Avoid Vertically Merged Cells in Word 2000
The Problem:
Our catalog is in an absurdly big table. It lists hundreds of parts, most of which have subcomponents. Each part takes up a row, and if there are subcomponents, the part is in a vertically merged cell, so that all the subcomponents are "under" it. Anyway, all was well until I was putting the finishing touches on the catalog. Then Word 2000 locked up, "experienced an error," and exploded the catalog into virtual shrapnel.
The Solution:
I'm guessing you touched on a sensitive nerve in Word 2000's handling of tables that have vertically merged cells (two or more cells in the same column merged together vertically) spanning two or more pages. Such cells make tables a minefield that you can set off by doing something as innocuous as moving from page to page in Print Layout view.
The fix is to update to the latest Office 2000 Service Pack you can find, or to update to a later version of Office.