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Old 01-27-2019, 04:03 PM
RP McIntosh RP McIntosh is offline Strange Behavior with a Graph in Word Windows 10 Strange Behavior with a Graph in Word Office 2010
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Default Strange Behavior with a Graph in Word

I have a perplexing issue which I hope someone can give me some insight to. I have 3 computers: 1. A new Windows 10 Pro 64 bit system. 2. A Windows 7 Ultimate system. 3. A Windows XP Home system that I have kept to use as a backup machine, and to use a couple of old DOS programs that won't run on either Windows 7 or Windows 10. The Windows 7 machine is befing phased out. As a step in that process, I used a program by Linksys called PC Mover to move most of my applications from the Windows 7 to the Windows 10 system. The Windows XP system is not involved in this migration.

The Windows 7 system at one time had Microsoft Office 2007 installed. However, that was subsequently upgraded to Office 2010. It was office 2010 that I moved from the Windows 7 machine to the Windows 10 machine. The Windows XP machine has Microsoft Office XP (Word version is 10.6866.6870 SP3).

That's the background. Now for the problem. Sometime back (I'm not sure when, but several years ago), I created a document in Word to track my weight. It was a simple line graph. The vertical axis was weight in half pound increments. The range was 150.0 to 200.0 which meant that there were 100 horizontal lines in the graph. The horizontal axis was date, in one day increments. The range was the first day of one month through the first day of the following month, which meant that there were 29, 30, 31, or 32 vertical lines on the graph, depending on the month. The way I maintained this record was to open the document, double click within the graph, which opened the data box, where I entered the weight for that particular day. Word would then plot a line on the graph from the previous day's weight to the current day's weight. I then clicked outside the graph, and saved the file with the updated data. At the end of the month, I printed the document for retention in a notebook I kept for that purpose. Once I had printed the document, I would double click the graph area again. At this point, I could edit the title at the top of the graph (which read Weight Month Year). If I then right clicked the labels at the bottom of the document, I could select Format Axis. At this point, I could change the start date and stop date. Word would automatically add (or subtract) the vertical lines in the graph if the number of days in the range was more or less than the current month. At this point, I then opened the data sheet, and removed the amounts there, entering the correct amount for the first cell in the data sheet (that is, the first of the current month). I would then use the SAVE AS option to save the file with a new title correspoding to the month being plotted.

As I mentioned, I used this procedure for several years without a problem. I should also mention that the file was created in compatibility mode originally, primarily because at the time that the default file type of Word documents was changed from .doc to .docx, most of the people I dealt with were still using the older version of Word, so that made it easier for us to exchange copies of documents when necessary. I should also note that I only did this editing of the files using the Windows 7 system. However, I did save copies to the Windows XP system, and the documents opened and displayed correctly there, using the MS Office XP version of Word that was on that system. But I never edited the files using that system. Now, however, I've run into a situation that I can't figure out. As I said earlier, right now I have Word 2010 on both the Windows 7 and Windows 10 system (though the plan is to closed down the Windows 7 system once I get all the data I need from it moved to the Windows 10 system). I can open these files with no problem on all three systems--Win XP, Win 7, and Win 10. I can edit the files as described above on the Windows 7 system with no problem. However, if I edit one of these files on EITHER the Windows 10 or the Windows XP system, all is well UNTIL I click outside the graph. At this point, the data on the graph gets huge, and I only see what amounts to the top left corner of the page. There is no scroll bar displayed. I have tried print preview and it shows the same thing. I've tried shrinking the page (lowering the magnification level) but that just reduces the size of the page itself, not what appears on it. I have noted that if I double click the graph, then simply click outside the graph without making any changes, I sometimes get a larger area of the graph displayed, but never the entire thing. I've tried reducing the size of the overall graph, but that just makes the area on the page covered by the graph smaller, and doesn't shrink the data displayed. As long as I don't edit the files, (or don't save any editing I do), the documents display and print correctly. But of course, the nature of the document is that it must be edited to serve its purpose.



I realize that this is a long note, and that many may find it too long to slog through, and I understand that. But I wanted be as complete as possible in desribing what I'm experiencing in the hope that someone may have a clue what is going on, and more to the point, how to fix it either by getting at the root of the problem if possible, or by creating a new set of files that will accomplish the same objective, if fixing the problem isn't possible. Any input would be much appreciated.
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Old 01-27-2019, 05:36 PM
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macropod macropod is offline Strange Behavior with a Graph in Word Windows 7 64bit Strange Behavior with a Graph in Word Office 2010 32bit
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Your description suggests the document has acquired some of corruption. Corrupt documents can often be 'repaired' by inserting a new, empty, paragraph at the very end, copying everything except that new paragraph to a new document based on the same template (headers & footers may need to be copied separately), closing the old document and saving the new one over it.

