WinWord Err Msg: Too Many Edits; Operation Will Be Incomplete

• Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 1.0, 1.1, 1.1a, 2.0, 2.0a
• Microsoft Windows operating system versions 3.0 and 3.1

Summary:

In Microsoft Word for Windows, if you make several text and formatting changes without saving your work and then command Word to perform an action that involves more editing or formatting changes than Word has memory to handle, the following error message displays:

   Too many edits; operation will be incomplete. Save your work.

Performing a full save on the document -- that is, choosing Save As from the File menu, choosing the Options button and turning off Allow Fast Saves -- helps avoid this error message. A full save eliminates pointers and makes the text contiguous rather than a large, linked list.

The following are other suggestions for working around this error message:

• Try freeing up as much conventional memory as possible by implementing the memory-saving techniques listed in the "Microsoft Word for Windows User's Reference," Appendix B, under "Low Memory."
• Turn on Autosave in the Utilities Customize dialog box (versions 1.x) for a reminder to save when you have been editing a document for a length of time or have made many changes.
• Select smaller portions of the document and perform the operation. For example, opening a large document and replacing every "e" with an "x" will probably fail. Instead, select two or three pages of the document and do the same thing.

"Microsoft Word for Windows User's Reference," version 1.x, pages 307-309, 417.