Word doc translation failure

I recently was unable to open Word files sent to me on my iBook G3. My iBook has OS X 10.1.5. When i clicked to open the Word file (xxx.doc,)a prompt appeared saying: unable to translate file. Will a software update solve this problem, and if so which one and from where can I download it?
Gratefully.

It worked when I first posted it, but now doesn't for me either. The problem has to do with html & some of the characters the Jive forum software puts in links. I thought I had used the short version of the link that Yvan has posted. The link I gave earlier shows %EF%BF%BD after the message number where the initial link had &tstart=0. It's the ampersand (&) that is used in html.

Similar Messages

After I converted my handwritten PDF to Word Doc the wiriting is in different symbols- like it didn't translate

after I converted my hand written PDF doc to a Word Doc the writing is in different symbols- why?

You cannot perform OCR on handwritten text using Adobe Acrobat.

Failure to print word docs

I am unable to print from a word doc. I was able to print a test page, can print from outlook and from HP web page. Any suggestions as to what the problem might be? My printer is a HP4400 all in one and I have windows XP home addition installed. Thanks

Hi there mikekaye,
Try downloading and running the print and scan doctor located here:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c03275041&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en
It can fix a lot on its own and if not give a better idea of what is going on.
Best of Luck!
You can say thanks by clicking the Kudos Star in my post. If my post resolves your problem, please mark it as Accepted Solution so others can benefit too.

I cannot send a Pages document, Word format via email from my ipad if it has a picture in the the doc. I can send a Word doc if it does not have a pic in it or pdf with a pic. Any thoughs why a word doc with a pic in it won't email in Pages? thanks

I cannot send a Pages document, Word via email if the doc contains a picture. If I email a Pages doc without a pic in Word format or pdf with a pic it with go through to sender? Not sure why Pages won't send Word doc with a picture in it. I check the security on the email recipient and the email doesn't get blocked or throw in the junk box?
thanks,
drainguy41

If you have upgraded to Mountain Lion, Save As… has returned to the File menu when you hold down the Option/alt key. But you don't really "save" as other file types, you translate & export as Word or RTF or text or PDF & that is easily done by going to File > Export or Share > Export.
Also, please do us all a favor & don't use all capitals in your posts, either the body of the post or the title. All caps is the internet equivalent of shouting & is very hard to read.

Opening a Word doc

Hello all, I am new to Flex. I have some experience with AS3 (still switching over from AS2).
Anyway, I am making a Flex project where I have a text link in a datagrid. This link needs to open a word document that is on our company network. Currently I'm working on my own personal computer on my C drive (not sure if that affects anything - when i hit Run does it run the application from my C drive? It should still work from there i'd think?) We have a bunch of other drives on our network, and the word doc I'm trying to open is on a "P:" drive.
I'm not sure what I might be doing wrong, but I created a LinkButton and tried 2 different attempts at opening a Word doc.
I tried creating a new URLRequest and navigateToURL to attempt to open the word doc - nothing happens when I click the link. The link button will launch google if i replace my word doc path with the google url.
I tried sending the file path to javascript via ExternalInterface and having javascript open it up. It doesn't work that way either.
Is there something I should know about opening up a Word doc file with Flex? Or possibly is it not working because of where the file resides? Any thoughts?
Thanks
-Michele

Actually, no and yes. No you do not have to re-save all of your Word files. It depends on what you want to do with them.
The file you have open is actually a Pages file which was created by converting the old Word file (which has not been altered at all). If you want to keep it and any changes you have made as a Pages file, you must "save as." The next time you open that file, it will open naturally in Pages. Every time you open the original Word file, since it has not been converted to native Pages, it will go through the same translating process as it did this time.

Can you open word doc. In pages? (Opening a doc. From the web) in the iPad or iPod tuch?

Can you open word doc. In pages? (Opening a doc. From the web) in the iPad or iPod tuch?

