Style error message when trying to open document

[Jynsings]

I have 3 word documents that will not open for me -- each time I get a
"serious error" message and something about styles, then it goes into
recovery mode, pops up the word screen again, Each time I click on the
recovered file shown, it gives me the same message again. I have to use
these files as a "go-by" for a major federal project with a nearing deadline.
Can anyone help?

 

[Klaus Linke]

Hi Jynsings,

The first thing I'd try:
Create a new document, and use "Insert > File" for the document(s) you want
to open.

Other things you could try:
Open the file(s) in WordPad (which is probably installed anyway),
or in OpenOffice Writer (which you can get for free).

If it isn't too much trouble to recreate the formatting:
Open the file, but choose "Recover text from any file" as the file type.

Regards,
Klaus

 

[Klaus Linke]

Or better first:
Try to get some undamaged version of those files. If you got them by mail,
ask the sender to zip them up and attach the zip file.
Or try to get some info on what program produced those files.
Perhaps that'll give you some hint why the import doesn't work... and if
not, you could post back with that info and the version of Word you are
using.

Klaus

 

[Jynsings]

Unfortunately I had already tried what you suggested and nothing worked. In
desperation, I called a friend of mine in Austin, TX that is a bit of a
software ghuru and subsequently emailed him the 3 files. Apparently a
compression software used on the original files was not the "normal"
compression software used within MS. He was able to decompress the files
using some of his hi-tech tools and resave them for me to access. They
opened right up for me lickety split. I wasted nearly 2 days doing all the
things the MS website kept telling me to do to correct the problem --
un-installing, re-installing, updating, downloading -- grrrr..... Never
again. My ghuru is on speed dial now!

I do thank you for responding to my query nonetheless. It's nice to know
that I wasn't totally out of the ballpark on this one -- that smeone else had
the same ideas.

Jyn!