Anyone know the BEST way to get Support from Microsoft about Word 365?

[The Bass Bagwhan]

I'm getting so p**sed off that Word 365 is almost unusable for large documents with Track Changes. The display turns to a mosaic mess as soon as any reasonable number of edits are racked up.
I've had MS try to remote-fix it a while ago ... no improvements, and I don't want to go down that rabbithole again. Does anyone know a definitive way to get solid support from MS?

Cheers

[idontknowyet]

You must be having some crazy large documents. I've gone over 240k without any issues.

Go to microsoft and request help. That's what i did long ago. They accessed my computer and fixed the issue. It took about 30min

It might just be easier to split it into 3 parts. Then merge after edits are finished.

[The Bass Bagwhan]

You must be having some crazy large documents. I've gone over 240k without any issues.

Go to microsoft and request help. That's what i did long ago. They accessed my computer and fixed the issue. It took about 30min

It might just be easier to split it into 3 parts. Then merge after edits are finished.

Not so big, usually around the 50-60k word mark. The problem is I'm an editor and many of the manuscripts I work with need a lot of help. Recently I had a 140k word ms that racked 17000 revisions (although to be fair the author made some habitual punctuation errors throughout). But I don't need to reach anything like those figures before Word goes pear-shaped.
My old Word 2007 works fine, but I decided I should update to a version  closer to what my clients are likely using to write. I just don't "get" that a version nearly 20 years is stable while the latest is rubbish. And it's not like word processing is taxing compared to CAD or DAW or NLE video software.
But yes (sigh) you're right. I'll hit up MS again and try my luck.

[TimothyEllis]

How much ram in your computer?

I was just wondering if the early version of Word was designed with the expectation of hitting the maximum ram ceiling, and worked with it, where the new version assumes you've got enough to never run out. In that case with something big, if you run out, the program no longer copes with that.

Just a theory.

[The Bass Bagwhan]

How much ram in your computer?

I was just wondering if the early version of Word was designed with the expectation of hitting the maximum ram ceiling, and worked with it, where the new version assumes you've got enough to never run out. In that case with something big, if you run out, the program no longer copes with that.

Just a theory.

Interesting theory, but it's an 8 GB Ram Toshiba Laptop Satellite ... so there's not even any third-party hardware driver issues. It's stock standard. But cheers, Tim.

[TimothyEllis]

How much ram in your computer?

I was just wondering if the early version of Word was designed with the expectation of hitting the maximum ram ceiling, and worked with it, where the new version assumes you've got enough to never run out. In that case with something big, if you run out, the program no longer copes with that.

Just a theory.

Interesting theory, but it's an 8 GB Ram Toshiba Laptop Satellite ... so there's not even any third-party hardware driver issues. It's stock standard. But cheers, Tim.

I call that something.

Windows is using more than half of that.

8GB is minimum ram these days. Especially if you want to actually do anything big.

Mine has 64gb, which is over the top, but I do my own covers, and run modeling software.

I'd say that IS your problem.

Try the file on a computer with 32gb ram, and if the same thing occurs, then you know it something else.

If you want to send me a copy, I can try it for you.

[Post-Crisis D]

On PCs, if an application doesn't have enough RAM, doesn't it give some kind of warning rather than go haywire?

[TimothyEllis]

On PCs, if an application doesn't have enough RAM, doesn't it give some kind of warning rather than go haywire?

Depends on the application. Some of them will tell you up front there isn't enough memory. Or they used to.

Word never has. I've had the same basic issue in the past on older machines. But Word never gave a warning.

[The Bass Bagwhan]

Not enough Ram ...

Hmm ... certainly worth me running the system monitor in the background and when things hit the fan, look for a spike in RAM or CPU use. Thanks Tim!

[TimothyEllis]

certainly worth me running the system monitor in the background

You know what I find when I do that?

The system monitor uses more resources than anything else. 

[The Bass Bagwhan]

certainly worth me running the system monitor in the background

You know what I find when I do that?

The system monitor uses more resources than anything else. 

I have a recording studio PC with 16 GB ram, and it'd be interesting to try that, but the subscription only allows one PC and swapping it over temporarily will be painful. Worth investigating though ...

[The Bass Bagwhan]

 Just finished a 50k word edit on the bigger computer with no issues ... you might have nailed it, Tim!

[TimothyEllis]

Just finished a 50k word edit on the bigger computer with no issues ... you might have nailed it, Tim!

 

[writeway]

Do you have a Microsoft account? You can always contact them through your account if you have an issue. I just got a brand new laptop today and it had a free trial of 365 on it. I quickly unsubscribed and downloaded my Office 13 because I've been using Word 13 since it came out and I see no reason to upgrade. Microsoft is just after money, throwing out a new program each year and if you notice, the updates aren't even that noticeable from version to version. I don't need all the extra stuff and the only thing I regularly use in Office is Word anyway.

[TimothyEllis]

I quickly unsubscribed and downloaded my Office 13 because I've been using Word 13 since it came out and I see no reason to upgrade. Microsoft is just after money, throwing out a new program each year and if you notice, the updates aren't even that noticeable from version to version. I don't need all the extra stuff and the only thing I regularly use in Office is Word anyway.

The problem is, your Office 13 has a finite number of installs on it, and one time you'll do that for a new computer, and it will refuse to install.

At that point you have no choice but to get an updated version. Fortunately they still do a pay once version.

I've seen the 20 version of Office, and hate how it starts up. So next time I'm forced to upgrade, I'll be buying Word on its own.