NH,
This may seem a fine point, but iWork apps don't actually Open Office apps. They Import them. The reason I make this distinction for you is that when you view the result of the import, you may see some variations from what was in the Office document because of an imperfect translation, and when you make edits, you are editing an iWork document, not the original Office document.
Jerry

OLE2 Doc/Code snippet to assist in creating a word doc with underlined text

I would like to use OLE2 to create a simple Word document. I would like some of the text to be bold/underlined and the rest of the text to be regular. There seems to be a serious dearth of information regarding OLE2 in conjunction with PS/SQL in Word applications. We're running Forms 6 and Oracle 9i.
I don't believe that I need to use the techniques described in the Forms Manual (OLE2 containers, etc.). I have managed to create a Word doc and write some text to it but I've been unable to find out/guess at the syntax that I'd need to control bolding and underlining. It would be a big help if I could just find the syntax for Word OLE2 commands. During my documentation search, I seem to remember a post that mentioned 'Reference 2' and maybe 'Reference 3' as a source of information related to OLE2 in PL/SQL code. If anyone can give me a shove in the right direction I'm more than willing to read the manuals. I won't be too disappointed if someone could send me a code snippet either!
Thanks,
Ron Walker

Hi Ron,
Office ships with a number of resources that you will find indispensable for the sort of work you're doing. Take a look at the VBA IDE (Visual Basic for Applications IDE). You may already be familiar with it, if you've ever written a Word macro, but to call it a macro editor sells it short -- it is a full-blown development environment. Its Object Browser allows you to browse Word's object model, search by keyword, and view call syntax.
In case you aren't familiar with the VBA IDE, try this:
1. Open Word
2. Switch between Word and the VBA IDE by pressing <Alt><F11>
3. Open the Object Browser by pressing <F2>
Spend some time familiarizing yourself with the Object Browser. Constrain its scope by selecting the Word library instead of <All Libraries> (the default). Learn to search by keyword. Click on items within your results for details. If Visual Basic Help is installed, pressing <F1> will raise help on a selected item.
Visual Basic Help may not be part of the Compact or Typical install. Running Office Setup, either from the install CD, or through Add/Remove Programs under Control Panel, will allow you to add the feature. (The Office installer lists Visual Basic Help in the Office Tools section.)
I have found the VBA IDE to be the perfect place for prototyping and testing automated processes. It is a far friendlier environment for learning Office automation, as it offers code completion and context-driven help. Once the process works, I manually translate my VBA routine into Forms PL/SQL, which is fairly painless. I've written a short tutorial, that I will post shortly -- I didn't want to bury it in this thread!
Hope this helps,
Eric Adamson
Lansing, Michigan

Unique issue with PDF to WORD .doc conversion with Acrobat Pro - any ideas?

