Clicking on the list of “recent files” Microsoft Word seems to stop and frightening warning box appears “Word cannot open the document.” The hours of work for nothing. With the introduction of Office 2007 and its new format, the possibilities of increased corruption with older DOC files become the new DOCX format. Never fear, there are ways to fix a corrupted Word file.
Things You’ll Need
Microsoft Office Word 2007 or earlier
Restore Backup
Windows has a built-in feature “Open and Repair”. In Word 2007, go to Office button, and then click “Open”. In previous versions, go to File> Open. Select the file, but not double-click or click Open. In the “Open” button, there is a drop-down arrow. Click on the arrow and Options to open the document appears. Select “Open and Repair”. This will fix most files.
Unless the option is disabled, whenever Word documents are saved, a file backup is created. The files are usually called “Backup of <filename> .wbk” and stored in the same folder with the original file. When you open the file backup file delivery, as it was before the last time you saved. This means that some jobs may be lost, but you better have to recreate a small part of the file instead of the entire file.
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When the cause of corruption is an interruption in the Word program, for example, a power failure, software crash or improperly shut down the computer, Word normally open a panel recovery. This panel displays all saved files, saving the time and whether it is a file or “normal” “recovered”. The selection of the most recent date and time of the save the file may return to a state near his car before corruption.
Fixing corrupt files was common in recent versions of Word Perfect for DOS. The same trick, however, can work with Microsoft Word. Open a blank document. “Enter” twice. In Word 2007, go to the “Insert” then “Object” tab; click the drop down arrow and select “text document” and locate the corrupted file. In previous versions, go to the menu command Insert> Object> From File and locate the damaged disk file. In most cases, it will open in the new document. Remove the two paragraphs created, and save the document in a different from the original, corrupt document name. Custom format for the corrupt document is likely to be lost in this scenario, but the content, graphics, tables and legends will be retained.
Fixing corruptions in the fly
When the file unstable when editing acts, something that has caused corruption. Use File> Save As to give the file a new name. The quick solution is to remove the section breaks. Most data that cause damage to the file is stored invisibly in a section break. Although the section break cause headaches disassembly format, corruption is removed. After removal, it saved with the new name. This ensures that there is a pre-removal file version available if needed.
Save the file in a different format. Saving the file into a web format (MHT or HTML) forces Word to reprocess all invisible data. In most cases, this will eliminate corruption and still retain some graphics and formatting features. The reopening of the file and save to a new file name in the “Word Document” option saves text and graphics, but may lose some formatting features.
When serious problems of corruption occur in an open file, it may be necessary to save what you can. Typically, the most important feature is to save the text. Using the File> Save As command, save the file as an ASCII text file (TXT). You will lose all formatting, graphics, table formats (data) and text boxes.
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Open a new document and press “Enter” twice. Then go paragraph by paragraph in the original paper cut text, graphics, tables and text boxes and pasted into the new document. In theory, only the design format and fonts are lost.
Tips & Warnings
Keep patience, and take each step. Using the Word Options tab> Save to Office 2007 or Tools> Options> Save tab in previous versions, ensuring “always copies of original file security” is checked. This file provides automatic backup. In the same Options tab, set the auto save file for a comfortable margin. If writing is predominantly small files, a value of 2 to 5 minutes is reasonable. If writing longer file, a setting of 10 minutes may be more appropriate. Avoid writing extensively without a manual save every few pages.
At any time in the file structure is damaged, you may file corruption in the Normal.dot template. If a “save changes to Normal.dot” window appears on the screen, click “No”.
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