"Pages quit unexpectedly"

Question

Level 1

0 points

"Pages quit unexpectedly"

just bought a macbook and was trying out pages. over the past few days i saved several documents. my latest document, saved last night, now cannot be opened. i get the message "The application Pages quit unexpectedly ..."

i should say that this document is created totally with material inherent to pages; i've imported nothing external, nor is the document the result of a converted word document.

interestingly, it seems that other pages documents can be opened -- but, as happens, my latest version is the one i need.

i have seen some threads that attempt to address this issue, but there seems to be no confirmed solution. some people have said to check for corrupt fonts -- how would i do this? and i hate to think that a computer one month old already has corrupt fonts (although it's possible).

any serious suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Mac OS X (10.4.6), macbook

Posted on Jun 30, 2006 4:13 AM

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Answer 1

DennisG

Level 5

6,518 points

Jun 30, 2006 6:05 AM in response to boom time

boom,

Welcome to Apple discussions, and sorry you're having a problem.

You can use Font Book (in your Applications folder, assuming you have a fairly recent Mac) to check for corrupt fonts. Launch it, then click on File > Validate Font.

-Dennis

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Answer 2

boom time Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 30, 2006 6:25 AM in response to DennisG

thanks, dennis. i followed your suggestion and saw that the "copperplate" font came up as possibly problematic. i deleted it anyway, but am still getting the same message.

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Answer 3

Kurt Weber

Level 6

13,969 points

Jun 30, 2006 8:39 AM in response to boom time

Try deleting the pref file found here:

Macintosh HD/Users/(Your User Name)/Library/Preferences/ delete the file: com.apple.iWork.Pages.plist

Corrupt images also can cause problems. This wouldn't seem to be the case since you are not bringing in any external files.

Try clicking on 'software update' in the Apple menu and see if there is an update for Pages. There was a recent update (April).

Kurt

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Answer 4

boom time Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 30, 2006 2:18 PM in response to Kurt Weber

thanks, kurt, but still no luck.

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Answer 5

Kurt Weber

Level 6

13,969 points

Jul 1, 2006 8:08 AM in response to boom time

Other have complained about corrupt documents but I have never experienced this except when I played with the package file and unstuffed the index.gmz file. Have you messed with the package file?

Kurt

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Answer 6

Latinman

Level 1

0 points

Sep 18, 2006 5:58 PM in response to boom time

I'm having the same problem, both on MacBook Pro and PB 1.67ghz. Seems to have started after uprade to 10.4.7

Any further thoughts? I have no corrupt fonts, tried deleting the plist file, both w/o effect.

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Answer 7

Latinman

Level 1

0 points

Sep 19, 2006 3:26 PM in response to boom time

QUESTION ANSWERED!

I have found the answer to this problem, at least on my computers. When I right click and show the "package contents" of a normal Pages document, I find three files: Contents, index.xml.gz, and thumbs. When I do the same on a corrupted Pages documents (one that always leads to an "unexpectedly quit" notice), I find that the index.xml.gz file has been changed to a folder entitled "index.xml.gz" inside of which is a document entitled "index.xml.gz (Extracted).doc". Yes, a Microsoft doc!

In absolute despair I call my son (smarter than I am), who came up with the following protocol to restore the file to its original condition:

1. Right click on the document in question and choose [Show Package Contents]
2. Open the index.xml.gz folder.
3. Open the index.xml.gz (Extracted).doc by dragging it onto Text Edit.
4. Choose [Format -> Make Plain Text] and click [OK].
5. Choose [File -> Save As…] and save the file as index.xml on your desktop.
6. Open the Terminal.
7. Type cd desktop and hit enter.
8. Type gzip index.xml and hit enter.
9. Right click on the document in question and choose [Show Package Contents]
10. Delete the folder index.xml.gz.
11. Move the file index.xml.gz from your desktop to the file's Package Contents.
12. Delete Microsoft Word.

My sons admits that step 12 is not absolutely necessary - but clearly there's some connection between the corruption and operation of MS Word.

This has worked on all the files I have tried it on, some of which were of great importance to me and which are now "back in the fold". I'm backing them up.

I hope this technique works for others.

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