I have been unable to solve the following issue when converting (save as...) PDF documents to Microsoft Word .doc using numerous methods. This could either be an issue that would be fixed in Acrobat Pro itself, or in MS Word - posting to the Adobe forums first.
PREFACE: I am attempting to use the converted .doc file with translation applications/software. Google Translator Toolkit is what I use the most, but ALL other translators are having this very same issue with the .doc file. --The source PDFs are product information from drug manufacturers in various countries that I need to have translated to English. I do not have access to their source documents, as they do not provide their own source docs for obvious reasons.
ALSO: I cannot use Google Translator toolkit to translate from PDFs directly - if you do that, it will attempt to translate a PDF and then export in an .html file, but it does not get the exact spacing of the sentences correctly, which leads to errors in translating - key things such as "can take with alcohol" and "do not take with alcohol". So that's out!
I am not having any problems with the resultant .doc file in MS Word itself. It looks right, the spacing matches the original PDF source perfectly, prints correctly, etc... Reference here on a product info sheet from Austria in German:
The problem: This is a screenshot from Google Translator Toolkit - the right side of the image - the spacing in the lettering from the .doc file I am uploading is not being read correctly, resulting in untranslated gibberish. (Note: this isn't a problem with the translation applications or software -- all are having this issue with .doc files converted from .pdf - this issue isn't present with any old .doc file that wasn't converted from a .pdf) -- It's definitely got something to do with some kind of embedded data in the .doc file that I cannot isolate!!)
My settings in Adobe Pro (convert from PDF to .doc):
Page layout: Flowing Text (this prevents the resultant .doc from having all of those text boxes, which also don't then work in translators)
Include comments: True
Include images: True
Run OCR if needed: True
Notes:
-I have run OCR text recognition on the source PDF files in it's specific language.
-I have edited the accessibilty of the PDF and have run the tag recognition and quick checks (to see if they solved the issue, which it did not - tagged or untagged, same problems!)
-I have exported the .doc BACK to PDF using MS Word's function, which results in a great looking tagged PDF. THEN I re-saved this new PDF back as a .doc - same issue.
-I have tried saving the PDF in all of the other formats that the translators accept. All have different issues. The only one that works consistently is saving to a .txt (plain)... The best is a .doc to .doc conversion, with all the original spacing. (I am not spending hours reformatting a .txt translation in word)...
I can't seem to find where this spacing data is in the .doc file!!!! (Changing the fonts, sizes, margins -- doesnt fix this either). I have tried so many methods...
Any thoughts on other things to try in Adobe Pro (or Word)?
EDIT: Here's an additional tidbit of info that may be the key to this... There's some kind of coding that is in the .doc that Adobe Pro converted from the source PDF that doesnt display in Word, but that is being seen by the translation programs....... I have no idea what these are, but I want to remove them!
Message was edited by: KaotikADC

I would suggest you look at the fonts that are being used. It may be a font issue that is not properly being read by the translation program.

MS Word integration with SAP CRM: can a PDF be created from the MS Word doc

21/11
Gurus,
I know have a better understanding of the topic but still have 2 open questions.
I now know that StreamServe cannot read .DOC files but can read and work with .PDF files.
Since we are in a SAP forum and not a StreamServe forum,
1/ I am wondering if SAP CRM 2007 can convert the MS Word generated and populated documents into .PDF. Possibly immediatly.
2/ Can the MS Word generated and populated documents be saved by SAP CRM 2007 as .XML files?
Thanks again.
Dear All,
On my project, there is a requirement to generate ad-hoc and amendable letters in CRM (2007).
We might have +150 letters so I am thinking about using MS Word integration with SAP CRM to deliver this.
With SAP CRM 2007, I understand that it is indeed possible to generate WebServices that will then be consumed by Word templates through the mail merge functionality. So agents will not have to enter BP name, address and so on. All this can be done by configuration which is great.
My point of concern is how to integrate this design to StreamServe for printing purpose (we do not want to go into local printing)
Can StreamServe collects the Word generated document?
Should this Word document be converted as PDF before or can StreamServe do it?
Should StreamServe exploits the XML contents within the Word generated document?
Thanks for your help and insights about this.
Brice.
Edited by: Brice Vialle on Nov 21, 2008 9:26 PM
Edited by: Brice Vialle on Nov 21, 2008 9:34 PM

Hi Chris,
    Your advice helps me a lot, thank you.
    I upload an XML-Format template Word Doc to server as a MIME Object.
    When OfficeControl is started in Web Dynpro, OfficeControl automatically open the XML-Format template.
   For the first time, I get the XString-type Context attribute bind to the content of the Word Doc,
   then translate it to string, I got the XML-format content, it's great!
   However, after the first time, when I input any new contents in MS Word in Web Dynpro,
   no matter I execute "Ctrl + S" or click the "savedocument" button,
   when I translate the XString Context attribute to String, I got messy code. (but the first time, it is good plain text)
   I use the function module: ECATT_CONV_XSTRING_TO_STRING (good for first time, dump after first time),
   SCMS_XSTRING_TO_BINARY, SCMS_BINARY_TO_STRING (good for first time, messy code after first time).
   My Demo source code is in: (system) SMV --> (local object) zhaode --> (Dynpro Component) ztest_office_control
   core source code is as:
   clear itab.
CALL FUNCTION 'SCMS_XSTRING_TO_BINARY'
    EXPORTING
      BUFFER = lv_datas
    IMPORTING
      OUTPUT_LENGTH = lv_length
    TABLES
      binary_tab = itab.
CALL FUNCTION 'SCMS_BINARY_TO_STRING'
    EXPORTING
      input_length = lv_length
      mimetype = 'text/plain; charset=utf-8'
    IMPORTING
      text_buffer = lv_datas_string
      output_length = lv_data_len
    TABLES
      binary_tab = itab.
    Can you give me some advice?
Best Regards,
Derek

