Corrupted word file

[tracyabcd]

Using G4 Mac PowerBook, Mac OS X 10.4.11, Word 2004 - -
I tried to check a large old Word file, Diary.doc, but I found parts
of it are corrupted. The text changes into a collection of symbols,
like so:

call me back another time. Though not i<þ›ÿ_d>C# _Ælx L_Ð,lj
"³ õÔ‹÷Uà¨*¹!·'Êm¤²ëíÉùã¸'þp_aW_¥;ªË6Xh§¶ ã^!áá¹ <<' º
¿ #T<<Ô:Z,àOE_~ÀÌÔ²ÔSÆ_P ^î(R)±IÞ_`(zi_‹#FÈ _kéUC$x‹"|±^7/ê I 1/2 Ñ
¢poeÍ__NXú 3/4 *gì_ç~_<<1ë .¤jY@}/ºá%R_(R)>>Xëîº^&Ú'_¨~ M<9(tm)=îüN ç¹}ýp0¸D/1/2 â_
_jŸ Æ´_x_¶³Ü¹¬_þi'òf⥬¡_ÊÑ(R)Å_\9nýòTlB v=_›£_À_>Y‰_߈>ñÀ|Pù-DW~ýÞ_æ Ý
¤oeØÔÌú"(tm)Ç-W_òë
(E DÊŸªº6I)a<<_æB."YP+ã

I have tried changing the font. Not very clever - I get the same
collection of symbols in Arial instead of Time.
I have tried putting it in TextWrangler, but after that I can't see
anything useful to do.

What has happened to those parts of the text? Is there any way I can
restore corrupted passages like this so that I can read them? (I have
got backups but they are also corrupted.)

Tracy

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Tracy -

The fact that you *are* seeing legitimate - albeit nonsensical - text
suggests that it may simply be a Language issue. Try Command+A, then Tools>
Language - English (US) [or whatever language you use].

If that doesn't resolve it you might try the de-corruption steps here:

http://word.mvps.org/Mac/DocumentCorruption.html

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Tracy:

I am less optimistic than Bob

That looks to me like classic "corrupted text pointers", a problem the old
binary Word file was susceptible to.

If that is the case, use File>Open from within Word, and change "Enable" to
"Recover text from any file".

What you get then will be as good as it gets. You will get out whatever
text can be read from the file. All of the formatting and layout will be
discarded, and the text will come out as a series of strings of plain ANSI.

Be careful: The strings are not necessarily in the correct order: text is
not stored sequentially in an old Word file, so the text can come out in a
different order to the way it was stored in the document.

Hope this helps

Using G4 Mac PowerBook, Mac OS X 10.4.11, Word 2004 - -
I tried to check a large old Word file, Diary.doc, but I found parts
of it are corrupted. The text changes into a collection of symbols,
like so:

call me back another time. Though not i<þ›ÿ_d>C# _Ælx L_Ã,lj
"³ õÔ‹÷Uà¨*¹!·'Êm¤²ëíÉùã¸'þp_aW_¥;ªË6Xh§¶ ã^!áá¹ <<' º
¿ #T<<Ô:Z,àOE_~ÀÌÔ²ÔSÆ_P ^î(R)±IÞ_`(zi_‹#FÈ _kéUC$x‹"|±^7/ê I 1/2 Ñ
¢poeÃ__NXú 3/4 *gì_ç~_<<1ë .¤jY@}/ºá%R_(R)>>Xëîº^&Ú'_¨~ M<9(tm)=îüN
ç¹}ýp0¸D/1/2 â_
_jŸ Æ´_x_¶³Ü¹¬_þi'òf⥬¡_ÊÑ(R)Ã…_\9nýòTlB v=_ݣ_À_>Y‰_߈>ñÀ|Pù-DW~ýÞ_æ Ã
¤oeØÔÌú"(tm)Ç-W_òë
(E DÊŸªº6I)a<<_æB."YP+ã

I have tried changing the font. Not very clever - I get the same
collection of symbols in Arial instead of Time.
I have tried putting it in TextWrangler, but after that I can't see
anything useful to do.

What has happened to those parts of the text? Is there any way I can
restore corrupted passages like this so that I can read them? (I have
got backups but they are also corrupted.)

Tracy

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Ya John -

<snip>

I am less optimistic than Bob

<snip>

So what else is new? But note my discreet invocation of the phrase
"*may* simply be" - I usually aim for the simple & most obvious first ;-)

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[John McGhie]

Yeah, well I really hope you are right -- the user would get their document
back without any damage if you are

To me, that looks exactly like a pointer that is off by one bit (the
most-significant bit) interpreting ANSI characters as one power of two
higher than they really are...

Cheers

Hi Ya John -

<snip>

<snip>

So what else is new? But note my discreet invocation of the phrase
"*may* simply be" - I usually aim for the simple & most obvious first ;-)

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[CyberTaz]

My "hope" was based on the fact that I was only happening I certain portions
of the document, not the entirety... Does that make sense?

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Bob:

It makes perfect sense, but you're talking about *Word*

Recall that Word holds a "pile of strings" and each string contains a set of
binary pointers that references tables that tell Word where the string
belongs and what the font and formatting should be...

That particular character salad is characteristic of a bad pointer leading
to an incorrect unpacking of the compression of the text container holding
the string.

Course: You could still be right

Cheers

My "hope" was based on the fact that I was only happening I certain portions
of the document, not the entirety... Does that make sense?

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]