Alternatively, it may be that the table underlying the graph has acquired some of corruption. Corrupt tables (which the above process won't repair) can often be 'repaired' by:
• converting the tables to text and back again;
• cutting & pasting them to another document that you save the document in RTF format, which you then close then re-open before copying them back to the source document; or
• saving the document in RTF format, closing the original document then opening it the RTF version, then saving that in the doc(x) format.
Do note that some forms of table corruption can only be repaired by the first method. I'm also not sure what effect this process might have on your graph.

Having said all that, I'm wondering why you don't do all this tracking & graphing in Excel. An appropriately-configured Excel worksheet would allow you to track the data continuously and produce graphs spanning any period of interest.
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Old 01-27-2019, 08:33 PM
RP McIntosh RP McIntosh is offline Strange Behavior with a Graph in Word Windows 10 Strange Behavior with a Graph in Word Office 2010
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Quote:
Originally Posted by macropod View Post
Your description suggests the document has acquired some of corruption. Corrupt documents can often be 'repaired' by inserting a new, empty, paragraph at the very end, copying everything except that new paragraph to a new document based on the same template (headers & footers may need to be copied separately), closing the old document and saving the new one over it.

Alternatively, it may be that the table underlying the graph has acquired some of corruption. Corrupt tables (which the above process won't repair) can often be 'repaired' by:
• converting the tables to text and back again;
• cutting & pasting them to another document that you save the document in RTF format, which you then close then re-open before copying them back to the source document; or
• saving the document in RTF format, closing the original document then opening it the RTF version, then saving that in the doc(x) format.
Do note that some forms of table corruption can only be repaired by the first method. I'm also not sure what effect this process might have on your graph.

Having said all that, I'm wondering why you don't do all this tracking & graphing in Excel. An appropriately-configured Excel worksheet would allow you to track the data continuously and produce graphs spanning any period of interest.
Paul,

Thanks for the response. First, let me apologize for posting duplicate threads. It was not my intention to do so. I'm new to the forum, and apparently (by accident), posted my original thread where it belonged. However, when I got no responses, I came back looking for it, and couldn't find it (because I was in the wrong forum, of course), so I came to the incorrect conclusion that I must have failed to post it correctly. That's when I created the second thread, which indeed, was a duplicate of the first. Now that I'm a bit more familiar with where I am, I'll take care not to make that kind of faux pas in the future.

Now for your comments. The possibility that the document had become corrupted did occur to me. And it is certainly possible. However, in an effort to check this possibility out, I took the following actions. Instead of the current month, I tried opening up a past month (actually, four different ones), and editing each of them, and got the same behavior. However, I COULD still edit them on the Windows 7 system. I can sort of understand how I might get different behavior when I edit a document prepared in Word 2010, but edited in Word XP. But why I get it in a document prepared in Word 2010, and edited in Word 2010 (but on a different machine) perplexes me. I'd certainly be willing to try your suggestion, but in the edited document, I am unable to even view most of the existing chart, much less access the end of the document to insert a new paragraph.

To show you what I am experiencing, I'm uploading two documents. The first one, Wght0119.doc is the current document that I'm (trying to) work on. The second, Wght0718.doc is the same document as it originally appeared. This second document, of course, was edited every day during the month of July, 2018. And it was initially created by editing the Wght0618.doc file, and so on. Hopefully, you will see something that gives you a clue what is happening.

I understand your suggestion to use an Excel spreadsheet instead of a Word document. Probably not a bad idea. But I started these monthly documents several years ago, have kept hard copies in a binder, and would like to continue to do that if I can make it work, since it is, at its roots, a very simple document, and also to maintain the format I've used all this time for consistency's sake.

I do appreciate your willingness to help, and welcome any suggestions or insights you have.
Attached Files
File Type: doc Wght0119.doc (41.5 KB, 7 views)
File Type: doc Wght0718.doc (59.5 KB, 8 views)
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Old 02-06-2019, 01:20 PM
RP McIntosh RP McIntosh is offline Strange Behavior with a Graph in Word Windows 10 Strange Behavior with a Graph in Word Office 2010
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Thought I would post an update to this subject in the hope of perhaps getting further insight as to the cause of this problem.

