Word X document won't open

[Kurt]

I have an important Word Document with no back up. When I try to open
it I get the conversion dialog. I have tried each possible conversion
but I cannot recover any text from the document. It was originally 4
or 5 pages long and I cannot even find one word of my original text.
I have tried using other programs but I have not been able to recover
the document. Its icon shows as a Word document. Anyone have any
thoughts?

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Kurt,

Where did the original document come from? Did you create it or was it sent
to you by someone else using a PC perhaps? What version of Word (and what
OS version) are you trying to open it in? Have you tried to open it using
SimpleText/TextEdit?

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>

 

[Kurt Becker]

Does anyone have any feedback on this?

Kurt

 

[Elliott Roper]

Does anyone have any feedback on this?

Kurt

Well, I did see your original. I thought you had done every sensible
thing to recover the file and that it was truly broken.

So I kept quiet. I bet everyone else thought and did the same.

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Well, I did see your original. I thought you had done every sensible
thing to recover the file and that it was truly broken.

So I kept quiet. I bet everyone else thought and did the same.

Elliott's right. I was thinking the same way but here are a few questions
for you that might lead somewhere. Did you create the document or did it
come from another source? Have you tried to save it as something else (RTF
perhaps) and then open it?

Sorry not to be of more help.

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>

 

[Clive Huggan]

Well, I did see your original. I thought you had done every sensible
thing to recover the file and that it was truly broken.

So I kept quiet. I bet everyone else thought and did the same.

Hmm, same here. I'm rather less imaginative than you, Elliott, and I didn't
understand what "the conversion dialog" really meant. Further uncertainty
was lent by Kurt not saying what OS and Word version he is using (Word X in
the subject line could refer to the version it was created in, perhaps on
another machine; he could even be on Windows). I didn't understand what the
reference was to "I cannot even find one word of my original text" was
either -- *possibly* he is looking at "recover text from any file" option.
But then I reached the same conclusion as you did when he said "I have tried
using other programs but I have not been able to recover the document".

Kurt, there's a possibility someone may be able to help you if you can
provide more detail. I hope this fault is happening only with the one
document.

One final (non-electronic) thought: If you have printed the document,
there's always OCR...

--Clive Huggan

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