MSWord problem solved, but . . .

[JOhnH]

My wife has been having problems with Word on her Mini-5. Sometimes it will save a file and sometimes it won't. She has been complaining for a while but I have learned not to offer my manly advice unless she asks.

Today she asked.

I saw she was running a very old copy of Word and I told her that she should update. She absolutely HATES to update apps because they always make stupid changes. Since she updates so infrequently, when she does update it is always a major deal because she skipped so many versions.

Anyway, the message she was getting was:

Can't save file
Office can't save your document right now.
Please try again later.

But since I updated it, it seems to be working fine.

So my only question is rhetorical: Why the HECK can't they give an error message that actually means something?

 

[asicer]

Why the HECK can't they give an error message that actually means something?

You're asking engineers to be good at communicating their thoughts? Good luck with that!

 

[Albany Tom]

I work in a booming industry that wouldn't exist at all if major software companies were capable of producing products that were slightly better than garbage.

Or in other words, if Microsoft, IBM, or Oracle were around 150 years ago, and built ships, we would have lost the Spanish American war.

 

[Bob Noel]

I recently watched a "Ask This Old House" episode where they replaced a 60 year old copper water heater.

That is a rather long time for a water heater to last, eh?

Well, the company that made the water heater went out of business.

The reason it went out of business is left as an exercise for the student...

 

[Racerx]

I recently watched a "Ask This Old House" episode where they replaced a 60 year old copper water heater.

That is a rather long time for a water heater to last, eh?

Well, the company that made the water heater went out of business.

The reason it went out of business is left as an exercise for the student...

Just replaced the water heater on the rental house. Didn't make the 4 year warranty before it flooded the basement.

 

[DJTorrente]

So my only question is rhetorical: Why the HECK can't they give an error message that actually means something?

Likely because the programmers are not fluent in idiomatic English.

 

[wanttaja]

Anyway, the message she was getting was:

Can't save file
Office can't save your document right now.
Please try again later.

But since I updated it, it seems to be working fine.

Is it possible it's trying to save to OneDrive, and for some reason, it hadn't connected to the Internet?

I've noticed that my Surface laptop seems to tend to want to save/load from OneDrive, rather that the SSD. The file structure doesn't mention "OneDrive"

IIRC, it used to say "OneDrive," now it just shows the cloud icon with the "Ron - Personal". I use my laptops for presentations (away from home, natch) where I may or may not have WiFi available. I have to be careful that, if I edit the file on the laptop at home, the modified version is saved to the computer, not the cloud.

Ron Wanttaja

 

[Brad W]

You're asking engineers to be good at communicating their thoughts? Good luck with that!

I'm an ME by schooling.... an for many decades I have had a reoccurring thought... Why are there never any english majors around when I need one? (channeling my inner "A Prarie Home Companion")

Seriously though, my wife is a Speech therapists with two masters degrees...one of her degrees is in communication disorders or some such thing...she talks all day and prides herself a bit in a mastery of english and communication skills....
but I constantly have to remind her to "use her words"!! Whenever she does anything in writing...email, text messages, etc... to me or to anyone else, she writes with a clear assumption that the reader knows the back story and the context (when clearly they don't)..and she keeps in VERRRRY brief

I think it comes in big part because of a lack of persistence and patience.... I'll stick with the thought, proof reading, and trying to consider the other perspectives, adding back story or context, making things chronological or otherwise "in order", etc...while she wants to shoot from the hip and move on.

 

[JOhnH]

Is it possible it's trying to save to OneDrive, and for some reason, it hadn't connected to the Internet?


Ron Wanttaja

It's possible, and one of the ideas tried to chase down. But it would work with some documents and not others. That's why I thought "software problem/bug" and then thought of upgrading the app. It seems to have been working since I upgraded the app.

 

[Ghery]

Microsoft makes changes to products because they like them. It used to drive me nuts when I used their products and knew exactly how to do something. Then they changed the user interface and put what I knew someplace else. Oh, and you got NO documentation with the new version, so good luck finding where they hid what you had been doing successfully for years. And I was an engineer.