Word crashes when I perform a simple copy and paste or select and drag?

Anonymous

Why does Word crash when I perform a simple copy and paste or select and drag?

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous

Here is the solution to your Copy - Paste nightmares.... The word software needs to be reset. Don't panic you won't lose your documents.

Step (1) Close all your open programs

Step (2) Open Finder

Step (3) Press and Hold Option button, then click GO on the top tool bar. Keep holding the Option button down and click on Library

Step (4) In the Library, click on Preferences

Step (5) Look for the file com.microsoft.word.plist

Step (6) Move the file to your desktop

Step (7) Close the Library file

Step (8) Open Word again, this will take you through a Welcome screen. Which means your word software is reset.

This fix has worked for me for over a week now and the Save button is thanking me! Keep the .plist file on your desktop, if something hits the fan you can always reset your settings.

Good luck fellow pasters!

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Anonymous

I just found this on the net & it works for me on text pasted from a web page. In word use edit, paste special and select unformatted

good luck!

Try Paste Special.

Press ALT/CTRL/V.
Select Unformatted Text in the As list box.
Click OK.

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Jim G 134.1K MVP

It turns out the Java malware problem was widespread. As you can see from the thread there are several possible causes of the problem. If you want assistance solving your particular problem, post a new question with as much detail as you can supply about your system, update level of Word and Mac OS X, what sort of thing you're trying to copy that causes the crash, a bit of the crash log, etc.

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74 additional answers

Anonymous

2012-02-01T05:31:00+00:00

Folks,

If your documents are relatively uncomplicated, you owe it to yourselves to give Apple's Pages a try. Il am not totally biased either, since I just dumped most of my Windows PCs and switched to Mac. However, to me Office on the Mac is full of weird limitations. Mac keyboard shortcuts don't always work and Office keyboard shortcuts don't either.

I tried pages initially and found it a bit limiting, since I was not used to the Mac. Six months later I wish I had persisted. Pages works beautifully, is a lot simpler than Word to use and not limiting at all, for most work. Plus you can save your documents in .doc format and open Word documents without any problems.

For $19.99 I think it is worth a try.
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Anonymous

2012-01-31T06:57:59+00:00

well I am a writer and have been working in Microsoft Word for many years!!! and have NEVER EVER had this problem until very recently so don't know what you are saying that is has been around forever. It is not a complete disaster, I have not lost any data as yet as the recovered files always pop up after the program has closed and reopend after a copy/ paste crash it is just incredibly time consuming and annoying, I have a couple of big chapters to try to amalgamate and am putting it off. Not sure what you are talking about with containers, tables, text boxes as my work is just straight text. Nothing complex whatever. I select a couple of sentences, press control X then contral V....crash! Are you saying that is the wrong way to do it? I've seen people here saying the Maggie etc doesn't work for long so don't think I'll bother. Am going to ring Microsoft and have it out with them.
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