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

Guys and Gals:

Crash on Cut/Paste is an ancient and continuing problem with Microsoft Word.  Microsoft has been trying to fix it for years.

The implementation of the .docx format was their most major effort to squash this bug.  So if you are not working in .docx, that's my first piece of advice -- .docx is a lot less susceptible to the issues that cause this problem.

Normally, the trigger for the issue is careless editing.  Sorry:  I know you don't want to hear it, but if you want to solve this problem, you need to accept it.  I work in Word all day, and have done for years.  It is so long since I had this crash I do not remember (more than three years...).  The reason is that I am careful with how I edit.  More on that in a minute...

The other things that frequently cause it are corrupt bullets/numbering, and Track Changes.  That's why I recommended the Maggie.  The Maggie (see page one of this thread) rebuilds all the bullets and numbering definitions in the file, which often solves the problem.  It also simplifies the tracked changes, which is beneficial (not as beneficial as an Accept All Changes, but worth a try).

You are much less likely to encounter the issue if you use only styles for formatting.  Direct Formatting makes the insides of a document massively more complex, and produces literally hundreds of thousands of overrides on top of overrides.  A document in that condition is a crash looking for a place to happen.

To understand why this issue occurs, consider that a Word document is a large collection of "containers".  A character is a container, a word is a container, a paragraph is the most important container, a section break is a container, a style is a container -- everything that exists in a document is a container.  In most cases, the container contains formatting instructions.  In most cases, those instructions are references to styles, which are in a different container.

Just to drive the point home, consider the man in the bathroom half-awake.  On the shelf there are two tubes: one contains toothpaste, the other is a treatment for something "down there".  If he makes a mistake and picks up the wrong tube he will be very unhappy...

So as soon as I hear people talking about "Drag and Drop Editing", I immediately think "I bet they get a lot of crashes!"  I very rarely use it (like: almost never...).  Because it's far too easy to drag one kind of container (say, a Table) into another kind of container (say, a Text Box).  If you are careful, and work very accurately, you will get away with it.  If you miss your selection, or your drop, by half a character: "boom!"  So don't do it...

It's nearly impossible to edit accurately if you can't see what you are doing.  On the Standard toolbar, there is a "Show non-printing characters" control.  Looks like a backwards P -- ¶  Turn that on, so you can see where the containers are.  While you are at it, turn on "Show text boundaries" and "Show bookmarks" in Word>Preferences>View.  And turn "Field Shading" to "Always".  There: the minefield will be a lot safer now.

Once corruption has been caused in a document, it's there forever until you fix it.  So when a document starts crashing, get in there with a Maggie and Accept All Changes etc and clean it up, or it will simply keep on crashing.

I know how frustrating this kind of thing can be (remember: I have had 40 years of this, I know about frustration, trust me!).  However, if you think there is a better product out there, let me save you some time... There isn't.  The only two other word processors that come close to Word are FrameMaker and Interleaf.  Neither of them has the power, speed, and flexibility of Word.  And both of them cost more and crash far more.  I know, I sometimes have to use them!

Nothing else on the market comes close.

Yes, Microsoft is working on these problems.  Has been for years.  Every year, Word will be a little better.  But if you want to stop the crashing for yourself NOW, then I recommend that you change your working practices.  It's worth it, believe me.

Hope this helps

Awful sorry to say that this solution absolutely did not work.

Word 14.1.4 Mac Os 10.6.8 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 Gb RAM