I've been fiddling with this for a while now. I still have no idea what causes this problem, but I have found a way to "fix" it, but only temporarily. I have found that if I click ONCE on the "after edit" version (the one with the huge text and only part of the document displayed, I can get the cross hairs to move the graph on the page. If I move it down and toward the right, I can get what I call the sizing handle to appear (it's the little dot in the middle of each side, top, bottom, and at each corner of the graph, which if you move the mouse over them, it becomes a double pointed arrow). At this point, the only one visible is the one in the upper left corner. If I position the mouse over it, and drag it down and to the right, it reduces the size of the text, and brings more of the document into view. Repeating this a few times makes the sizing handle in the top center, and the left side also visible. By repeated dragging of these handles, I can eventually get the bottom and other corner handles to appear also. With all of the handles now available (except the one on the right side), and by using the cross hairs to move the entire graph around on the page, I can get the whole thing back where it belongs, and properly sized. Once I have done this, and click out of the document (so that it is no longer selected), the reformatting stays put, and the document can be printed successfully. However, the next time I edit the document (by double clicking to bring up the data sheet), and click out of the document, it is back to its huge upper left corner only appearance. Since, as I said, I have no idea what is causing this, I'll add one more bit of information that may or may not be meaningful. During this whole process, as I mentioned before, the sizing handle on the right side is NOT visible. I CAN get it to come into view, but ONLY by sizing the total graph down so much that it fills only about 2/3 of the horizontal width of the page. In other words, there is a much larger distance between the right edge of the graph and the right sizing handle, than there is between the other three edges (left, top and bottom). I've checked the page setup margins, and both right and left are set the same, and changing them doesn't seem to effect this behavior. I've also looked through the various settings in the OPTIONS feature, and can't find anything that would appear to affect this situation.

Does this added information ring a bell or light a light in anyone's experience that might explain what is causing this?
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Old 02-06-2019, 02:45 PM
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macropod macropod is offline Strange Behavior with a Graph in Word Windows 7 64bit Strange Behavior with a Graph in Word Office 2010 32bit
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There is evidently some form of corruption in the document, which I've not been able to rectify. That said, I have been able to extract the chart data and create a new chart in Excel. See attached.

You might like to play with the chart formatting to get it looking like your original, so you can maintain it all in Excel. You might even move the chart to a separate sheet to simplify printing. And, as I mentioned before, simply changing the date range spanned in Excel will allow you to have a single chart that spans any range of interest - something you can't easily do in your Word document.
Attached Files
File Type: xlsx Weight Log.xlsx (11.2 KB, 8 views)
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Old 02-06-2019, 08:57 PM
RP McIntosh RP McIntosh is offline Strange Behavior with a Graph in Word Windows 10 Strange Behavior with a Graph in Word Office 2010
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Quote:
Originally Posted by macropod View Post
There is evidently some form of corruption in the document, which I've not been able to rectify. That said, I have been able to extract the chart data and create a new chart in Excel. See attached.

You might like to play with the chart formatting to get it looking like your original, so you can maintain it all in Excel. You might even move the chart to a separate sheet to simplify printing. And, as I mentioned before, simply changing the date range spanned in Excel will allow you to have a single chart that spans any range of interest - something you can't easily do in your Word document.
Paul, Thanks. Have to admit, it looks interesting. Truth is, I haven't use Excel much. I have a huge (several years old) spreadsheet program that was originally developed in Lotus 1-2-3 that I still use, and since I more or less mastered the eccentricities of 1-2-3, I've stuck with it. But the few times I HAVE used Excel, I've been able to make the transition without much trouble. It hadn't dawned on me that I could insert a chart into Excel, but it is certainly worth some more exploration.

I want to thank you for the considerable trouble you went to in order to assist in this matter. I do appreciate it. And although I'm old, I'm still willing to learn. I also note that you are from Australia. I spent a week there in the 1960's on R&R when I was on duty in Vietnam, and have very fond memories of how generously and graciously those of us who were visiting were treated by the Australian people. Thanks again for your kindness then, and for it now.
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Old 07-01-2019, 08:29 PM
RP McIntosh RP McIntosh is offline Strange Behavior with a Graph in Word Windows 10 Strange Behavior with a Graph in Word Office 2010
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Strange Behavior with a Graph in Word
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by macropod View Post
There is evidently some form of corruption in the document, which I've not been able to rectify. That said, I have been able to extract the chart data and create a new chart in Excel. See attached.

You might like to play with the chart formatting to get it looking like your original, so you can maintain it all in Excel. You might even move the chart to a separate sheet to simplify printing. And, as I mentioned before, simply changing the date range spanned in Excel will allow you to have a single chart that spans any range of interest - something you can't easily do in your Word document.
This is an old thread, but thought I would post an update, since I stumbled onto the problem's solution. Since I have some vision problems, I have my display Scale setting in both Windows 10 and Windows 7 set at 125%. Turns out, this causes the problem in a Word graph. If I set the scale back to 100%, then the documents display normally, and can be edited without changing the way they are displayed. I stumbled onto this by accident when working with the Windows 7 computer. The Word documents had been displaying normally on the Windows 7 computer. Then I decided to increase the resolution, which of course, made things smaller. I then went to the display settings and changed the scale to 125% to make things larger. First time I opened the Word document after making that change, the weird behavior appeared. If I changed the Scale back to 100%, things returned to normal. So I then tried it on the Windows 10 computer, with the same results--Scale at 125%, strange behavior. Scale at 100%, all is well. I still like the 125%, so now I cope with the issue by simply resetting the Scale to 100% to work with that specific document, then set it back to 125% for working with everything else.

Don't need any additional help with this issue. Just posted this for information, in case someone else encounters the same problem.
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