Can't open Word docs with Pages 08

Since upgrading to SL I found that I can no longer open Word documents sent to me via email attachments. Can this be remedied? I thought Macs were able to "translate" Word files.
Help!

I did discover I can open Word docs with Text Edit, but it's a multi-step process now. I really don't want to upgrade to iWork 09 and I'm not sure that would solve the problem. I also have to use Quick Time now to open movies in iPhoto. Another multi-step process. I'm not very happy with SL.

CPU Usage - Generating Word Docs from RoboHelp X5

If you have generated a fair-sized document through RoboHelp,
and you are having problems with your CPU usage pegging out around
100%, bouncing up and down between 50% and 100%, the page
repainting as you scroll through the document, etc., this solution
is for you!
I am using RoboHelp X5 to generate large Word documents
(2003). This solution worked perfect for me. The problem is with
document corruption, apparently. After you have generated your Word
document and opened the document, be sure to display the paragraph
marks. You will probably see the “]” mark at or near
the end of the document. Select your entire document,
except for the final paragraph mark, making sure to exclude
this symbol, and copy everything else. Open a blank Word document
and paste this content into the new document.
You will now need to reattach your template (.dot) file for
the generated document through Tools/Templates and Addins:
1. Locate the applicable document template and attach it
(it's typically in the base generated project directory in RoboHelp
- .dot file). Click the OK button to save.
2. Return to Tools/Templates and Addins. Click the Organizer
button to display the Styles tab.
3. In the right-hand list (In Normal.dot), Close the
Normal.dot file
4. Open the same RoboHelp .dot template as you selected
previously.
4. Select all of the styles once they display in the right
pane and click the <<Copy button to copy them all over to the
document template. Confirm that you want to replace all styles in
the document.
5. Close the menu using the Close button. The dialog closes
and your styles should all be updated, if your styles were set up
appropriately via template and style sheet settings.
You may need to also adjust the Page Setup page width
settings, if necessary.
Good luck!
Liz0259

Peter:
Thank you for responding to me, as I may not have been clear
enough, and I apologize for that. I was trying to keep it short and
sweet. This problem started when I began using RoboHelp X5 this
year.
To clarify...
- I'm not concerned with CPU usage during document
generation, that is to be expected. The document will need to be
generated originally from a RoboHelp WebHelp project. This does not
change. The problem takes place AFTER you generate a large document
and then open it in MS Word.
- My documents are large, 140-500 pages. It took forever to
scroll through the Word document (RoboHelp-generated), the screen
kept repainting, and the CPU usage stuck fluctuating frequently
between 50% and 100%, not allowing me to do much else. Editing
those documents was a nightmare. Even if I shut down all other
programs.
- Something translates to the Word doc from RoboHelp that
maxes out the CPU usage, and I can't locate the exact culprit.
However, it appears to be tied to the faded "]" symbol at the end
of the document (there is a "[" at the beginning, too). So you have
to omit more than the last paragraph mark; that symbol also needs
to be left out.
- The "corruption" information came from Microsoft; it could
be something other than that, but this is what they said. I found
nothing that would help on the RoboHelp forum, so I went to
Microsoft to see if they had a solution. Apparently, this is a
common problem with Word 2003, but the articles didn't mention
RoboHelp in the issues. I tried this solution, adding the omission
of the "[" symbol, with complete success.
- When you copy the document without the last paragraph mark,
it will still include the headers/footers when you paste it
(although you may need to adjust them slightly). This is not the
problem.
- When a document is generated, you can select to use a MS
Word template, which I do. I fully use the style sheets in
RoboHelp, and they match my Word styles (template) to keep things
in sync. Actually, this Word template remains in the project; it is
not moved to the folder that holds your Normal.dot file. So the
link to the template in RoboHelp from your document does in fact
remain intact. However, you can copy that template to another
folder outside the project and link it from there, but it won't
matter.
- The Word template (.dot) needs to be reapplied in order to
restore your styles, as the Normal.dot styles are applied when you
copy the content over to a new document. It doesn't matter where
you store the template. I reapply this SAME template after I copy
and paste the content into the new document. This is not the cause
of the problem. Note: The application of a template is not the same
thing as going back to the master copy. This is still a fresh
document, with the content pasted in and the same template applied.
- I have tried deleting the local copy and starting over. I
have moved the file to another location. I have renamed or created
a 'save-as' copy of the file. I tried editing out any extra
un-necessary merge-tags in Word, looked for macros, etc. All of
these things do not resolve the CPU Usage problem.
I hope this makes more sense. You can try it out if you wish,
but you will need to do this with a large document and use the
Print View when looking at the document in Word. You'll have less
of a problem in Normal View, or with a smaller document (under 50
pages).
Good luck!
Liz0259

