Tips to repair a damaged MS Word file and beyond
Microsoft Word is recognized as the most prolific program for documents. However, issues like media error where .doc and .docx files are stored, virus attacks, unexpected system shutdown, etc can lead to MS word corruption and eventually paralyze your work. Once corrupted, it would exhibit unusual behaviors. If the word file open but shows unexpected behaviors then here are few things you can try.
-Save the Document to another File Format, and Then Convert It Back to Word
This method is the most complete document recovery method and should be always tried first.
Save the document in a different file format like Rich Text Format (.rtf) or a Web page (.html) format. These formats preserve the formatting in your Word document.
After you save the document in a different file format, close the document, reopen the document in Word, and then save it as a Word document (.doc). If this method is successful, the file damage was removed during conversion.
If the damage persists, try to save the file in another file format. Try to save your file in the following file formats, in the following order:
1. Rich Text Format (.rtf)
2. Web page (.html)
3. Any other word processing format
4. Text only (.txt)
In Text Only format, all document formatting, graphics, and macro code will be lost. When you save files in Text Only format, you must do reformatting. Therefore, use this Text Only format only after other file formats do not correct the problem.
-Copy Everything except the Last Paragraph Mark to a New Document.
MS Word formatting is linked with the last paragraph mark, such as section formatting and style formatting. If you copy everything except the last paragraph mark to a new document, the damage may be left behind in the original document. In the new document, reapply the section formatting or style formatting.
To select everything except the last paragraph mark, Press CTRL+END, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+HOME.
If your document contains section breaks, copy only the text between the sections breaks. Microsoft recommends that you work with your Word document in Normal view when copying and pasting between documents to avoid transferring section breaks between documents. To change to Normal view, click Normal on the View menu.
-Copy the Undamaged Portions of the Document to a New Document
Sometimes you can determine the location of file damage in your document. In such cases, copy everything except the damaged portion to a new file, and then reconstruct the damaged section of your document. Do not copy and paste the section breaks because this may bring the damage into your new document.
If the problem still persists then your word file is highly damaged and beyond normal word recovery. There isn’t any inbuilt tool to accomplish this task but third party tools provide excellent support. These software programs can repair any corrupt word file and even preserve the formatting. They have an array of features and you can even skip all the above steps and directly recover your data when you face any errors in Word.
Recoveryfix for Word is a proficient word recovery tool. It can extract all the text from corrupt word document including images, tables, comments, and objects. It maintains the formatting after repair and the recovered file has all the embedded features. Use it for word 2007 recovery to MS word 2010, 2003, 2002 and MS word 2000 recovery. Evaluate the tool for free but repairs every word file but displays a ‘DEMO’ stamp in the trial mode.
Author Details:
The author of this article is a technical writer and has in-depth knowledge about recovery tools. Here, he has dealt the ways to recover a corrupted word file. If the tips don’t work out, then word recovery tools provide full recovery and support every MS Word version like word 2007 recovery to word 2000 recovery.
-Save the Document to another File Format, and Then Convert It Back to Word
This method is the most complete document recovery method and should be always tried first.
Save the document in a different file format like Rich Text Format (.rtf) or a Web page (.html) format. These formats preserve the formatting in your Word document.
After you save the document in a different file format, close the document, reopen the document in Word, and then save it as a Word document (.doc). If this method is successful, the file damage was removed during conversion.
If the damage persists, try to save the file in another file format. Try to save your file in the following file formats, in the following order:
1. Rich Text Format (.rtf)
2. Web page (.html)
3. Any other word processing format
4. Text only (.txt)
In Text Only format, all document formatting, graphics, and macro code will be lost. When you save files in Text Only format, you must do reformatting. Therefore, use this Text Only format only after other file formats do not correct the problem.
-Copy Everything except the Last Paragraph Mark to a New Document.
MS Word formatting is linked with the last paragraph mark, such as section formatting and style formatting. If you copy everything except the last paragraph mark to a new document, the damage may be left behind in the original document. In the new document, reapply the section formatting or style formatting.
To select everything except the last paragraph mark, Press CTRL+END, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+HOME.
If your document contains section breaks, copy only the text between the sections breaks. Microsoft recommends that you work with your Word document in Normal view when copying and pasting between documents to avoid transferring section breaks between documents. To change to Normal view, click Normal on the View menu.
-Copy the Undamaged Portions of the Document to a New Document
Sometimes you can determine the location of file damage in your document. In such cases, copy everything except the damaged portion to a new file, and then reconstruct the damaged section of your document. Do not copy and paste the section breaks because this may bring the damage into your new document.
If the problem still persists then your word file is highly damaged and beyond normal word recovery. There isn’t any inbuilt tool to accomplish this task but third party tools provide excellent support. These software programs can repair any corrupt word file and even preserve the formatting. They have an array of features and you can even skip all the above steps and directly recover your data when you face any errors in Word.
Recoveryfix for Word is a proficient word recovery tool. It can extract all the text from corrupt word document including images, tables, comments, and objects. It maintains the formatting after repair and the recovered file has all the embedded features. Use it for word 2007 recovery to MS word 2010, 2003, 2002 and MS word 2000 recovery. Evaluate the tool for free but repairs every word file but displays a ‘DEMO’ stamp in the trial mode.
Author Details:
The author of this article is a technical writer and has in-depth knowledge about recovery tools. Here, he has dealt the ways to recover a corrupted word file. If the tips don’t work out, then word recovery tools provide full recovery and support every MS Word version like word 2007 recovery to word 2000 recovery.
