Integrating updates in MS Word 97

[bullwinkle8]

Hi, it seems that my updates in MS Word 97 do not integrate into the document.  Instead they are "hanging there" as they would do if you updated a document but did not close down Word.

Therefore I now have a bunch of "updates" which are listed before the Word documents in the file.

Any idea on how to get them integrated?

Thanks.

I'm running XP Pro with service package 2, Athlon 3500+, and 1 gig memory.

[soybean]

Not clear on what you mean by updates.  Do you mean updates downloaded from Microsoft?  

[bullwinkle8]

No, I mean simple updates to a document.  When you update a document an update file is created in addition to the original document.  When you shut down Word, the two files are combined to created an updated orginal.

This does not happen when Word is closed.

[soybean]

Do you click on Save to save an updated file before you close it?  How does Word respond?

[bullwinkle8]

Word responds normally.  However when you reopen Word, the two files are not combined.  There are still the updated files listed in the directory.

[soybean]

So, Save does not really save your updates to a file, right?  If you go to Tools, Option, Save, what boxes do you have checked there?  

[bullwinkle8]

The boxes checked are Allow background saves and Save autorecover for 10 min.

Yes the files are updated when referenced, but the update itself is still listed as a document in the directory.

[soybean]

A couple ideas come to mind as possible fixes for this.  One is to download a freeware program called CCleaner and run it.  It's a disk cleanup and limited registry cleaning tool.  Uncheck the box for Yahoo toolbar; you'll see it soon after starting the CCleaner installation.  When using CCleaner, be sure to run the Issues scan and fix those items.

The other thing that comes to mind is to delete, or rename your normal.dot file.  This is the template that stores your preference settings, customized toolbars, macros, etc.  So, be aware that you will lose these by deleting the file.  If you don't want to delete the file, then rename it; in either case (deleting or renaming), Word will create a new normal.dot file.  Close Word when deleting or renaming the file.  When Word is then started, it will create the new normal.dot file.   The point of this is that the normal.dot file can become corrupted and cause problems.  

You could run CCleaner, then see whether Word changes its behavior.  Or, you could first try the normal.dot technique.  It's a flip of the coin.  CCleaner is a good tool to keep installed and run periodically for general system maintenance.  So, if you don't have it, you might go ahead and get it and try it first.