Word processing software: Appleworks, NeoOffice / saving as Word.doc

I would love some advice on word processing software.
My daughter is a college student who sometimes needs to e-mail her papers to a teacher (in Word). She does not have Word, and we're not buying it. In the past, she's used the school computers, but that's not always practical. She has a Mac, with Appleworks on it. If she works in Appleworks and saves a paper in Word format, will it really open okay in Word, with footnotes, images, etc. intact? (Obviously, she doesn't want to get a lower grade for something so silly and avoidable.) I think I have seen on this forum somewhere a mention of trouble with footworks in Appleworks docs saved in Word format.
Also, if she were to save as a Word doc, which format would be the best to use: Word Mac 6; Word Mac 98; Word Windows 6; Word Windows 97, 2000, XP 2002?
She also needs to do simple tables sometimes, which it looks like Appleworks can do. Do these translate well?
Also, I have looked at NeoOffice and OpenOffice online. It looks like one of those would be a possibility for her, too. Apparently, documents can be saved as Word files in those programs. Does anyone know if they are any better than Appleworks for this purpose? (For instance, with footnotes?)
From the NeoOffice Website: "You can exchange documents with Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org users, even on other platforms!" Does that mean a Word file will open and display okay, if you get one e-mailed to you? And that your own Word file will open and display okay on the other end? (I know this is not about Appleworks, but someone might know. . .)
Looking through this forum, I have seen software for opening Word documents (icWord), but my daughter needs to be able to (reliably) go both ways--saving and opening.
Thanks much in advance!
Christina
Powerbook G4; Intel iMac 20inch Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Overall, I'd concur with Ken.
AppleWorks/Word conversion does have difficulties with tables and footnotes.
Neo Office has better compatibility with MS Office, and runs without installing additional software on your Mac. But it's a Java implementation of an earlier version of OpenOffice.org, and is missing a few recent improvements. It's also a bit slow, although in some uses this is not a problem.
OpenOffice.org runs in an Xwindow (no relation to MS Windows), and requires installation of X11, Apple's Xwindow implementation. I haven't used it, but expect that it is a more compatible implementation than NeoOffice.
Both are free to download and use. If nothing else, one or the other is useful to see how successful the AppleWorks > Word translation of a particular file has been.
The closest compatibility will be achieved with MS Windows (Mac), of course. If your reasons for not purchasing MS Windows are strictly economic, you mmight want to rethink them. As a student, your daughter is elegible to purchase the Teacher and Student edition at a much lower price than the retail version. This version is operationally identical to the retail one. The largest difference is a licencing one—student/teacher licencees are not eligible for reduced price upgrades to the next version. They are, though, eligible to purchase the next Student & Teacher edition provided they still qualify at that time.
Regards,
Barry

From Word DOC to Acrobat PDF... borders and lines get screwed up.

