saved word file text now opening as small squares?
col
squares. Whats happening?
holy hardcore
problems. A 4 or 5 page document I had completed on Microsoft Word 2000 was
changed to squares, and question marks when I tried to save it. I worked on
the document at home, saved it on a USB keychain, then worked on the document
on a different computer (at work) and saved it back on the USB keychain.
Then I opened the document on my home computer and then worked on it for
about 3 hours. Then I tried to save the document (probably to the USB
keychain without me paying attention) and my computer said it "could not be
saved". Then the computer either asked me to convert it, or I just converted
it myself. Then much or the text in my document switched to quares and
question marks.
I am not sure which Word my work uses. So, maybe my work uses a newer
version of Microsoft Word and the document could not switch back into my
earlier version of Microsoft Word 2000. I do not know. Is there anything
that can be done to save this important document? And "no", I do not have it
saved anywhere else. It was actually saved as a "Rescued Document" in .txt
format. I have tried to convert it back to .doc with no avail.
Terry Farrell
is the number 1 way to corrupt documents. Always save to your local HDD and
then COPY the document to the removable media.
--
Terry Farrell - MS Word MVP
"holy hardcore" <holyha...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:0B12E0EE-E637-4750...@microsoft.com...
holy hardcore
disucussion groups, i already knew this. i understand that i should not have
saved my Word document to removable media. i appreciate you trying to help,
but i not asking what i did wrong, i am asking for assistance to RECOVER my
document. because you did not offer any solutions, i guessing your are
telling me I have no hope of recovering my document.
Maybe Microsoft should think about automatically saving the document to the
HDD when you *click* the save icon on your Word document. i understand that
i opened the document from the USB drive, so that is where it automatically
saves the document when using the "save icon". But sometimes (i think many
people will agree with me) after typing late into the night, my head is not
exactly thinking about everything I need to do to save a document. i believe
this should be an easy task for the consumer? if this is a frequent problem
(as you have said, and I have seen more than a few posts about this issue)
for Mircosoft Word, you would think something would be corrected or some
basic program solving should have taken place. Maybe I am too much of a
novice at Microsoft programming, but seriously, everyone would be happier,
and feel safer about their work, if Microsoft Word would just save the
document to the HDD when *clicking* on the save icon, OR ASK ME where i would
like to save the document when i hit the save icon, . Losing 4-5 pages (i am
sure some extremely unlucky people have lost 1000's of pages before) of an
important document because I used the "save icon" is ridiculous, and
unaccepable. Could someone tell me if the MAC program has these same issues,
maybe I should I take the advice of their ridiculous commericals.
Terry Farrell
one time, it was the dreaded FastSaves option that was top of the list for
document corruption, but that has been surpassed by removable media
(starting with floppy disks and now with flash drives). Windows is perfectly
capable of establishing what type of drive you are selecting, so why it
doesn't inhibit or at least warn against the action is beyond me.
Recovery: well I'd say it is pretty slim unless the document was saved on
the original PC before it was saved to the flash drive.
What you can do is if you have Word 2003 or later, use the Open and Repair
option. If that fails, use the Recover Text from Any File option. If that
fails, then try opening it in WordPad and finally Notepad. Success depends
on what part of the file was damaged and (obviously) the further down the
line you try to recover the document, the less happy you will be with the
results.
Terry
"holy hardcore" <holyha...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:2E263059-68CC-4DD9...@microsoft.com...
col
suggested (wordpad etc..) but to no avail. I copied other types of files, eg.
media, jpgs etc, not just word files, from my HDD to DVD disc. Nothing will
open for me and as stated, word opens as squares. Maybe Im flogging a dead
horse.
Many thanks again
col
col
nothing seems to work.
Col
Suzanne S. Barnhill
contributed to the corruption in the first place. It's actually more
dangerous to open from removable media (especially floppies) than to save to
them. Instead, copy from the USB drive to the HD and open from there; that
will then be the default Save location. When you're done, use Copy or Send
to send the file back to the USB drive.
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
"col" <c...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:25A3C154-DD58-4824...@microsoft.com...
holy hardcore
known about this before I corrupted my whole documnet). For Mrs. Barnill:
Do you have any other ideas of how to rescue the file after it has been
corrupted. All of the advice given for this topic will be great for FUTURE
Word documents I create. However (and unfortunately), I believe many of the
people who visit this site are hoping to find out how "fix" a problem from a
mistake they have already made.
I definitely will not make the mistake again of saving to removable media
because most of the advice we have been given for this topic can only be
applied to our future documents. I just wish someone here could have helped
me to "repair" my document so I would not have to re-type 10 pages from the
storage in my head. I do appreciate everyone's input for this topic because
I know you are all trying to help us with our issues. I was especially
grateful when Terry gave me some information about how to "try" to repair my
corrupted document. Thanks Terry.
Now, does anyone know any other techniques to try to repair a document that
has been saved to removable media and not to the hard drive and now, when
opened, appears as squares? I would appreciate any NEW suggestions. Also,
does anyone know what Microsoft is doing to correct this issue? I am fairly
sure Microsoft is not in danger of going bankrupt and this is something that
DEFINITELY needs to be addressed and corrected. Even if the only correction
made is to automatically save documents to the hard drive when *clicking* the
save button in the toolbar for the document, this would be an improvement. I
do think Microsoft should program a better solution than the prior mentioned,
"save button", suggestion for the "corruption of a document when saving to
removable media". I just hope that because this seems like such a simple
program issue, this will be corrected very soon.
