Recovering a Word File

[Arpit]

Hi,

I am facing a problem with a particular Word Doc of mine. It was
working fine until it suddenly stopped responding. Now whenever I open
the file, the file opens in Word for Mac, and I can see the first
page, but the wheelie immediately appears and Word stops responding.

I tried opening the file thru Pages, Word in Windows but neither is
recognizing the file only. I tried duplicating the file and opening
the copy but the same problem occurs.

Any idea on how to open the file. Its got a lot of work of mine. Any
help would be great!!!

Thanks,
Arpit

 

[Arpit]

Oh, forgot to mention. Its about a 250 pager document. If that has got
anything to do with the problem.

Regards,
Arpit

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Arpit -

It certainly sounds like you're dealing with a [badly] corrupted doc - the
_cause_ of which may never be known but you can take a look here

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

for *some* of the most likely culprits. It can also result from extended use
of Track Changes, repeatedly making direct formatting changes rather than
using Styles, and a number of other "nasty habits" that Word leads us to
develop simply because we *can* seemingly get away with it

Since you can't even open the doc the "standard" fixes won't help - it has
to be opened to have a prayer of ridding it of its ills. If you have a
*backup copy* this is its shining hour. If you don't... Well, lesson
[hopefully] learned, albeit the hard way:-}

Try opening a copy of the file with TextEdit. Also - in Word - use File>
Open from the Enable: list at the top of the Open dialog select Recover Text
from Any File. See if either method opens the file in a usable state. If so,
use Save As to save as separate new files.

If you succeed post back with detail about the content, structure &
appearance of the file. We'll see if we can offer any suggestions on how to
create a working copy from there.

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

 

[Arpit]

Hey Bob,

Thanks a ton. I was able to open the file with TextEdIt, though it's
showing only 40% of the incremental changes I had made over the last
version. Not so bad...

Yes, it is most prob because of over-extended Track Changes (cos the
Boss wanted to "see" changes I had made).

I had a backup copy, but it was a "long back" saved copy . Had
learnt the lesson many times in the past but been almost 1 year since
this last happened to me, so had kind of forgotten it.

Tried opening it through Word in the way mentioned, no success. Opened
it with Text Edit as mentioned but could not save a valid copy which
Word would accept. And with this document, half the crux was in
formatting which went for a toss.

So net net, gotta take up the long road again. Though Text Edit
Version will certainly help, so thanks once again.

Would have loved to post the document for your inputs on recovery but
it's a company confidential document, so...

I hope Time Machine in Leopard will take care of these kind of issues
as they claim.

Thanks,
Arpit

Hi Arpit -

It certainly sounds like you're dealing with a [badly] corrupted doc - the
_cause_ of which may never be known but you can take a look here

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

for *some* of the most likely culprits. It can also result from extended use
of Track Changes, repeatedly making direct formatting changes rather than
using Styles, and a number of other "nasty habits" that Word leads us to
develop simply because we *can* seemingly get away with it

Since you can't even open the doc the "standard" fixes won't help - it has
to be opened to have a prayer of ridding it of its ills. If you have a
*backup copy* this is its shining hour. If you don't... Well, lesson
[hopefully] learned, albeit the hard way:-}

Try opening a copy of the file with TextEdit. Also - in Word - use File>
Open from the Enable: list at the top of the Open dialog select Recover Text
from Any File. See if either method opens the file in a usable state. If so,
use Save As to save as separate new files.

If you succeed post back with detail about the content, structure &
appearance of the file. We'll see if we can offer any suggestions on how to
create a working copy from there.

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

Hi,

I am facing a problem with a particular Word Doc of mine. It was
working fine until it suddenly stopped responding. Now whenever I open
the file, the file opens in Word for Mac, and I can see the first
page, but the wheelie immediately appears and Word stops responding.

I tried opening the file thru Pages, Word in Windows but neither is
recognizing the file only. I tried duplicating the file and opening
the copy but the same problem occurs.

Any idea on how to open the file. Its got a lot of work of mine. Any
help would be great!!!

Thanks,
Arpit