My words changed to symbols

[Tami]

I saved my word 2003 document and the next thing I knew, there were a bunch
of boxes and weird symbols with my words intermixed. Anyone know how to help?

Tami

 

[Stefan Blom]

The document could be damaged. Have you tried Open and Repair?

See also the following article, which might be relevant:

WD2002: Symbol Characters Are Changed to Box Characters
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290978/en-us