I've been looking this up for days now and have yet to find a solution.
I have a MS Word document that has a bunch of tables with borders and sometimes just text with borders for stylistic reasons. In Word, it all looks perfect.
But, when I convert it to PDF using Acrobat, many of those borders get screwed up in various random ways.
Sometimes certain borders get thicker, sometimes thinner, sometimes invisible altogether. Sometimes it's only certain lines of the same border (just the left side, or just the top). I see no real pattern to what's causing it to only happen in certain cases only.
What makes it extra annoying is that if I zoom in or out a certain amount, the borders will look the way they are supposed to look. Some will look perfect at 100% zoom only, and some will look perfect at 75% zoom only.
This has been driving me insane. Does anyone have any idea how I can fix this?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Converting Word (table) to pdf - lines screwed up - googled as far back as 2004.
BUG STILL exists. HELP/FIX PLEASE?
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/missing-table-lines-conversion-pdf-t878406.html
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/305508
Trying to convert any word doc with tables (& shading) to PDF
- basic table, black borders throughout
- shaded headings, black outline border
- shaded subheadings, black outline border
However when convert to PDF:
- 'displays' NO top cell border for some/all shaded rows
- shows diff thickness lines
- each conversion, diff lines missing/incorrectly sized
- however converted pdf prints perfectly fine
Adobe know about the bug, per PRMW's (Paul's) post on 2009-07-15 15:44:34, however only offered a painful time consuming workaround using non-freeware Adobe Pro:
http://acrobatusers.com/forum/pdf-creation/word-pdf-table-lines-missing-or-faded#comment-7 8139
- "It is not feasable to edit 200+ tables in the PDF every time the PDF is generated, as we maintain the original in word.
- "This complete issue seems to have been passed off by Adobe as no problem and that there is a work around. I consider this an unsatisfactory response from a major product supplier.
Microsoft TechNet & NitroPdf said it's an Adobe issue & to contact Adobe to fix the bug.
Tried, but proble exists:
* Word 2010 > File > Save & Send > Create PDF/XPS Document
* Word 2010 > Save As > Pdf
* Word 2010 > Print > PrimoPdf (even tried properties > advanced > dpi 300/600/2400) > Custom
* Word 2010 > Print > doPDF v7 (even tried 'high quality images)
* Word 2010 > Print > PDFCreator
* Word 2010 > Print > CutePdf Writer (even worse)
* Nitro Pdf Reader > Convert From File > (even worse)
* www.pdfonline.com > Word to Pdf (even worse)
* www.wordtopdf.com > email: Sorry, an unexpected conversion failure occurred when converting your file.
Software:
* Word 2010 - tried with .docx & .doc (97 to 2003)
* Adobe Reader 8.2.6 (freeware), then upgraded to Adobe Reader X 10.0.1 (freeware)
* GhostScript 9.01 w32 (freeware)
* CutePdf Writer (freeware)
* PrimoPdf (freeware)
* Nitro Pdf Reader 1.4.0.11 (freeware)
* doPDF 7.2.361 (freeware)
* PDFCreator 1.2.0 (opensource - www.pdfforge.org)
Seems to display better at 300%, but lines still not right (even at 2400%), but who views pdf's at this zoom?
Message was edited by: shell_l_d

Word docs blur when I scroll on 20" connected to powerbook

It's hard to know who to ask about this one, because I can't tell what is to blame. But when I plug my 20" cinema display into my powerbook's DVI port, and then move a Microsoft Word doc over onto the 20", it gives me a chopped-word effect when I scroll around in the document, and I can't see any of it. I can put any other application window over there without blurring, but not Word. Perhaps this means it's Word's fault, but could someone weigh in here?

