Word is the mostly uses office software. Sometimes, when we open a word
document, it seems to be corrupted and cannot be opened or the content
got messed. It’s really annoying. More important is how can we retrieve
the data in this “corrupted” file. Following methods may help you in
this case. Before apply any below, you’d better copy the file as backup.
#1 Use the provided “Recover” functions in Word 2003
– In “File” menu, click “Open”
– Locate the word document
– Click the arrow next to “Open” button, and choose “Open and Recover”
Word will try to open the document and get it recovered. If you use Word with version
other than 2003, you may try the following.
#2 Confirm Conversion at Open
– In “Tools” menu, click “Options”
– Choose “General” tab
– Check the “Conversion at Open” box and click “OK”
– Click the “Open” button
– In file type, choose “Recover Text from Any File”
– Locate the word document and click “Open”
This will try to recover the text content from the file.
#3 Convert File Format
– Open the corrupted file in Word
– In “File” menu, choose “Save As”
– In “Save As Type”, choose “RTF Format” and click “Save” button.
This will save the
file into a RTF format, which keeps the format into a simpler format.
The new format is simple enough and may helps in retrieve the file
content.
#4 Paste in New File
One of the reason for file corruption is the format or style problem.
Word uses the last section tag to link all the formats and style. If
copy all the materials except the last section, the content may be
retrieved correctly. The format or style can be reapply later.
– In “Tools” menu, choose “Options”
– In “Edit” tab, ensure the “Use smart cut and paste” is unselected.
– Click “OK”
– Click “Ctrl+Home” and then click “Ctrl+Shift+End” to highlight all the text.
– Perform copy and paste then.
#5 Rename Template
Word use “Normal.dot” template to store default message. If this
template is corrupted, the file contents may be “corrupted”.
– Close the Word
– Use “Find” to locate “Normal.dot”
– Rename “Normal.dot” to “Normal.old”
– Start the Word again. (As Word cannot locate Normal.dot, it will create a new
Normal.dot)
– Open the “corrupted” file.
If it can be
opened correctly, the old “Normal.dot” seems to be crashed. You may
apply the same to other templates to try if “Normal.dot” is not the
origin.
Dear sir/madam,
I have 3 unlucky times about using microsoft office, one using 2003 and 2 using 2007.
Several months ago, I typed on a file with 10 pages already. After typing 2 pages, the Word program showed no response and I had to close it. When I open Word and the file again, all the words (including those words that not typed by me) disappeared and it became a blank file. The second time is similar. The only difference is that I simply couldn;t open the file.
When I turn on the Task manager and work on a certain Word file, I found that the ram it used jumped rapidly every second (10,000k)(only very few files have this experience) and when the ram jumped to a critical level, say near 2GB, Word program did not respond, and when I opened the Word and file again, the word file has nothing inside.
Today, I opened a file with 200 pages. It said I have 500 pages but I can’t see any word inside. However, it’s word count is still 790000 words and the file size is still 700k!
I’ve used some of the softwares but they didnt help.
What should I do>
It’s hard to made a conclusion on what happened in your case. Different combination of document and machine configuration may have different problem.
But you may try the following
1. Try open the file using other office software, like OpenOffice
2. Re-install your MS Office, maybe it is corrupted
You may also refer to following URL about recovering corrupted word document.
http://www.officearticles.com/word/recover_a_corrupt_microsoft_word_document.htm