Mystery "boxes" replace words aftertransferring a file during a hard-drive meltdown

[hockeygurl03]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

So my harddrive broke down on my mac a few weeks ago, and two of my documents (each with over a hundred pages, if that matters) were able to be saved, but in both of them, the majority of the middle (meaning most) of the documents lost all of their "characters" and now appear to be small, gray boxes. I think, but am not positive, that these boxes represent each character in the document, so that the information is still there, I just need to find a way to transfer it back into actual letters instead of boxes that take up 800 pages.
Do any of you know how to fix this or what can be done to save the information? Please let me know!

 

[John McGhie]

Be thankful you did this in Word 2008 in .docx In the old binary format
you would have got "nothing" back because the document wouldn't open

I agree: the small grey boxes probably indicate that the characters are in a
font you do not have on the machine.

If you can guess which font that is, and install it, the boxes will
instantly turn to letters.

If you select a few of the boxes, and look in the "Font" box on the top
left, Word may be able to tell you which font it is.

Otherwise, go into Word>Preferences>Compatibility and click "Font
Substitution". If there is a font missing, and Word can determine which one
it is, it will tell you and recommend a substitute.

If it does recommend a substitute, Word will give you the option to make the
substitution "Permanent". Think carefully before agreeing to that: if you
do, then the text will never again appear in the old font: that is what I
usually choose, because it cures the problem permanently, but you need to be
aware of the effect of that choice: all of that text will be marked as being
in the new font

If these tricks don't work, close the document and use File>Open from inside
Word to open it again: but this time, choose "Recover Text from Any File" as
the file type before selecting the document. You will get all of the text
out that can be saved, but all the formatting will be stripped.

Cheers

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

So my harddrive broke down on my mac a few weeks ago, and two of my documents
(each with over a hundred pages, if that matters) were able to be saved, but
in both of them, the majority of the middle (meaning most) of the documents
lost all of their "characters" and now appear to be small, gray boxes. I
think, but am not positive, that these boxes represent each character in the
document, so that the information is still there, I just need to find a way to
transfer it back into actual letters instead of boxes that take up 800 pages.
Do any of you know how to fix this or what can be done to save the
information? Please let me know!

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]