Does Appleworks have a problem with Page 42?

[gunug]

I subscribe to the New Scientist journal and got this in today's emailed digest:

QUOTE

Whacky software bug

OWNERS of Apple Mac computers are often quick to explain why Macs are superior to Windows PCs, and in particular how less prone they are to bugs and viruses. What they often fail to mention is that when Macs do have bugs they can be weird indeed.

An anonymous reader of the website Macintouch.com describes a "known" problem with AppleWorks version 6 for the Mac: "When typing long documents, when you get somewhere into page 42 all the text disappears. No one knows why (or is not telling)."

Feedback would find this quirk pretty exasperating, but the writer is reassuring: "Do not panic. The text has only changed to the colour white. Simply 'Select All' (Command-A), then change the text colour to black. Save immediately, then immediately paste in enough text to get beyond page 42. Save again."

We shall pass over the fact that having to do this could well bring on an attack of computer rage, and ask instead: could there be a reason why this problem only occurs on page 42?

http://www.newscientist.com/backpage.ns?id...19726492.300_fb

I don't find this at Macintouch.com so far!

[gunug]

This may be a hoax because I tried it with Appleworks 6.2.9 on my office machine under 10.4.11.  I cut and pasted a bunch of text from a book on psychology by Freud (didn't read it though) and when I got to page 42 nothing happened.

[Paddy]

The ghost of Douglas Adams lurks in Appleworks 6...

QUOTE

"I think the problem is that the question was too broadly based..."
"Forty two?!" yelled Loonquawl. "Is that all you've got to show for seven and a half million years' work?"
"I checked it very thoroughly," said the computer, "and that quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you've never actually known what the question is."