Recovering a Corrupt Word Doc That Won’t Open

In a previous post, I listed several ways to salvage the content of a corrupted Word document if the file can be opened. If the file cannot be opened, here are three techniques you might try.

If the file won’t open—

1. Draft Mode

It is sometimes possible to open a document in draft mode when it will not open in other views. To switch to draft mode, select NORMAL on the “View” menu, then on the “Tools” menu, choose OPTIONS, select the “View” tab, and then the “Draft Font” option. If the file opens, use one of the techniques described in the previous post to recover/repair it.

2. Recover Text From Any File

Select OPEN on the “File” menu, and under “Files of type” select RECOVER TEXT FROM ANY FILE. While this is helpful for recovering text, keep in mind that document formatting, graphics, fields, drawing objects, text boxes, and anything that is not straight text will be lost. IMPORTANT: Be sure to reset the “Files of type” option back to “Word Document (*.doc)” after you have recovered your document to ensure this setting is not used the next time you open a document.

3. Link a Safe File with a Blank Document

This method works where the header has corrupted and is preventing your document from opening.

• Create a new document and type a few random words of your choice. Just type anything; it doesn’t matter what. You just need to create a clean document. Save the document.
• From the “Edit” menu, choose SELECT ALL, then COPY.
• From the “File” menu, select NEW.
• From the “Edit” menu, choose PASTE SPECIAL.
• Select either UNFORMATTED or FORMATTED TEXT, and select PASTE LINK.
• From the “Edit” menu, select LINKS.
• In the LINKS dialog box, select the filename of the first linked document and then click CHANGE SOURCE.
• The Open Dialog box will appear and prompt you to select which document you want to change the link to. Select the document you can no longer open and click OPEN.
• Click “OK” in the LINKS dialog box.

If there is any recoverable text, the text from the damaged document will appear. On the “Edit” menu, select LINKS and click BREAK LINKS. You can now reformat and save the recovered text.