior to the end of October.

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

On 10/3/08 5:39 PM, in article 59b57...@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw,

[how...@howardyermish.com]

On Oct 3, 6:12 pm, CyberTaz <onlygeneralt...@com.cast.net> wrote:
> Not Quite :-) the bug was introduced by the 12.1.2. update which was not
> released until 12 August & wasn't available via AutoUpdate [IIRC] until at
> least 1-2 days later. Most folks actually have had it applied for no more
> than ~35 days.
>
> Unfortunately it isn't usually feasible to issue a singular fix, nor is it
> common for any developer to reply "directly" on such issues. It also
> fascinates me that many people seem to believe that a bug in a multi-million
> line code package can be identified - let alone corrected - the minute the
> *symptoms* of that bug are reported.
>
> No doubt about the inconvenience caused, but I would expect to see it
> corrected in the next update... And before you ask :-) No, I can't say when
> that will be. My *guess* would be prior to the end of October.
>
> Regards |:>)
> Bob Jones
> [MVP] Office:Mac
>

> On 10/3/08 5:39 PM, in article 59b5712f...@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw,

>
> "jo...@officeformac.com" <jo...@officeformac.com> wrote:
> > Strange: This problem has now be reported for more than two months and no
> > reply from the clever Microsoft people. This problem is really making things
> > more complicated for a lot of users - and I really hope that is will be fixed
> > soon.

Seeing the exact same problem here, which makes writing specification
documents that include logic and screen diagrams basically impossible.
Hope there is a fix soon. Thanks.

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi,

An update was announced today. Please install it and post back whether
or not it fixed this problem.

Thanks.

-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/

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