How to increase memory in Microsoft Word for Macs

I've also noticed this problem, but have decided it's just a minor bug. I'm using MS Office for Mac 2011 on a MacBook 8,2 running Mac OSX 10.6.8. I have hundreds of Gb spare and 8Gb of RAM.

I was recently working in Word when I crashed it by doing a drag-and-drop edit (I know it's dangerous, but I'm so used to the Windows version where it never happens). After re-starting and continuing with the recovered version of my document, I inadvertently clicked the "Paste" icon at the top of the screen, thinking it was the "Save" icon (I use another app at work where the "Save" icon is the same colour as Word's "Paste" icon). There was nothing in my clipboard memory at the time and I received this "insufficient memory" error message. Realising my mistake, I then copied a line of text and hit the "Paste" icon again. The line was pasted into my document without any problem and the error message didn't appear again.

In his earlier post in this section, rccharles suggests that Office for Mac's error messages automatically assume a memory problem when something strange occurs. My experience indicates rccharles' suggestion is correct.

I started to have this problem a week or 2 ago even on start up / open of a new document or small document, or the tiniest edit of an existing (small) document.

As one user suggested, I checked my available HD space and I have more than 15%, although closer to 23%. I am currently deleting some unused apps and my trash folder. However, that doesn't seem to be the problem as I haven't installed anything recently to cause the sudden change.

But I followed your suggestion and here is what I see for my HD.

Sharing and Permissions:

"You can only read."

??? ***? When / how did that change by itself? and how do I change that?

Below that (but greyed out probably because of the lock on settings - which again - should not have allowed any unauthorized, without requiring a password of changed settings unles I was either hacked or duped into giving my password for what I thought was some other setting / need) is:

system: read and write

wheel: read only

everyone: read only.

No clue what "wheel" is unless for some reason it is my husband's profile as he is a car guy. But even that doesn't sound like him. Should be under his first and last name as is my profile.

I should have the same settings for my profile as system admin. Looks like it is "reading" me (logged in under my name as it is shown in the upper right corner of my MacBook Pro correctly) with either "wheel" or "everyone" permissions.

To test it, I unlocked the padlock to change them & changed wheel to read and write & it did not change "my" settings as listed above. I set it back to "read only" and changed "everyone" to read and write, and only then did it say "You have custom access." ?? So it is reading me, logged in under my one & only (& original profile with original admin read and write access") as "everyone." ??? How do I fix this now and prevent it from occurring? Obviously I hesitate to make it "everyone" as read and write because I don't know what that will do. (Does that mean everyone who logs into my actual computer or everyone who has access to our shared password protected wifi (in our home)?

Was I hacked?

We have a password protected wifi here and as most of my computer files are either genealogy files or photos, security is really only a huge concern as far as things like accounts and passwords when I pay a bill and such, maybe our saved tax filing files. But I also don't want someone accidentally changing or deleting a file either such as from the wifi access or if a file is somehow inadvertently shared or something.

Even though I've had the mac for years, I am still ignorant how to do certain utility type scans / protection kind of things like one would do on a PC and how to find certain things that wouldn't be in the main settings or searchable by file name or in the applications. (in other words, no idea how to find hidden files or logs).

This is my sole laptop, though a few months ago, I did allow my husband to create a profile (where he logs in under his name & pw) so he can use it to pay bills or when I am otherwise not using it. He very rarely does so & most often just uses mine.

Thanks

Well - not sure if this is why / what had happened - but, under those limited permissions, there is the

+ / - & cogwheel icons. After I'd unlocked it, I did the plus and it showed users with a drop down (or drop to the right) screen where I could select "admin," my husband, or myself (our log in names of first and last) with the little person icon. I selected myself and it added me and gave me a choice of permission levels, so I selected "read and write."

While I don't know if it will keep working or how well it solved the problem, at last check before this, it would not allow me to paste about half a page of text (3 short answer questions) into a blank new word file, but after changing the setting, it did allow me to not only paste that, but save it with no error.

We will see if this solved the problem, but I am still curious to know how that apparently got deleted from the initial (and most recent working) set up (presumably it was listed by my name) and hwo to prevent it - especially as my overall settings were locked and had not been recently changed as a whole.

Weird. . .

I had this problem this morning. I got the message that too many files were open, insufficient memory in Word etc. I went to Finder, clicked on File, Find, and typed in ".asd" .... I remembered that was the extension for temporary word files. So I found a huge list of numbered files named "Word Work File A_#########.asd", deleted them all, emptied the trash, and the problems were fixed.

I have not read through this discussion in detail.

I have observed that word has a generic message that when a save fails for any reason Word states that the disk is full. So, the message means that save has failed.

Robert

For complex and large documents, I suggest upgrading to Office 2016 where Word and the rest are now 64-bit applications, can use more RAM if you have over 8GB and thus handle larger files much easier and quicker.