I have been struggling with a Microsoft Word problem for a few weeks now. Whenever I opened a document and then began changing it, I occasionally received an error message. Once the error message appeared,all the buttons and options within Word became grayed out. This prevented me from saving my work that I had done up to that point. It became frustrating to say the least.
To find a solution to the problem I turned to the Internet. It appears that this error is quite popular as a search in Google produced many results. I tried many of the solutions, but none seemed to have worked for me. It wasn’t until I decided to look further into the error that I found the solution that appears to have fixed the problem.
Word 2003 Error
While working on a Word document I encountered the following error:
You are working without a Word work file and memory is nearly full. Save your work
The error prevents me from saving my work, contradicting the error message, which means that I lost anything that I changed in the document since the last save. The error is also confusing as I have 2GB of memory in the computer that was running word, and there was plenty of memory available.
When I did a search online, there were many results for that particular error message. Some indicate that the problem was from Word 2000, while others from newer versions. I tried various solutions, but none seemed to work. I decided to look further.
The Solution
While reading some of the solutions I noticed that some had made reference to the Word cache size, which is defaulted to 64. While I couldn’t find where to set this in Word, I decided to see if it can be changed in the Windows registry. Usually settings such as this are located in the registry. I managed to find a site that listed the key to change.
The following steps outline the process to modify the Word cache size:
- Close any open Word windows.
- Open the Windows registry by running “regedit.exe” from a command prompt.
- Once the registry editor is opened, navigate to “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Options”.
This key is for Word 2003, indicated by the 11.0 version. You will need to navigate to the key indicating your Word version.
- Click the “Options” key on the left to display all the values within that key. In an empty location on the right, right-click and select “New->DWORD value”.
- Type “CACHESIZE” as the value name and press “Enter”.
- Double-click the value “CACHESIZE” to open the “Edit DWORD Value” dialog box.
- Under “Base”, select “Decimal”. Under “Value Data”, type “512″ (without the quotes).
- Click the “OK” button to accept your changes and close the dialog.
- Close the registry editor.
When I relaunched Word, I never received the error message displayed above. This registry change seemed to have fixed the error. From what I read, you can set the CACHESIZE value to any value that is a multiple of 64 up to a maximum of 1024. While I can’t guarantee that it will solve the problem if you experienced the error, it may just be the fix you need.
This fix didn’t work for me. Here’s the one that did. I wish I could remember where I got so I could give credit where credit is due. Hopefully, the paragraphs and line spacing in this message will be preserved. If it gets all run on by this web site, bear with me.
The problem is often caused by WinXP rather than Word. The Word work file is supposed to be located under the user’s profile on the C:\ drive. Plugging in removable storage devices (such as a USB flash drive) to a WinXP computer can somehow shift the Word work file onto the removable drive. Once the removable drive is unplugged, Word can no longer find its work file.
Open Regedit, but navigate to:
“HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders”.
Inside that location will be a key named “Cache”. It’s data value should be something like “%USERPROFILE%\temp”. If, instead, the data value is set to something like “G:\temp”, you’ve found your problem. The cache has been moved to a nonexistent removable drive.
The solution is to change the data value back to “%USERPROFILE%\temp”. Then exit Regedit. Double check that you do, in fact, have this temp folder. If your log on is called “Paul”, then navigate in Explorer or My Computer to “C:\Documents and Settings\Paul”. Check that you have a folder under “Paul” named “temp”. You’re good to go if you do, or make one if you don’t.
Interesting. I haven’t run into that problem myself, but the solution you provide could help others. Thanks for sharing.
To follow up, I should have told you how you go about changing the value of the “Cache” key in Regedit if you need to.
Right click on the word “Cache”, NOT on the data value. You get a pop up box, where the topmost line is “Modify” in bold type. Left click on “Modify”. You get a new pop up box where the existing data value is shown and can be edited.
Many thanks Paul,
I have C&Pd your solution and put it in my ‘Faults folder’
just in case I or someone has this problem.
The original solution did work for me, however it’as always nice to have a second solution as a backup.
I checked and find I do have ‘temp’ in docs and setting under my log on.
Ron.
I’m glad one of the solutions worked for you.
Thanks to Paul Turner, fix worked for me! The problem seemed to be caused by the Dmailer backup software for my WD external drive.
I’m glad you found a solution to your issue. Thanks for visiting.