Hi Chris:
I just posted today a similar problem with MS Word/Office 2004. If I select to display two pages up, side by side, and edit the left hand page, I get a failure to refresh on the right hand page. What shows on the display is after editing the left page, I see duplicate lines of characters on the right page as the the text moved up or down but did not erase and refresh the prior line. Same effects on both ACD23 and PB display. I can get it to refresh by highlighting the text that was not erased. Did not find any reference on the MS web site. Did you find out what is causing this?
PBG4 Mac OS X (10.4.5) 23 Inch Cinema Display

Can not open MS word docs

I have an emac running 10.2.8, two users, when i sign in and try to open a word document from the desktop a window opens and says i can not open the document because it's in use by another user. I created this document and the other user has not signed on in months. I then tried all of my word docs and the same message appears. I've shut down the computer, restarted putting in my password but same problem occurs. I repaired permissions but no change. These are my docs and no one else is "signed in" or using them. I cannot copy them or send them via email (which now unexpectedly quits upon opening), Do I need to archive and install?, How much free space on the hard drive do I need to reinstall the OS?
Thanks for any response.
Joe

Many system issues can happen as the hard disk drive's capacity is over-full
with saved content and there is no room left in the hard drive for the OS X
and applications to function. The drive should have more than 10% free of
content in order for the OS X and Applications expected to run in the Mac
to have room. This space is for swap files, virtual memory, and flex space
where the system has to automatically find and use free space for most
everything the computer can do.
{There are specific rules (seen online in helpful articles, some in Support)
on how to transfer iTunes music libraries or make and restore archives
to external hard disk drives and maybe save to DVD if possible; these
and iPhoto libraries eat up essential space on a hard disk drive.}
The drive is over-full and a failure (including damage to the physical drive)
is a matter of time. He should try to archive music on DVD off the Mac
& then free-up that space on the internal hard disk drive so the OS X
and apps can use the free space for their required functions. Moving a
few dozen original items, after saving them off the computer, to Trash
may be helpful, but that would take a lot of time & looking.
An externally enclosed drive, properly formatted for OS X and capable
of booting the computer (firewire 400) is advised; at this point.
My computers have about 50% empty hard disk drives; that free space
allows the OS X's automatic virtual memory allocation to create and use
that space to help the apps and system function properly. When it is not
there, the system tries to overwrite non-essential files or could cause a
kind of corruption to happen on the main hard disk drive...
The documents and other permission issues are a symptom of other stuff.
A computer in a good state of maintained health requires some effort;
and when that is not done routinely, things get slower and as the drive
gets full, stuff can fail. So, to free-up user created files such as music
(including hidden duplicates if they exist) so that space can be reclaimed
and used by the OS X, is a good idea.
To get and use an externally enclosed hard disk drive in a self-powered
unit with AC Adapter, probably a FireWire ported one so the transfer
rate is fast enough to get the job done (USB 1.1 is too slow to boot an
older computer, so FireWire can; a clone of the entire computer could
be created on a formatted FireWire bootable externally enclosed drive
and that could be used as a bootable backup.) Archiving this way is a
way to keep all the files and their status collectively together; then if
something happens to the computer's internal drive, this remains.
To boot the computer from the OS X install disc and see if a disk repair
and a permissions repair can be done in that disc's version of Disk Utility
may be helpful. Not sure if that old of a system will tell you much in this
Disk Utility (on installer disc, but not used to install anything) but you
can Verify the SMART status of a hard disk drive & also try to repair it.
But the drive is over-full if there are only mere MBs of free space. He
should look into the Get Info (File menu in Finder) on the Hard Drive
Icon to see what the total capacity of that drive was, and how little is
remaining; then work on getting rid of non-essential items, so as to
save the system itself from damages. Also, if the computer is getting
older, it may be time to consider a new replacement hard disk drive;
and if so, a larger capacity one could be installed, and the older one
put in an external FireWire enclosure, then the content may be cloned
back into the computer on a partition or direct; so there'd be more
free space that way for the contents. (Or weed out non-essentials, too.)
More information would be needed to proceed, since this situation is
at best sketchy and could be problematic to say the least.
Good luck & happy computing!

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