The answer depends on which printer was selected when the .prn file
was created.
In general terms, a .prn file is just the stream of data that would be
sent from the printer driver to the printer, diverted from the cable
and captured in a disk file.
For most (non-PostScript) printers the data stream is binary, and
there's no way to view it in Word. The only thing you can do with it
is to use a command line to copy it to the printer (and then only the
printer that was selected when the file was made), which sees the data
stream as if it was coming from the Print command. This is useful if,
for example, you have Word on one computer and the printer (or, say, a
printing company's typesetting machine) on another computer that you
can't connect directly.
If the printer is PostScript based, the .prn file will contain
readable text -- but interleaved with tons of PostScript commands.
Trying to read this is worse than trying to read raw HTML in Notepad.
If you're really lucky, the "printer" is the Generic/Text Only printer
driver, and the data stream will look pretty much like what you'd get
from saving the original document as a .txt file.
--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
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