Regan
Suzanne S. Barnhill
document is corrupted in this way, there's often little that can be done.
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
"holy hardcore" <holyha...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:8319CCF4-1BC4-4DE5...@microsoft.com...
Flyover
not originally on a flash or some other temporary media, but I suppose it
does count as removable. I just got a new computer and put the hard drive
from my old one in an external harddrive box. I thought it would be a neat
solution to transfering the files I wanted to the new computer while giving
me back-up storage. I opened the file from the external, worked on it a
little, then unconsciously hit <ctrl>-S. This is a habit from those old Word
2.0 days. Then I got a series of error boxes that only had "OK" buttons,
like 5 of them in a row. When I clicked through them all, my file had
DISAPPEARED from the external hard drive and there were 2 files on the new
computer's drive called "Rescued Document" and "Rescued Document 1." Like
holy hardcore, I've tried all the recovery methods mentioned in this thread
and I just have a bunch of question marks, except for the new edits, which
are readable.
This upsets me a lot, because I've been working on this thing for a year and
it's irreplacable. Anyone know of any possible way to recover this document??
Terry Farrell
able to use one of the file recovery utilities such as Undelete that may
find the file intact. But there's no guarantee that it hasn't been
destroyed.
--
Terry Farrell - MS Word MVP
"Flyover" <Fly...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:8919D039-15E5-4522...@microsoft.com...
diane in seattle
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:
> If you have a recent version, you can try Open and Repair, but once a
> document is corrupted in this way, there's often little that can be done.
this is an extremely disturbing
answer to a very serious problem.
i have been using ms-word 2000
since... well, 2000. once in awhile
a file becomes corrupted & won't
open, or when it does open, it shows
those little rectangles. i deduced
that when those rectangles appear,
ms-word is trying to open the file
in chinese or some other language,
even though that is not what i want
to do.
recently (yesterday), i was working
on a file in word 2000. i authored this
file in w2000 & have been indexing
it for months in w2000. every day i
save a backup on my external hard
drive--i've been burned too many
times by microsoft not to take that
precaution.
so, after doing several hours of very
precise indexing on this 1.2mg file,
suddenly it won't open. it won't scroll
down to the end & it won't allow me to
make additional changes. the little
hourglass just sits there.
after several tries, i finally just went
to bed, leaving it to continue trying
to load the file. when i woke up, same
deal.
curiously enough, i could open in in
wordperfect v.12, a piece of software
that came loaded on my computer but
which i have no desire to use.
however, wp12 managed to open it &
even shows all my indexing fields. the
trouble is that when i export it as a
w2000 file or copy & paste it into a new
word document, the fields come in liter-
ally--not as index fields.
this means i have to go over each one
by hand in this 220-page document &
remark each one with an index field.
why? why does microsoft treat me so bad?
i was a loyal supporter of microsoft & a big
fan of bill gates (i live in seattle) for 20
years. then i got a computer with windowsME.
that crappy os almost ruined my life.
no one ever contacted me to tell me there
were fixes for ME so i kept using it &
crashing for years. i live just above the
poverty line & am trying to finish this
project so i can improve my living by
making a profit with my work. but i have
to say, microsoft & ms-word have really
made that hard for me.
if i had any other choice, i would never
use microsoft products again. this post
is the fourth or fifth problem i've sent to
these groups, trying to get help on an
issue. the amount of time i've spent in
these pursuits is obscene.
so, suzanne, am i to understand that my
file, now corrupted, cannot be recovered
in any way? why? i did nothing wrong.
microsoft should fix this or retype the
entire document for me & pay me for the
time i've lost.
if i sound a little bit angry, believe me,
you are not feeling the depth of anger
i have because of this issue & all the
other issues i've had for years with
microsoft products.
i'm not here to beg someone to help help
help me!!! why should i have to ask for
help after i paid so much money & trusted
microsoft so completely?
just tell me this: am i screwed? have i
lost months' worth of work because word
decided to go sideways?
diane in seattle
Suzanne S. Barnhill
helpful answer.
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
"diane in seattle" <dianein...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:614907B5-07A5-4EFD...@microsoft.com...
Terry Farrell
backups to an external drive and the copy you are working on has become
corrupt, why can you not use the backup to recover your work?
--
Terry Farrell - MS Word MVP
"diane in seattle" <dianein...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:614907B5-07A5-4EFD...@microsoft.com...
>
>
Suzanne S. Barnhill
work. But of course how those backups are being used could be significant,
too. Perhaps a good place for a caution about opening files from removable
drives?
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
"Terry Farrell" <terryf...@msn.com> wrote in message
news:70A1B8E3-E26D-4854...@microsoft.com...
Terry Farrell
Terry
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" <sbar...@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:eGGvLMdq...@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
silik...@gmail.com
> Im opening previously saved word docs and the text now appears as small
> squares. Whats happening?