how do i open a corrupted file with ~$ in word 2003

[mona]

Word restarts on its own once in a while - not all the time. If I have
multiple files open they don't show up in the autorecover dialog box. THey
are saved as ~$(filename) and when I open them they only have boxes and lines
in them. When I open them with recover all text documents or open and repair
all I get is my name repeated a few times. Opening them and saving as hml
docs doesn't work either - but maybe I'm not doing that correctly. I tried
looking in applications, microsoft, word for the autorecovery file but it is
empty. thanks!
mona

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

The ~$ file is a temporary "owner" file (see
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=211632 "Description of how
Word creates temporary files" for more information). It does not
contain anything from your unsaved document, so it won't do you
any good to open it.

See http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/AutomaticSave.htm .

Also see "How to recover a lost file" in:
Word 2003: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=827099
Word 2002: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=316951
Word 2000: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=316950
Each article has a section on how to access Word's autorecovery
files.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Files that start with ~$ are not recovery files or anything like that.
They're temporary files called "owner files" that prevent any other
user from opening a document at the same time you have it open. There
is no part of the document's contents in there, so they're worthless
for recovery.

If you have an AutoRecover file, it will have an .asd extension. It
will be in the folder listed as the AutoRecover location in Tools >
Options > File Locations. Word automatically deletes this file when
the program exits "normally" (which may or may not be at your
request). It remains behind only when Word really crashes and doesn't
have a chance to delete its temporary files.

If you go to Tools > Options > Save and check the box for "Always
create backup copy", Word will make a .wbk file in the same folder as
the document each time you save, and it will contain the document as
it existed after the previous save (that is, one version back).

If this isn't good enough for you, use Graham Mayor's macro at
http://www.gmayor.com/automatically_backup.htm. Also use the procedure
at http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm to clean up
the mess you already have. And it sounds like you could also use a
good general backup procedure, like the one in
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/FilesToBackup.htm.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
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